Reviews of Gestures of the Heart

Donna Eden, author of Energy Medicine
     "...a lovely and effective guide to healing practices of the heart."

Book Review by Christine Glenn, Ph.D.

Pamela Church’s new book, Gestures of the Heart, is part of a growing awareness that healing and growth must attend to the body as well as to our psychological understanding. It stands with books such as Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing, Peter Levine’s Waking the Tiger and Arnold Mindell’s Quantum Mind. Church argues that strong emotions can become part of our physiological responses and become “somatically wired in the body.” Her book focuses on methods to release these stored sensations. While it is now widely recognized that trauma has profound physiological effects, she notes that physical knowledge and security is important for everyone and is necessary to deal life events including “the terror of healthy, deep attachment, and vulnerability.” The issue as she sees it is to be present to intense emotions while maintaining body coherence.

Church offers a way to understand the importance of our emotions and physical sensations and a method to work with the body. In a final chapter, she offers advice to therapists who want to use her techniques with clients.

The conceptual frame of reference includes medical research that shows the effects of emotions on brain and body chemistry. By changing our emotions, we change our physiology. Church briefly discusses the charkas and acupuncture meridians, both of which focus on energy and on physical methods to increase the natural flow of energy and vitality. She argues that these physiological mechanisms can be mobilized by combining intent, specific physical gestures and the feeling of wanting to heal. The individual works on whatever emotions and sensations arise.

Most of the book presents energy gestures, based on the charkas and acupressure points, and gestural protocols, which focus on particular emotions. The individual is asked to notice what he is feeling, to complete a given protocol with intention, and to observe any changes. She has found that people often experience greater comfort and a decrease in distress.

I recommend this book to clinicians and to individuals interested in mind/body integration, the release of old emotional patterns and the development of the capacity to be fully open to the present. The information and exercises are practical and accessible. And her voice is full of hope, compassion, and encouragement – a good environment for growth.

Book Review by Gloria Arenson, MS, MFT
     of Five Simple Steps to Emotional Healing, ACEP Past President

Pamela Church offers a guide for healing the residue of life’s traumas in this compassionate, attractive and useful book. We all suffer from the stress of life in today’s world, where many people are cut off from our inner resources. Church created a hands-on antidote for the stress stored in the body by devising energy protocols that focus the heart, mind and body on an intention to generate harmony. Using charkas and acupressure points to create mudras, or gestures, she instructs the reader to hold two energy points simultaneously to bring life force and balance to that area.

Gestures of the Heart includes treatments for twenty-six states such as anxiety, creativity, grief, distress and energy flow, fear, trauma, insomnia, sexual healing and intrusive thoughts. Each ten-minute protocol begins with a statement of purpose and ends with a Check-In to note sensations, feelings or changes. Excellent drawings and easy to follow instructions clearly show where to hold the positions. “Wise Brain” puts one hand on the crown of the head and the other across the forehead. “Basic Relief” holds one hand on the forehead and one beneath the nose. Poses are held for one or two minutes.

A beginning Simple Balance exercise hooks up the hemispheres of the brain by doing a “Heart Blessing” in the following manner: cross hands on the chest and alternately tap with each hand. Then rest in the heart with both hands over the heart. This exercise is so enjoyable that I have been doing it just because it feels good! Church explains that using gestures for bilateral stimulation of the brain can access implicit memory, ease excessive stimulation, generate and intactness of self and establish body coherence as a biological marker of working through emotional issues.

Although this book speaks mainly to the public, a chapter describes incorporating these gestures into psychotherapy. Clients can use Gestures of the Heart in psychotherapy to self-soothe during moments of upset without being overwhelmed or becoming disconnected.

This gentle, loving book offers concrete and non-threatening exercises that anyone can do and enjoy. It is a treasure for therapists and would also make a wonderful gift.

Examples from "Gestures of the Heart"

Emotional First Aid

Purpose

1. To ease intense anger, anxiety or distress.

Two-Minute Simple Balance

1. Drink water.
2. Hook up the hemispheres of the brain with Heart Blessings. With hands crossed over the chest, alternate tapping with each hand.
3. Rest in the heart for a moment with both hands on the heart.

Procedure:

1. Back Again: Tap the thymus (at the second rib on the sternum) and the chin for one minute.
2. Basic Relief: Hold one hand on the forehead and one hand beneath the nose (at GV26) for one minute.
3. Eyelid Sweep: Starting with an index finger at the inner corner of each eye, gently pull the fingers over each eyelid, across the temple, and around the back of the earlobes. Then start over again. Do this 10 to 20 times.
4. Brain Flow Mudra: Hold one hand on the forehead and one hand on the back of the head for two minutes with the intention to convert anxiety into beneficial action.
5. Solid Ground: With one hand, massage under the eyes (St2) with the thumb and index finger while the other hand is on the sacrum for one minute.

Check-in:

• Notice the sensations in your body. Notice if any feelings have changed and, if so, how.

Furthering an Intent

Purpose

• Intents are one of the most powerful tools we have. This protocol is about naming an intent for oneself and bringing that focused energy to each of the energy gestures below.

Two-Minute Simple Balance

1. Drink water.
2. Hook up the hemispheres of the brain with Heart Blessings.  With hands crossed over the chest, alternate tapping with each hand.
3. Rest in the heart for a moment with both hands on the heart.

Procedure:

1. Eye Opener: Make a sideways figure-8 eye movement (eyes upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left and back to upper right) while holding hand on the heart for one minute.
2. Wise Brain Mudra: Hold one hand on the forehead and one hand on the crown for two minutes.
3. Brain Flow Mudra: Hold one hand on the forehead and one hand on the back of the head for two minutes.
4. Head-Heart Hold: Hold one hand on the back of the head and one hand on the heart for two minutes.
5. Repeat Eye Opener for one minute.

Check-in:

• Notice the sensations in your body. Notice if any feelings have changed and, if so, how.

Three-Step Flow

Purpose

• To soothe.
• To harmonize body energy when there is arousal.
• To set an intention in the mind and body.
• To access feelings in a state where feelings are not readily available.

Two-Minute Simple Balance

1. Drink water.
2. Hook up the hemispheres of the brain with Heart Blessings.  With hands crossed over the chest, alternate tapping with each hand.
3. Rest in the heart for a moment with both hands on the heart.

Procedure:

1. Brain Flow Mudra: Hold one hand on the forehead and one hand on the back of the head for two minutes.
2. Head-Heart Hold: Hold one hand on the back of the head and one hand on the heart for two minutes.
3. Double-Hands Heart Hold: Hold both hands on the heart for two minutes.

Check-in:

• Notice the sensations in your body. Notice if any feelings have changed and, if so, how.

Note:

• For couples, one person does the holding for the partner. On the third step, the partner places one hand on the person’s back in the area of the heart and one hand on the heart.