How to find someone who works with both the body and non-dual practice
Updated
Look for one person who works through the body, lives a contemplative practice of their own, and can tell an awakening experience from growth that lasts. You are integral: body, mind, and spirit are not separate compartments, and someone working with only one of them will reach a ceiling with you quickly. Most people end up choosing between a body-based practitioner who goes quiet when the conversation turns spiritual and a spiritual teacher who has never reached where the pattern lives, in the body. The questions below work with any practitioner, whether or not you ever book with me. Take them into the first conversation and listen to how they are answered.
What should I look for?
Four things, in this order.
- Training you can look up. A named lineage, named teachers, a school or institute with a public directory.
- A practice of their own, kept for years. A friend of mine said it well: understanding is the booby prize. Someone who teaches presence needs a daily relationship with it.
- A map of growth. Waking up and growing up are different, and a glimpse of awareness does not by itself change how you live.
- Plain terms. Fees, session length, location, and what happens in a session are stated before you ask.
What do I ask before I start?
Ask these in a free first conversation. If a practitioner will not offer one, that is already an answer.
| Ask | Answers worth trusting | Be wary of |
|---|---|---|
| Who did you train with, and where can I read about it? | Named teachers and schools. Willingness to say what they have not trained in. | “Many traditions.” Lineage that cannot be traced. |
| How long have you practiced yourself, and what does it look like today? | Years, and an ordinary daily practice described in plain words. | Borrowed vocabulary. A practice that exists only in their marketing. |
| What happens in a session? | Where it is held, how long, what you will be invited to do, and that movement or sound is always your choice. | “It depends on the energy.” Nothing concrete. |
| What do you do if a session stirs up more than I expected? | Slowing down. Naming when a licensed clinician is the right next call. | “Push through.” Any suggestion that discomfort proves it is working. |
| What are you licensed or certified in, and what is that for? | A direct statement of what they hold and what it does and does not cover. | Titles that imply a license they do not hold. |
| What would you tell me you cannot help with? | A real list: acute crisis, medical conditions, anything that needs a clinician. | “I can help anyone with anything.” |
| How long does this take, and what does it cost? | A number and a range. The plain news that lasting change is slow. | Guarantees. Pressure to prepay a large package. |
| May I decide after we talk? | Yes, and a calm response if you say no. | Urgency. “Spots are filling.” |
What are the red flags?
Anyone who promises the fog will clear for good. I used to believe awakening would clear the fog completely, so that I might see myself and Reality unobstructed. I now think that is naive. There’s always fog. What changes is whether you are navigating it or lost in it.
Mastery is not to swim in a river without getting entangled in the net, apparently. It is to learn to escape the trap of the net. A practitioner who tells you otherwise is selling something.
How is this different from coaching, and why is it not clinical care?
A coach helps you get somewhere specific. A spiritual director sits with you in questions of meaning. A licensed clinician works with a disease or a condition, and if you have one, that is where to start. Body-based psychospiritual facilitation works where the pattern is stored, in the breath, the shoulders, the gut, and it asks what is aware of all of it.
Where do I fit, and where do I not?
Ask me these questions too. I am Ronen Goddard, PhD, CCEP, a Core Energetics practitioner. My training comes through the Reichian line, through Lowen, Pierrakos, Wilner, and Gleason, and I have studied non-dual traditions for fifty years. I am not a licensed clinician, and I do not provide clinical care. I am not here to fix you. I am here to walk with you.
I am not the right person for acute crisis, for a medical or mental health condition, or for anyone who wants guarantees. Read about Core Energetics and about Unique Self Becoming, my one-to-one work, then decide.