Hi, everyone. This is Gina Thorne with the Harmony Foundation podcast series, and I’m really happy today to be joined with Megan Ramos, who is the owner and practitioner of Soul Reflection Healing Arts in Boulder, Colorado. Welcome.
It’s good to have you here, and really glad that you had the chance to come up to Harmony and visit with us and give us a chance to learn a little bit more about your practice and to see how people can possibly use your services. It’s great to have you here. In doing my research around your background and your practice, you are a trained somatic psychotherapist and also trained in energy medicine, which is really a great combination. Can you share more about your area of specialty and what someone could expect when working with you?
Sure. I work with a lot of different kinds of issues, depression, anxiety, addiction as well. Mainly I would say the specialty that I have is the way that I work. When we’re in session, we’re really unpacking underneath symptoms.
When you’re doing that, some people would think of it as just cognitive behavioral therapy and talk therapy, but you’re doing something called somatic psychotherapy. That’s more body based. Is that right? Can you describe that a little bit?
Sure. Whereas in talk therapy, we might be working with at content level with somebody’s story or thought patterns that are happening. When we work somatically and energetically, we’re really getting into how all of that is manifesting in the body and also the embodied state. The way my body is held, or the way my breath takes up space or the sensations that are happening, all of our consciousness really, it manifests in our entire body.
I know that when I talk to people who struggle with lots of trauma or who are even dealing with grief and loss, their body responds to that. Can often come out in physical ailments, and so my guess is that when you’re doing some of this work, you’re probably treating people who are struggling with persistent headaches or pain in the body and things like that.
Yeah, it can certainly connect. Yeah. We would be sitting with and getting to the core of where that’s manifesting from. It could be twisting around our energy in a certain way or amping it up in a certain way. Something we’re doing to respond to how energy is moving through us. That creates these different kinds of imbalances.
It’s interesting because I got trained in Reiki recently, and I’m level two trained. Energy work was something that never really registered for me on the radar and I’m assuming that you do Reiki as well, or at least that’s part of your practice. It does play a huge part I think when you’re thinking about moving energy. One thing that comes to mind is my Reiki master told me about when I yawn, particularly when I’m in session, I always apologize and say, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be so tired,” and she’s like, “You’re not tired. You’re moving energy.” I think a lot of people mistake those types of things as just fatigue when it’s not always fatigue, is our body’s response to either having a built up level of energy in our body or that we’ve been surrounded by a lot of other energetic forces for a period of time, and those things play a part in how our body responds to it. That’s very interesting. You use meditation in your practice, which I also love and you … We’ve learned that meditation is a powerful tool in learning how to live in the present, which is a big part of recovery. We spend a lot of time with our clients talking about not looking at the future or the past, but really focusing on the now. How do you apply the technique of meditation when you’re working with your folks who are either looking for a work in recovery or a world in recovery or who are early in recovery? How does that work with you?
When we’re working with meditation, I see a few different ways that can show up. One is how are we being with and welcoming our arising experience in the moment. Whether that’s I’m noticing a thought is coming up, or I’m having this emotional experience. That’s one piece. Then there’s also a piece which is more tapping into the us that is existing beyond all of this. Maybe a bigger self or a witness self. When we put these two together, I think meditation can, even though often it seems like there’s a lot of stillness, it can actually be the position of it and can actually move a lot of energy. We’re being with the present moment, but we’re also, it’s like tapping into a space that is beyond habitual mind. It’s like when we’re noticing things we’re … Well, I’ll just go back to that. It’s like learning how to rest in the space that is moving in a new direction. It’s more aligned with our health or our aliveness. When I’m in session with people, we are dropping into that space, and that’s where the healing potential is coming from.
How do people in early recovery respond to that kind of practice? Is there a fear around it because it’s so unfamiliar?
I think there can be. It really depends on what’s coming up for them, but there’s … Yeah, it can be scary to be with what’s happening.
Because it’s feeling. A lot of times they haven’t felt in a long time. Well, I know that we’ve practiced meditation here for our clients, and it’s really important for them to understand that those emotions are a big part of their recovery journey and meditation obviously or even silence, just sitting in silence can be a game changer in recovery for a lot of folks who haven’t learned how to do that or haven’t realized that that’s a necessary part of just finding out who they are.
Absolutely. Yeah. I think as we practice sitting with things, it’s like we can root in the part of us that knows how to be with what’s coming up so it can get easier over time. Yeah.
Over time, that’s the big thing. It’s a strong discipline. We always like to get to know the people behind the programs. I’m going to ask you a couple personal questions if you’re okay with that. One of my favorite questions that I like to ask our guests is, what book do you most give to others for fun? Not necessarily just professionally, but for fun and why?
Okay. For fun. Well, let’s see. There’s a new answer coming to me right now. When I was in graduate school, we were introduced to a book called The Healing Wisdom of Africa by Malidoma Somé, and I just loved it. It really, it opened up a doorway for understanding mental health and understanding myself in the world. He talks about indigenous cultures and tribal experiences in Africa. It basically deconstructs the western views and brings us more into a relationship with magic. That really impacted me, and I like to give that to people.
Do you see the … When you’re thinking about who you give it to, is it to people who you’re giving a message to around this idea or is it just, “Hey, this was a great and I just think you would enjoy it.” Or are you giving it to with purpose and learning opportunity?
Usually, I think if I think it’s going to feed somebody, if there’s some part of their soul there that I feel like it’ll feed. Yeah.
Nice. Well, thank you for sharing that. I’m going to have to check that one out. If I were to offer up the word harmony, what do you think it means to live a life in harmony?
I think to live in life in harmony is being in harmony with ourselves as we truly are and being in harmony with life as it’s moving through us, which brings us in harmony with the world around us. All the natural rhythms and all the wisdom that moves through us, that shows us how it can be.
I like that. Internal harmony with yourself first before bringing it out to the other world. It’s a new way of looking at it. If someone wanted to access services at Soul Reflection Healing Arts, how could they get in touch with you?
The best way they can reach out by phone at 720-210-7802, or they can check out my website at www.soulreflection.me.
Wonderful. Well, it was really nice to meet you, Megan. Thank you so much. For those that are listening, we invite you to check out Megan’s website, learn a little bit more about the work that she does with somatic experiencing and psychotherapy and of course your energy work. It was a pleasure meeting you.