Word on the street is that Jemez Valley Community Wellness, a 501c3 nonprofit has found its brick-and-mortar, home-to-be in the Jemez Valley. Slated for an opening in early November, a variety of holistic healing modalities will be offered. Yes, the intent is to keep you on the edge of your seats. Stay tuned for the next issue of After the Thunder to learn more about other practitioner offerings and an unveiling of their new location.

One of the many holistic therapies that will be featured at the clinic is BodyTalk, a consciousness-based health care system. Developed by John Veltheim, in response to a severe case of Epstein Barr virus in which the doctors told him he would likely not survive. As a certified acupuncturist, chiropractor and Reiki master, Mr. Veltheim knew that there was another way. He just needed to find it. Through extensive research and traveling around the world for lesser-known techniques, he found a practitioner that placed a small droplet of blood in his navel and paired it with tapping. Three days later, the virus completely cleared. Somehow the blood in the navel created a kind of built-in lab for the body and signaled the immune system to launch a very specific attack. He paired this fascinating discovery with continuing his studies in applied kinesiology, osteopathy, comparative philosophy and bioenergetic psychology and the BodyTalk system was born.

While the case of Epstein-Barr is quite specific, in the philosophy of the BodyTalk System, any issue is paired with a number of energetic miscommunications, creating blocks that hold that issue in place. Each session takes the whole person into account, asking the innate wisdom of the client’s body – while using neuromuscular biofeedback- where the communication breakdowns are. By bringing awareness to them, one is able to re-establish balance and address long-lasting dis-ease. 

A client may come to a session with digestive issues, insomnia, stress and anxiety, fears, phobias and limiting beliefs, difficulties with family or coworkers that seem unsurmountable, food intolerances, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, musculoskeletal alignment and organ and endocrine signaling repair, just to name a few.  All sessions start the same way - the client lays down on a massage table - fully clothed - and the practitioner silently follows the signals of the body in order to get at the layers of the underlying framework creating the symptom(s) of the ailment. 

In a world full of ever-increasing stresses, soil stripped from its nutrients, higher and higher levels of toxins in our air and waterways, we are asking our bodies a lot and – just like our minds when overcome with an onslaught of thoughts and responsibilities – it can get overwhelming. BodyTalk asks into the innate wisdom of the body to look at the bigger picture, to parse and identify what is the highest priority. The BodyTalk practitioner is essentially holding the flashlight, like an investigator, asking the right questions. Yet the client is the one who activates healing within him or herself. BodyTalk is not a diagnostic tool, it is an investigative and integrative tool intended to work alongside (rather than replace) Western medicine, BodyTalk aims to “refocus your body’s natural healing response to establish better communication within the body.” (bodytalksystem.com)