Awakened Heart Process

The Awakened Heart Process (AHP) is a healing modality that integrates verbal techniques with body-centered approaches in support of physical and psycho-emotional wellbeing. This training is based on principles of mindfulness and mind/body/spirit holism and informed by asian bodywork, buddhist psychology, five element theory, taoist qigong and neuroscientific research. This training is for individuals who are committed to their own wellness and personal growth and who want to serve others in these same pursuits. This may include bodyworkers, healers, psychotherapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, physical therapists, yogis, somatic therapists, movement therapists and circus performers. It is our heartfelt focus to support our students embodiment of our work. This is the foundation upon which powerful therapists are built. Becoming more ourselves, healed and whole, grounded and free in our body and mind. And deeply connected to our soul’s purpose.

Awakened Heart Process uses many avenues: verbal dialog, mindfulness, bodywork, mentoring, client self care, breathwork, healing qigong, yoga therapy, meditation and contemplation. To:· Establish a relationship of safety and a state of mindfulness for the client. · Train the client in the self-discovery process by creating an experiential environment. · Follow the client’s present experiences, support emotions and memories as they arise, and explore the limiting beliefs which cause unnecessary suffering. · Create emotionally satisfying experiences and support insight and transformationTo look at what is going on inside, without judgement, is the essence of AHP and a pathway to deep and abiding healing. It is a journey of self discovery, a journey to wholeness. Look within. Learn from yourself. Accept all your many parts, as they are. Be guided by your inner wisdom in all its many expressions. Allow any change to occur naturally, from the inside out. We start by paying attention to present experience, as it is, in the body, now. We want to learn about your beliefs and how you organize your life around them. We see how those beliefs create the automatic behavior patterns that form the fabric of your life. Our intention is to create greater freedom of choice, to relieve unnecessary suffering, through the ever deepening knowing of oneself.

The body, mind, emotions and spirit are dynamically interrelated:Each time a change is introduced at one level, it has a ripple effectthroughout the entire system.Awareness is the first key to change: By bringing the unconscious into awareness, clients have the opportunity to explore alternate choices and to develop possibilities for emotional, physical and psychological change. Change occurs in the present moment:Clients may experience memories of the past and fantasize about the future, but change itself can occur only in the present. Clients have the natural capacity for self-healing and selfregulation:Innate healing ability already exists in clients, waiting to be actualized. AHP practitioners do not" cure" or "correct" but rather facilitate clients' healing. The body is a metaphor:Clients' postural positions and movements may represent emotionalissues in their lives. The body tells the truth: Often what clients communicate verbally is not congruent with their body's story. AHP practitioners guide their clients to listen to their body's message. The body is the sanctuary of the soul: AHP practitioners sessions may progress toward a spiritual dimension when clients deal with their "soul" issues—questioning their life values in relationships, families, communities and the world. Pleasure needs to be supported to balance pain: AHP practitioners help clients contact their strengths and joy so that they can experience pleasure to balance pain. Altered states of consciousness can enhance healing: Altered states are pathways to the unconscious mind. They facilitate heightened awareness and enable clients to access physical and emotional memories that still inhabit their bodies Integration is necessary for lasting results:Many physical problems change when their associated emotional material is processed. Unless clients integrate their new insights and behaviors into their daily lives, they may revert back to their previous problems.

The student will gain a conceptual understanding of the interrelationship and interface between mind, body, and psyche -- the building blocks of self. This training provides a unique perspective through which to view the body-mind, and to affect deep-reaching and long-lasting change. It presents simple approaches for tracking, shaping and safely exploring these building blocks of self, helping to facilitate healing and higher functioning on all levels of health.

Level 2 of the AHP training builds on the curriculum of Level 1. This training explores the relationship between the body and mental constructs - our cognition, perceptions and interpretations of the world that comprise what we call reality. The student will gain a basic understanding of the relationship between brain, biochemistry, mental/emotional states and physical functioning, as well as how all of these contribute to our experience of ourselves and the world we live in. The student will also explore protocols for shifting these states, and correspondingly shifting our own internal experience, psychophysical functioning and the ways in which we experience and interact with the world.

Restoring movement, flexibility and awareness to our bodies likewise restores these aspects to our psyche and the ways in which we interact with the world. This training offers a deeper look at the mind-body connections, and various means by which to restore, through the soma, a greater sense of movement and balance to both body and mind. This training explores somatic metaphor - the language of the deeper psyche. The student will learn to use somatic metaphor as a means of fostering communication with the body-mind, and as a means of eliciting deep-level changes in state-bound patterning. The training will offer the student an overview of psycho-energetic principles from a body-mind perspective and a basic understanding of the Five Elements Theory (one of the underlying foundations of Taoist philosophy). The student will learn about the psycho-emotional and behavioral correlations of the Five Elements and how to utilize knowledge of this theory to support healing. Further, the training will offer the student a basic overview of hands-on approaches in working psycho-emotional-structurally with the body. The basic principles of how to elicit healing states will be presented with a series of exercises to the palpation skills and sensitivity needed to work energetically in a hands-on manner. Two basic models will be taught: working with specific points on the body to release blockage and pain in the body tissues; and methods of unwinding traumatic experiences (body memory) from within the body tissues.

Michael Gibian ACST, is Founder and Director of the Gibian Wellness Center. Drawing from over 18 years of international teaching experience Michael created an integrative approach to bodymind healing and wellness, the Awakened Heart Process. He is also an instructor of circulatory massage, deep tissue, neuromuscular therapies, thai bodywork, bodhassage, chi nei tsang, sexual qigong, acupressure, hatha yoga, taoist qigong, anatomy & physiology, mindfulness, vipassana meditation and breathwork. Michael is the author of texts for Thai Massage, Stretching for Bodyworkers and Bodhassage. He is a practicing Buddhist and is trained in Hakomi and Re-Creation of the Self, models of body-centered psychotherapy.

Experiential Exercises – these are designed to allow students to both experience and practice specific approaches of the AHP method.

Lectures – structured presentations on essential AHP concepts and methodologies.

Demonstrations – teaching a particular part of the process by demonstrating with a student in the role of client.

Discussion – open discussion to allow ample opportunity to explore a topic in depth and to allow students questions as they arise.

Group Process Sessions – to pay attention to the development of the training group as a nourishing learning group.

Expressive Arts – movement, visual art and music are used to enhance and deepen learning.

Supervision – trainees regularly practice AHP with the skilled supervision of faculty and teaching assistants who circulate, offer assistance and supportively critique the students work.

Video Feedback – videotaped sessions of faculty and students are reviewed, examined and discussed in detail as teaching tools.

Study Groups – these allow small groups of trainees to work together in an intimate setting outside of the regular structure of the training sessions for the purpose of practice, discussion, bonding, personal processing and mutual support.

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