The Art of Therapeutic Touch and Bodymapping

I am having a tough time relaxing, after a wonderfully inspiring weekend of facilitating a workshop on body mapping. Body-mapping takes a sacred look inside and those involved are able to use colour and creativity to explore experiences and emotions. Through a series of exercises participants, who live with challenging illnesses, were able to understand more about how courageous and truely amazing they really are. I will upload my own body map and explain a bit about it below. This life-size art piece and a few other bodymaps will be present at an art collection that AIDS Vancouver Island is hosting in Victoria this February - please go to their website for details.

My body map shows the movement that is important recently, as well as an open-eyed attitude to life. I looked at my empty womb but realized that there are at least 60 African orphans that are part of my life these days. Through the mapping process I recalled the little University town I came from on the east coast, the sea nearby and the marshlands. The images in the upper right reflect the desire to balance myself and my current life while writing the Africa-Canada book on about two women living with HIV. I didn't explore the traumas that have affected me these past few years but that means there is more work for me to do!

This past week I also had my first client in my new treatment room. It was a strange thing to get paid for doing a Therapeutic Touch (TT) treatment after more than 10 years of providing this service to the Hospice community and others in need of TT. It feels that I am being supported financially to continue with this work. So thank you to my first client, and I welcome others - open my doors to anyone who would like a treatment. I decided on a sliding scale from $30 to $60.

Today I am getting ready to travel - first south to a yoga retreat in Sayulita, Mexico - a place for healing; and then east to my parents near Ottawa. Victoria is looking particularly spring-like: I passed a blizzard of snowdrops while walking Hibou the other day. It should still be winter in Ottawa where I may do a few glides on ice if the canal is frozen and hope to look up some pals in Ottawa and Brockville area.

And I will try to keep you posted!

Sabbatical Year

Yes I am taking a year in the back seat at positively AFRICA and everything is sailing along really well without me! What I am doing. I'm writing a book - you'll hear more about that later.
And I am recovering from stress and trauma related illness - that is a challenge all on its own but a great learning opportunity for me.
Finally I am teaching, doing Therapeutic Touch more, and marketing my art. Here is an image of THumbellina doing the triangle pose in a yoga class. Let me know if you would liek to see some of the sculptures and paintings I have available.

This last weekend in January, I am co-facilitating a Bodymapping workshop. Bodymapping is a great way to look inside ourselves and position those things - like HIV - which impact our lives, and then arrive at a finished bodymap and realize that we are complex humans and HIV is NOT our identity!

Water walk 2012

Water Walk 2012 - Save this Date - Sunday May 27th

I have not been keeping up the blog. Did you have a moment to look at the water walk video on our website www.positivelyafrica.com? The amazing news last year was that the truck arrived at Osopet. It took time to find the perfect truck for the job but the Committee found a great little truck.Osopet is now able to get clean drinking water to families in need. We have pictures of the truck and plenty of great imaginings of how this simple truck is improving health among Osopet families. Half the illnesses in these communities are related to dirty drinking water.

New partnerships for Water Walk 2012.
positively AFRICA is now a project of VIDEA www.videa.ca and we have been linking more projects ideas and support for our existing African partners. We're excited about the closer relationship.
The Salt Spring Roasting Company www.saltspringcoffee.com have come on board as a corporate sponsor for Water Walk 2012. We have set a goal of at least doubling the number of participants in the event this year. Soon we will look towards expanding the idea to other communities - even big ones like Vancouver! It's great to have the knowledge and support of a socially concious coffee company.

Thanks S. for covering the costs of this site!