My Amanae session

Last month I had an Amanae session. Amanae can be great for sexual abuse survivors. And as most of you already know, as a sexual abuse survivor, I believe in maintaining continous recovery, so I'm always trying something different to aid myself in that process. I also want to guide you to use the wonderful resources on the main page: www.blacksurvivors.org so I encourage you to check out the Amanae definition under "Top 10 Web Sites" here: http://www.blacksurvivors.org/resources.html. I am, however, going to share my experience witih you. In the state of Pennsylvania where I live, there's only 1 practitioner here so I had to travel out to the burbs for a session. But, it was well worth the trip. The practitioner was VERY nice. She took about 20 minutes to explain to me the process and what would happen in the session, which was EXTREMELY helpful because one of the things she said was that people release trauma differently in an Amanae session. Some people: scream, shout, cry, throw up, kick, cough, laugh, get a runny nose, etc. During the session, you lay on a massage table face down into the head cradle as if you were getting a massage. There is a bowl underneath the face cradle on the floor to catch whatever fluid (nasal mucus, tears, etc) you may release while face down on the table. The practitioner leaves the room and you get undress & cover yourself with the sheets that are on the table. This part is very similar to a massage, only you stay face down on the table the whole session. And I want to emphasize that you ARE FULLY COVERED during the session. The only part of you that is exposed is your back because the practitioner will touch certain areas on your back that aid you in releasing. Most of the time she will just lay the palm of her hand on certain areas of the back that correspond to emotional blockages (nothing invasive). When she places her hands on those areas it works to release the emotional blockages on a cellular level. In other words, negative energy and emotions can become trap in certain areas of the body. According to Amanae, these old/negative emotions become trapped in the cells of the body. Some have reffered to this as DNA rememberance, which is a part of science that is still being explored. You can Google it if you want more information on that. But, I digress. I will say that Amanae is not for the faint of heart. For the most part, the sessioin is pain free. However, there were certain movements she did with her hand that hurt for a few seconds like when she would take her fingers and shake them on certain areas of my back to break up certain blockages. This, however, only lasted a few seconds and she did tell me ahead of time when she was about to use that particular technique. Thankfully, she only did a couple of times. During the session, you are actively doing deep breathing. The session is about an hour. For the first 15 minutes I didn't feel anything. However, I noticed that throughout the session, my nose kept running like a leaky faucet. And my nose NEVER runs. This, she explained, was a release. Then, without warning, I began to cry uncontrollably for about 5 minutes, in a way I have NEVER cried before. You know how you can feel the sadness before you cry and you feel your eyes tearing up before tears actually fall? Well, that did not happen. Tears just came without ANY warning whatsoever. This, she said, was because Amanae works at the cellular level. Meaning it will release the trauma independent of your emotions. That was the first and only time that I cried. She specifically told me that she could sense that there was trauma stored in my heart from someone who passed away in my life. By the way, I should note that before the session, we did discuss some of the major traumas that had transpired in my life and this was one of them. She said that that particular trauma had several layers. Meaning the loss of that person carried alot of emotional blockage for me. During my session with her, I was able to release one layer. Some people are able to release all of it. Emotional releasing can occur hours, days and weeks after the session. For me, I used half a box of tissue at her office blowing my nose after the session because alot of my releasing came in the form of nasal congestion. I had a close friend with me, who I talked to about the session on our drive home. She drove me there and back, which I would strongly suggest not going by yourself to one of these sessions, because not knowing how you will feel or what you will release emotionally, you should have someone you trust to be with you. My friend was very helpful and listened patiently to everything I said. It's been a month since my session and emotionally I'm doing OK. Alot of things have happened, but the biggest thing I've noticed is that I'm dealing with death better. I think releasing that layer of trauma around the death of the loved one we discussed in her office helped me. I say that, because two weeks after that session, I was able to go visit and talk to my cousin just a few days before she died from uterine cancer. Before, I wouldn't have been able to do that, to talk to someone before they died. It would have been too much for me. And, I still go to my support group for sexual abuse survivors. I've been sharing even more personal things in the group. I'm just truly thankful for my support system and the ability to emotionally release. When I really feel down, I pray and I feel better afterwards. Overall, I think the session helped me get more in touch with expressing my feelings, which for me, is really important for the success of my recovery as a sexual abuse survivor. Would I do the session again? Absolutely! However, for those of you that are new to this type of trauma release bodywork, I would suggest going with something like Reiki first or hypnotherapy. I've had those done too and they are great way to release trauma too. As with any therapy, you have to do what's best for you. And I want to stress, that all of these holistic therapies are designed to release emotions or trauma so it is possible to feel a variety of emotions: anger, sadness, etc. But, these feeling will not last forever. Make sure to have someone with you so that you can process the session. However, some people just want to be left alone to sleep after the session, which is OK too. But, all of these can be great techniques for those who want to try something different and move on to another level of their recovery from sexual abuse. (By the way, you can search for a practitioner in your area from the link I pasted a the beggining of this post)