The Center for Healing & Change

Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program–My Amazing Year Long Adventure in NYC

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:13:01 +0000

Synchronicity. It all started with a radio program. Two years ago, I heard Donna Karan (DKNY) speaking to Dr. Oz about the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program she had started to address key patient symptoms of PANIC–PAIN, ANXIETY, NAUSEA, INSOMNIA, CONSTIPATION AND EXHAUSTION. She said, “When my husband Stephan was sick with lung cancer, it became clear to me that our current healthcare model treats the disease, but fails to treat the person.” She caught my attention! This is the work I have been doing for the last 18 years. I had to get connected with her groundbreaking program!

The more I found out about Donna Karan and the Urban Zen Programs (www.urbanzen.org) the more I KNEW that I had to be a part of this! Last spring I applied to the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program and was accepted! I committed to the year long training not having any idea of how I would possibly travel to NYC once a month for the coming year. I showed up in April of 2011 filled with excitement and gratitude for this unbelievable opportunity. The past year has been a whirlwind of hard work, new challenges and pure delight. I am in love with NYC! Truly the perfect life, one week a month in NYC and the rest of the time living at the base of the foothills in colorful Colorado. I am so blessed and grateful for all of the amazing people I have met at Urban Zen and most of all, I am so pleased to be able to bring all of these powerfully effective skills back to my work here in Colorado. I am in the home stretch. I graduate as an Urban Zen Integrative Therapist on March 18, 2012! This program has deepened my commitment to my work treating each person as a unique individual and to bringing them the best in Integrative/Holistic Medicine. Pretty soon you can call me a UZIT (use it) and I am proud of it!

Change in the Moment, Health Benefits for a Lifetime

admin — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:30:40 +0000

What I am most excited and passionate about this spring is sharing with all of you many of the Mind-Body-Spirit Medicine skills and techniques I have learned over the years. I am offering a series of Playshops entitled “You’ve got the Power.” Playshops are fun, interactive workshops–not work, just learning through fun and play. The first of the series will be offered Saturday January 29th from 10:30am to 4:30pm. It will be held at the Stanley Lake Library Meeting Room 8485 Kipling Street, Arvada Colorado. The first class is “SELF CARE IS POWERFUL CARE.” It will focus on effective-scientifically proven ways to calm the mind and relax the body, transform stress and lower blood pressure, enhance your immune system and create a better quality of life. The cost is just $100.00 for a full day filled with fun, information and skills training! You will learn that changing (your thinking, your breathing, etc) in the moment can have health benefits for a lifetime. Class size is limited! Reserve your space NOW. Call me at The Center for Healing and Change at 303-463-4742 to register or register on the CLASSES page on my website with PayPal. Take a day out of your busy life to take care of yourself. Make it even more fun, bring your friends! You won’t regret it!

Coming to Life Again

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:44:38 +0000

AHHHH, Spring!!! The best thing about living in Colorado is our ever changing seasons. Spring is here with 65 degrees of magnificent sunshine for us yesterday and a predicted 6-10 inches of snow tonight! I can see the storm moving in over the mountains at my desk as I write this. To me it is a reminder of life. Always changing from bitter cold to cozy warmpth, darkness to light, upheaval to calm, and from struggle to peace. The gift that spring gives us is the experience of feeling alive again in the sunshine, even though we know there are still times when the chill of life will set in again. We put on our flipflops and our shorts and we embrace the beauty and vibrance of the birds singing once again, the flowers peaking out in the spring snow and the life giving warmpth of the sunshine. We feel alive again and we feel the possibilities of life begin to bloom again in our souls. What possibilities do you want to cultivate in your life this spring and summer? What are you passionate about this year? What makes you feel alive with meaning purpose this beautiful spring-winter day?

Doorways to Healing

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:34:23 +0000

On April 27, 2009, my best friend, Kathy Bennett, died of ovarian cancer. As a tribute to her and to create a legacy which would truly have an impact on ovarian cancer deaths, her husband, Stu Bennett created The Kathleen Bennett Foundation of Hope for Early Diagnosis of Ovarian Cancer. Saturday February 27–10 months after her death–we had the first Board Meeting of the Foundation. The “foundation of the Foundation” is now in place. We have a 501(c)3 and have an extremely talented group of volunteers and Board members who are ready to change the deadly paradigm of ovarian cancer. There is valid research that ovarian cancer is CURABLE if it is detected in its earliest stages. We plan to get the word out…to start the conversation about early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.There is research and clinical evidence that will provide new doorways to healing. Creating and working with The Kathleen Bennett Foundation of Hope is a doorway to a path of healing for Stu and for all of us who loved her, and even more importantly, it will provide a doorway to hope for changing ovarian cancer from a deadly to a curable disease.

You are the Healer

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:05:23 +0000

My sister, Terri, and her husband, Bob, who is a Denver firefighter returned a week ago from Haiti. Since then, they have been sharing their experiences with all of us. Now the incredibly moving tragedy in Haiti, is so close and personal. Their pictures of the beautiful children at the orphanage where they stayed, touch your soul. Terri said that these precious little children lovingly, generously take care of each other everyday. She said that the most beautiful and inspiring experience they had was that, in spite of loosing everything, people showed up everyday to help with a smile on their face. She said that their faith is sustaining them…it is all they have left.

It certainly makes me think. About everyone in Haiti and their immediate and ongoing needs. About my clients who are facing incredible challenges fighting cancer. About our own homeless children at Urban Peak here in Denver, and about all of those in the United states and all around the world who have no medical care.

I believe that it takes enormous courage just to go on after the earthquake, to choose to go to Haiti to provide medical care, to show up for cancer treatment… There are so many ways people show their strength and courage everyday, just by showing up with a smile on their face and serving the preciousness of their own life or the lives of their brothers and sisters.

I am inspired, I am humbled and I am moved to do what ever I can do, in whatever capacity that is. We are all thinking what can I do, how can I serve? I believe that true healing is being open to the call within ourselves to offer ourselves. For we, each one of us, are the most important healing instruments on the earth.

COMING HOME

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:06:08 +0000

Sunrise

This month of full circles. New Orleans, early October. Returning to the start of my life in nursing and medicine. At 18 years old, my first huge step into the world of disease, suffering and healing. Back to my training, my roots at Charity Hospital. My first experiences of being of service…to the indigent. It fit me. I had a sense of belonging there that I had never experienced before. When I was in a relationship with my patients, I was alive in a way that I had not known even existed.

Two weeks ago, light years away from New Orleans, on the water in Mill Valley California, I sat in a room filled with seasoned doctors and nurses. Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, the magnificent visionary healer and author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings, was leading our discussion. We were talking about finding meaning in Medicine and Nursing. We were sharing about being “called” to our work. We were remembering and voicing why we do this work, knowing at the deepest level we are exactly where we need to be–in the heart of healing. And with tears streaming down our faces we knew without a doubt that we were home.