Rowan Farrell, LMBT, NMT #3774
Rowan has been involved in Bodywork Therapies for sixteen years.  She received training in CranioSacral Therapy, Somatic Emotional Release & Lymph Drainage through the Upledger Institute and continues to pursue all ways of understanding and working with the craniosacral system – biodynamic, energetic, mechanical and visionary. She is currently enrolled in Visionary CST studies through the Milne Institute.
Rowan received a threefold Certification in NeuroMuscular Therapy, Russian Sports and Swedish Massage from the Academy of Somatic Healing Arts in Atlanta. She is currently a faculty member at CMNH where she has taught since 2001.

She was blessed with incredible experiences during an extensive six year Apprenticeship in Wholistic Midwifery. In 1998 she moved to Asheville and assisted in opening Ashevilles only Wholistic Midwifery School where she has been steeped in the Wise Woman Tradition ever since.

With her BFA in painting, EMT training and studies as a Desikachar Yoga Instructor, Rowan brings a visionary approach and vast knowledge of the human body to her work. Her passion is in serving people by seeing them clearly, sensing where they need to be touched, and working with the sublime mysteries of the craniosacral system.

Visionary CranioSacral Therapy

Visionary CranioSacral Therapy is a soothing, noninvasive, hands-on therapy.
The craniosacral system includes the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, the system of membranes inside the cranium, all 22 cranial bones, the spine and the sacrum.
“What the Navajo call ‘the wind’s child,’ Genesis calls ‘the breath of life.’ It is a silent force, a field of chi, which blows through the craniosacral system, animates it, and infuses it with information and intelligence.
It is possible to listen to this field. The ability to do this is called ‘the heart of listening.’
A visionary knows how to touch a client with precise and gentle contacts that help the client feel more aligned, and more at home in themselves. Sometimes, by touching just the right place in just the right way, a visionary can help the client understand what troubles them, and what they need to reclaim their equanimity, and their place in life. Such work can also help the client access and release their healing potential”. –Hugh Milne, Founder & Director of the Milne Institute

After our conversation, I had a dream about her. I found myself in her most sacred room. It was a very small room, lit by one candle.There was a small tattered book, and a piece of kunzite, and that was all.  I realized I was in the deepest inner chambers of her heart.

Kunzite showed itself in this dream so poignantly because it has a great affinity for intersections, especially those of the inner heart.

In spirit, it resonates with the heart and pericardium, and strengthens awareness around intimacy. Intimacy between beloveds, and also intimacy in the larger sense; the opening of the sensory orifices that allows a greater aliveness, and sense of really being here. (Keep this in mind for addictions of numbness, hiding or retreating, and diseases of resistance).

- Jessica Godino, L.Ac.

And Pam does her best to give a generic answer. “Oh, that could have been a (some long words medical term I forget).” And Lindsay looks at her and is like, “Oh, uh huh, uh huh. Hmmm…” Like that answer means anything that is helpful. It only creates more questions and Pam knows that. It doesn’t put her at ease, in fact it creates this anxiety…Do I have this strange medical condition?

And I am sitting there watching, so much of me is trying to hold back, but I can’t. And I ask Lindsay “What was going on for you that morning?” (The fact that Lindsay knows the specifics of where she was when this happened is a sign to me that she knows exactly what was going on with her that day). And she answers, “Actually I was thinking about the auditions and casting I was going to be doing that afternoon for the school musical that I am in charge of. And I think I was pretty nervous about it. In fact, musical season is the absolute most stressful thing in my life.”

So, as I suspected this was not an elusive medical condition, but rather an opportunity her body was giving her to re-pattern or re-story the ‘stress’ around her activities later that day.

I put stress in quotations because it is a waste basket term that I do not let my patients use, because it is such a non- specific term for an actual physical phenomenon. And we can’t learn anything from it, until we get more specific.

Now, if Lindsay was my patient, we would engage in a line of questioning that would actually empower her to understand her body’s cues, which are all openings for her to more fully fulfill her destiny. Her body is that wise.

She actually had not asked herself how her chest pain was attached to her thoughts and emotions that day! In fact, her husband was nervous and asking her to go see a doctor about it. Because a good westerner will ask a doctor.

I have nothing against doctors at all. In fact, I have so much respect and compassion for where they find themselves standing these days. I am simply not convinced that they have the time or the training to explore the intersection between the physical and spiritual realms in us.

And along these lines, this past weekend at the women’s herbal conference, I saw a young patient who spoke about tightness in her jaw. She said she is seeing an acupuncturist who seems to help her. She puts needles in her and then she feels better for a day or two and then the jaw pain comes back. So, I asked this patient, “Does your jaw pain come and go throughout the day?” This is a very important question. Any symptom that comes and goes is a teacher. She said yes it does come and go. And I asked her, “What do you know about that? What do you know about the comings and goings of it? Does it seem to come and go according to thoughts or emotions you are experiencing?” And she looked at me like I was asking the strangest question and could not give me an answer. So I asked her, “When was the last time you felt the tightness in your jaw?” And she noted that it was on that very day, a couple of hours ago, and that she was feeling plenty of anxiety at the time.

And I am thinking, What in the heck are you and that acupuncturist doing together if she has not even asked you what you know about your own jaw pain!?? And I become disheartened at the limitations this ancient practice has put upon itself, and the disinterest or ignorance of the acupuncturist that must be present for her not to engage that line of questioning!

So, I am aware that every vein of the health care system has its “experts.”

If your health care provider is not empowering you to understand and re-learn the language of your own body, you will always be dependent on them for relief, AND you will not get the wisdom, the infinitely incredible wisdom that is your birthright to recover. Your body and its symptoms are asking you to walk towards your greatest destiny and are trying to show you the path to being ridiculously gloriously happy. YES. It’s true. YOUR body, too, is the wisest thing you have got and will communicate with you dozens of times today about some really important possibilities for you.

Let us not limit acupuncture to solving modern medical problems. Let us use this medicine, this art, for the highest possible potential, the empowerment of our patients and the re-engagement of their relationship to the wisdom of their bodies.

-Sarah Thomas L.Ac.

Jessica's stash

The numerous benefits of this incredible plant could literally fill an entire book (in fact there are several books dedicated to it, and a quick search on the web of “coconut benefits” will return hundreds of pages). Here are MY top reasons for recommending this food to almost all of my patients:
1) Coconut is rich in MCT’s, or Medium Chain Triglycerides.  These unique fats take more energy to store than to burn, so they provide healthy quick energy and an overall metabolic boost. It is also a tonic for the thyroid and adrenal glands.  I use it to support overall vitality, and specifically to treat low energy, chronic fatigue, any thyroid condition, and metabolic weight gain.
2) It is rich in other fatty acids that are anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral, so it is useful in ANY conditions where the immune system needs extra support.   It can be extremely helpful for folks dealing with chronic candida, frequent viral infections, acne, or eczema.
3) The saturated fats in coconut are the perfect precursors for making reproductive hormones, so I give it to any woman needing hormonal support, including women trying to conceive and menopausal ladies.  I find it exponentially increases the effectiveness of any hormone balancing herbal formula.  The beneficial fats are also essential for expecting and breastfeeding moms.
4) Eating coconut oil helps stabilize blood sugar, leading to a decrease in anxiety, mood swings, and sugar cravings.
5) Coconut helps with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins, and so helps build healthy bones, skin and hair form the inside out. Since I started using coconut regularly I no longer need to use any moisturizer on my skin. My friend puts large scoops of it in each of her dog’s dinner bowls and they have coats that literally glow.
6) The best part about coconut oil is that it’s truly delicious.  I use it as my primary cooking oil at home.  You can scramble eggs, sauté veggies, grill fish . . .etc.  Simply replace it in any recipe that calls for butter or olive oil.  It is also delicious to bake with, again just replace the butter or shortening with coconut oil.
As a medicinal food I recommend at least 2 tablespoons and up to 4 per day.
If you are like most of my “converts”, you will buy a small jar from the health food store and quickly realize that you need more, much more.  I order my coconut in bulk from www.TropicalTraditions.com (you can get 2 gallon or even five gallon pails. . .laugh now but you will soon see what I mean!)
Some of you may be wondering, but isn’t saturated fat bad for me?  Won’t it raise my cholesterol???  The short answer is. . no.  Saturated fats from REAL foods like coconut, ghee, butter, and happy animals are not the culprits.  The culprit is trans fats, found in processed and fats foods, and in excess consumption of sugars.   These wonderful fats have been a foundational part of indigenous diets for thousands of years, and they should continue to be part of ours if we want to eat food that is delicious, nutritious, and satisfying.  It can be a little scary to get off the low-fat bandwagon after the incredible indoctrination most of us have gone through, but once you do you will never look back.  I promise!
The oil from coconut has the highest concentration of beneficial fats, but you can also get the benefits from coconut milk, coconut flower, and shredded coconut.
Try it. . tell us how it goes!!!

coconut pancakes
(adapted from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook by Mark Sisson)
3-4 eggs
3 Tbl melted coconut oil
¼ cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
½ cup coconut flour or almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
water or milk to make desired consistency
optional: ripe banana or berries
mix and cook just like regular pancakes, just make sure you fry them up in. . .coconut oil!!!
(note. . you can order coconut flour online, and almond flour or meal is available at most health food stores.  You can use regular flour too if you want.)

-Jessica Godino, L.Ac.

When I arrived today, the first fellow I ran into let me know he had been there nine hours yesterday and found nothing. We stood talking on a football field sized area, with a few shovels and buckets thrown around, and big holes dug in the ground. In the face of this potentially disappointing needle-in-a-haystack situation, I asked for some guidance from above.

suckers

After digging up two buckets of dirt and sifting through the material for about forty minutes, I got my miracle….honestly, in the very last handful of material I sifted through. (Which happened to be the very first shovel-ful I collected out in the field. And this is the miracle: I asked for guidance and immediately put my shovel in the earth exactly where this sapphire was hiding)!!

last handful

So, everyone else who had been there all day (or all weekend) groaned at me a little before returning to their hard labor, while I went to grab my camera, and the mine operator showed this little beauty to the owners of the mine, who also had been sifting patiently all day with no luck.

What We Can Do With This:

This is a 4.55 carat sapphire. You can see the hexagonal crystal structure and the pink color. Sapphire comes in every color you can think of.  When it is red or pink, we call it a ruby. Rubies and sapphires are variations of the mineral corundum, which at its most elemental is aluminum oxide. Cromium gives a ruby its red color, and has a chemical composition of Al2O3Cr. And, so this blog could be called “Ruby Miracle” just as easily. All corundums are a 9 on the Moh’s hardness scale, which tell us they are very hard, and only a diamond could scratch them. This durability gives us some clues to its qualities.

This stone is used to stabilize, or make permanent movement that is taking place. Think of it like a kiln. When we are happy with what we have created, then we place it in the kiln for firing. So, we will use this stone when a patient is ready to really cement the process that is unfolding for them. For instance, If a woman had a history of miscarriage, but now she is pregnant and healthily carrying her baby into the second trimester, we would prescribe sapphire to ensure and strengthen this healing process that is taking place. Another example would be a patient with post-traumatic stress, who is now becoming more and more solid, and is ready to be ‘fired,’ in order to keep moving in this direction.

4.55 carat sapphire

If sapphires were an acupuncture point, they would be Du 13, Kiln Path, which is used quite the same way. Sapphire and Du 13 are also alike in that we do not want to prescribe this stone too early. We want to introduce it exactly when the patient needs crystallizing, so to speak.

The pink color here is connected to the heart

through the law of sicnature, so I would use this specimen specifically to stabilize and make permanent healing or opening that is taking place in one’s heart, as in beginning to feel really strong again after a painful relationship, or even to fire the flowering of the heart at the correct point on someone’s spiritual path.

The hexagonal crystal structure patterns along a 6-division shape and resonates with the wood element in 5-element theory. The wood element deals with issues of health, wealth and abundance when adapted to the nine palaces. These are the first three palaces, and deal with ‘things coming to us’ so to speak. Like the blessings of having our basic needs met. If we have our health (having enough to live), we can then ask for wealth (having enough to live well), and then we can ask for prosperity (having enough to share and give to others). So, you can also use a ruby or sapphire in order to work with one of these aspects of your life. There are many patients who are wanting to change these areas of their life!

You gotta love this town