10.) KP: What would you say is one of your greatest joys from your work with clients?

Janice: The thing that is most enjoyable is seeing people make good choices, making important changes, and living a more balanced and mindful life.  I do my own art and I write, so I really enjoy when clients bring in their artistic side.  Their work is often meaningful and inspiring to me.

Other clients may be less in their creative realm, but there’s something that they begin to access that’s really fulfilling to see.  There’s one man that I’ve worked with for a long time with depression and relationship difficulties.   He has this really active imagination, where these internal figures come out and we dialogue with them.  There are untapped aspects of people that can be so rich.  It’s very special to witness the unfolding of their internal world, which they begin to harvest.  That’s exciting to see.  It’s exciting to see that when working with clients one-on-one, and it’s also exciting to see it in other settings, like when I lead Authentic Movement and Body-Mind Centering trainings, or teach Somatics to college students at Duke University.

KP:  This makes me think of something that was brought up at a Hakomi training I went to recently, how the well-known Buddhist monk, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, said that the purpose of healing work is helping people become fully human.  It sounds like that’s what you’re talking about with your work; people going deeper into themselves, tapping into the richness of their inner world.

Janice:  When working with a graduate student in a meditation, he realized how much task management he does, how he’s always managing a to-do list, so to speak.  And, certainly, this has its strengths; it’s part of how he’s able to get through something as demanding as graduate school.  But, on the flip side, his partner noticed that he rarely was in the moment, even when they were making love!  He could begin to see that maybe there were some benefits to being in the moment (laughter).

KP:  Yes, that is something you want to enjoy!

Next Question: 11.)  What do you mean by the term “selfing”?