Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This episode of the lori taktarski morning show is produced by cmjw entertainment. This episode is brought to you in part by mha of dutchess county, harmonious healing, bagel world and angels of the andes.
Mental health america of dutchess county and reviver entertainment group presents the sound of nashville in the hudson valley's queen city featuring headliner, grand ole opry member and cmt award nominee craig morgan.
With supporting acts two time Grammy nominee Maggie Rose, Finalist of season 19 of the Voice and Hudson Valley native Ian Flanagan, Viral sensation Jake Banfield and special guest Broadway to country star Brooke Moribro.
The Sound of Nashville one night only Tuesday, October 6th at the Bartaban Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York. Visit Bardavan.org for ticket information.
Hi, I'm Lisa Cooper of Harmonious Healing. I am passionate about supporting clients in finding calm, clarity and alignment through restorative practices that nurture the body, mind and spirit. With certifications as a Sound Healer, Mindfulness Meditation Facilitator, Reiki Master, Health Coach, Breathwork Facilitator and Recovery Coach, I bring an integrative and holistic approach to helping clients optimize their mental and physical health and well being. From learning to let go of stress and worry to creating more balance and harmony in your day to day life. I use my breadth of knowledge about how the mind and body and soul work to offer a variety of tools and techniques to address specific challenges, improve overall wellness and create a life you love. My hope is that through sharing these practices that have helped me on my journey, I can hold space for you as you navigate yours. To learn more about my services and how to book a session or just talk to me about what's working or not working for you, please visit harmonioushealing.com I hope to hear from you soon.
We at Angels of the Andes are proud to partner and support the Lori Talk Tarski Morning Show. Our mission is to create brighter futures for children living in Peru's highest peaks of the Andes Mountains by supporting families and schools with essential resources and reminding them that there is always hope for tomorrow. Each year we also bring the gift of Christmas rooting children enjoy faith and the love of Jesus while reminding them that they are deeply cared for behind their mountains. For more information and to donate, please scan the QR code on the screen and visit the link in the description. 100% of your gift goes directly to the mission, helping families where they need it most. Together we can continue reaching the highest peaks.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Good Morning. Rise and shine to the iconic light Coffee in one hand, confidence in the other. I have the great pleasure of being here today with Lisa Cooper from Harmonious Healing. She is an integrative wellness practitioner, and we're here to learn about the ins and outs of integrative healing and also her compelling story of how she came to get involved in it and a little bit more about the woman behind the wholeness.
So, Lisa, was being a wellness practitioner something you have always had dreamt of? Was it something that came to you through an experience or something recent or how did you, you know, get into this whole new realm?
[00:03:46] Speaker A: It's a good question. Thanks for having me here, Laurie. How did it know it was nothing. That was never planned. You know, I really more recently in my life believe in going with what kind of comes up. It's all meant to be. So, you know, I started out years ago. I got an MBA in finance and I worked very briefly on Wall Street. Started my job the day that started stock market crash. So that ages me a little bit. And then I proceeded to have a family and I have five amazing adult children. And I felt the best thing for me to be was to be at home with them. And they're my jewels. They're amazing. They're. They're really amazing. And I then when my youngest daughter graduate now, she left for college. So that was my grade right before COVID She left for college 2016. I'm like, okay, I have some more time on my hands. And I took a non. I took a committed position for. At. For a nonprofit. What they did, they made flights for cancer patients free of charge on corporate jets. That was just the beginning of sort of my journey. That was in 2016. I worked for two years at corporate Angel Network.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, that sounds great. Now where did these. They would go visit family and no,
[00:04:47] Speaker A: what they did was they were. Their offices were in the hangar. One of the hangars in. No, an office in Westchester County Airport. And I don't even remember how I found out about this company. I think I spoke to one of those. You speak to somebody and I'm like,
[00:04:57] Speaker B: it just called to you.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: You just wanted to not being of service. Even though I didn't really do that much when my kids were younger was something that was always in my family. My mother before it was really, you know, did a lot of lobbying for. She had a rare medical condition. She worked in Bradford Correctional Agency. She worked with battered women. So that was something in my like lineage. But I never really was able to do it when my kids, you know, having Five kids with eight years of parties was pretty busy and I was very present there for them. So someone. I don't remember where this person I think was like at a workout place said, oh, you should look at corporate Angel Network. And I went there. And what this company does, they're still in existence is they get they. Because they work with airline private jets. So if a private jet is flying from New York to Houston, like MD Anderson is a cancer place, a cancer set. I haven't talked about this in a long time. And there's extra spots on the plane. They would fly cancer patients and one family member, if it's a child, two family members free of charge. And what's really was amazing about this wasn't only was it free of charge because it's a private jet, they'd have to go commercial. And many cancer patients, because of the
[00:05:56] Speaker B: infection, infections and immune deficiencies and whatnot.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So I. It was a great. It was great. And I was like, I committed. I didn't get paid for it, but it was committed. I worked two days a week. I think it was Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 to 5. And it wasn't. You know, I took it as a priority, even though as a volunteer, I didn't go to lunch with a friend or, you know, it was committed. And I was. I did everything there I was. I got a lot of responsibilities. Sometimes those flight schedules, speaking to patients that would call and trying to work out what the flights. I was speaking to corporations to see. Okay, it was like. It wasn't IBM, but I'm just saying because IBM is a local company. You know, do you. When are you flying? You know, they had their flight schedules. It was great.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Now let me just clarify this. When they took the flights, would they go into other hospitals?
[00:06:35] Speaker A: It would take them for treatment. They couldn't take the flights to go, you know, to go home. It would have to be to or from treatment. And it'd have to be a comp. A hospital or treatment center that was. I don't verify whatever couldn't. You know, like Cleveland. Big ones were Sloan Kettering, M.D. anderson, Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. So they had to be like, I don't know, asserted, you know, certified cancer treatments. You couldn't just go out for a wacky. I mean, some people ask, I'm going, this is experimental. It had to be. No, it had to be like, right. And then we had to get the credentials, doctor's notes. I've talked so long. It had to be the doc. We had to speak to the Doctor speak to the nurse. I had a verify sometimes I've been speaking to the hospital to verify Susie Smith has an appointment on January 20th. Yes. They couldn't just say they were going. The appointment had to be verified. This all had to be inputted in the computer. So there was a multifaceted. And I was lucky enough to be given multi tasks. So sometimes I would speak to the nurse or the doctor to verify that they had this appointment because people.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: That must have been very rewarding.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: It was great. And that I'd speak to some of the patients, which was.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: That's very difficult. You had to be very compassionate and loving. Yeah.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: You know, and they would say, oh, you know, and it was. It was honestly amazing. I mean, some families, they had multiple family members that had been through cancer. You know, there were people that had passed away and it was, you know, and I was able to so to talk to them and, you know, give them hope. And I was to able. Very inspired by some of the people. I mean, it was, you know, it's
[00:07:52] Speaker B: been an amazing experience.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: You know, it was really, really amazing. It was a small office.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: And that kind of opened you up to wanting to get into more healing. No, no, not necessarily.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Not at all. Actually. It was just something that I needed to figure out. Something. I'm like, okay, I can't. My kids are gone. My role as a parent still here. We mentioned with my kids before the podcast, I had a conversation with my child right now. Child is not a child, he's 30, who's going through a transition and is, you know, it never ends. And I hope it never ends. But able to guide them and help them, but let them figure it out a lot for themselves. So this started in 2016 or 17 and I loved it. And then Covid hit and there was no travel.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Right. There was no business. There was no.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: So, you know, I still worked it. We had a skeleton crew because once in a while, you know, a plane would take off. But there were no, you know, a lot of these were business meetings that, you know, or. And they had the corporate jets and they had the space and it was in Westchester Airport. So it stopped. I worked for a few months, but it was not really being fulfilling. And I really wasn't doing that much for that. It was like. It was reciprocal. I wasn't doing that getting. Not that I have to do something to get something out of, but there was just. There really was no business. So it was just like filling a void space and it became an obligation. So that happened in 2000. You know, what was covet started 19. Oh, it's 2020. So I'm going on when my daughter went to college. I'm going like I started when they graduated college. So I was doing. I think it started in 17. So I was doing it for about three years. Then Covid hit the world shut down at that. I, you know, I was married for 32 years. So this is how I got into. This is like segue into it. It's just part of, you know, like I would say my. I've been into doing disservice to doing other work, volunteering and. And like, you know, from a lot was with my mother.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Right. When you were younger, were you exposed to any integrated wellness or did you know? Not at all. Okay.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Not at all. I mean, I've always been very interested. I mean, having five kids and having different medical problems. I've always been interested in, you know, more like, you know, western medicine, you know, going to doctors. You know, my daughter had a really weird blood thing. She almost passed away. You know, she passed. Almost passed away because her red blood cells were so low. So I tried to get it, you know, she was two. I didn't know what was going on. Right through having kids, you go through different things. And I was always, you know, in. I love medicine. I used to think I wanted to be a malpractice lawyer because I like law, which I never got my mba and I like medicine.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: So I was like, right. How can I have an integrated.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: It never, you know, never actually happened. So I had an interest in medicine and I was smart about it. Always able to find good help and good doctors and really like to learn about that. But the way that got me into this arena describe it was so in after 32 years of marriage in 2018. That's why I'm thinking I keep on going back to 18 for the COVID because that's sort of when I, you know, very amicably divorced. I mean, before here I was at his house.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Right.
Which is nice. You're very amicable about it.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: You're not out saying, oh my God, I can't believe this. I can't believe I was mad. You know, a lot of people aren't able to get to that point of maturity and everything.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah, no, thank you for that. And it's, you know. You know, I was literally at his house in Westchester dropping off. We had trade of things and I see him all the time. We're very good friends. You know, the marriage didn't survive life.
So in 18, I got divorced. And then I also was struggling for years with, you know, with addiction, and I went into recovery, and that's really what changed my life. So I.
Yeah, I was within, like, three months of each other. I started. I was like, I can't drink alcohol anymore. It's not really good for me. It's a spirit that kills you, your soul.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: And so that was in 2018, actually,
[00:11:12] Speaker B: just really quickly, I had.
I had met somebody that was recovering from alcoholism, and we were talking about how so many people have endured addictions, and he was saying, you know, you really have to look up the Arabic word for alcoholism. It says devil. You know, it says something to the effect of devil, you know, And I really do believe that. I believe a lot of these addictions come from this negative, evil type place, because I believe when. When you're in God's light, you're living a very pure, to a degree, you know, kind of existence or life, a thriving existence.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's true. I mean, there's some, like, with the spirit, you know, it's a spirit, but it's not. Has really more of a negative connotation, you know, and now there's so much research, actually, about. They used to say, glass of red wine a day is good for your heart. And if you listen, if you look at the research on alcohol, I mean, I couldn't drink safely, so it was different. If you can drink safely, kudos to you. But there's very little evidence of any benefit that alcohol has to anybody. Right. If you listen to people, you know, Andrew Huberman, I love his podcast. It's like, there's really. There's not. You know, my sister had breast cancer, and the doctor's like, you should never be drinking alcohol again. I mean, it's just not a good thing. But that's, you know, but people, if you can do it safely.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Right.
I couldn't say who can do it, who can't do it.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: I'm not judging anybody for their alcohol. I don't, you know, I. Whatever.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: It's just. For you, it was. For you.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Well, it was. It was an addiction. It wasn't, you know, come and have a glass of wine. I wish I could have a glass of wine.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: You know, would you be comfortable talking a little bit about, you know, how it affected you? What, some kind of things that occurred while you were drinking, the alcohol. Things that really brought you to a point of saying, I really have to, you know, I really have to address this.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: It's not. It was just it's not, that's for me, it's not that it's not about what happened. It's like where it parlayed me, where it brought me to in the sense it was, let's just say it was a law. It was a progressive disease. It got worse and then I had to stop because I would ruin my life and my kids life. I mean I was always there as you could ask my five children for them despite, you know, battling an addiction my whole life. And then it got to a point where there was, you know, like you say you reach a bottom, you can get off the elevator when it gets to the bottom or you can walk up. Mine was at the bottom. And I was going to lose any relationship that I had.
You know, I'm sure it didn't help my marriage, but two sides things, but it was just.
You know, it's funny, I was talking to my son on the way here. He's turning 30 and he was doing a career change and he's like, sometimes I feel like, you know, why I wasted time because he was a great job for eight years. And I'm like, you know what? You can't change the past.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: No, we have to look at everything as an experience.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Keep it in your back thing. So for me I can, you know, do drunk a logs or talk about it a lot or I could just move forward and it's part of who I am. I'm grateful, grateful for it. I like call my recovery kind of my superpower because it brought me to here, to where I am. So let's just say it wasn't a healthy relationship with me and it would have. And I got to the point where it would have destroyed everything.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Right. But like you said, it was a superpower brought you.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Now it wasn't super, it was the opposite.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Right? But like with me, like I've battled food addiction and I finally turned it over to my, you know, to God, as I call him. And I've been now in recovery for a long time and I've been free. I'm no longer a hostage to it. And I've also been what I call remission. Although it hasn't been a cancer, so to speak. It was a cancer of the mind and the spirit. Bipolar. I've been episode three for many, many years. You know, it's become my superpower because it doesn't define me. I say it aligns me. It aligned me to where I'm supposed to be today. Giving back. Giving back to people with mental health challenges, addiction and Trauma. Living in that.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's. That's your superpower right where you are right now, doing, you know, these amazing things and conquering. You know, it's like when you go through life's challenges, you know, I'm not gonna develop because of my kids watches. There are other issues, but if you go through, you know, some mental health or other addiction issues, it makes you. It's like, it's, it's an, like, it's an underlying strength and it makes you so much more resilient and authentic, I think. Authentic too. That's a good. That's a, that's a. That's a really good point. So. So that's what, like I didn't know what prayer meditations. I didn't know what the word spirituality meant. And through recovery I learned. I learned a lot about it. And what started actually was before this. So we're too years around 2019 around. I'm not sure which came first, but one day I was walking down in New York City because I have a place in the city and I see this place called the Om. We talk about Om before.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: We keep saying, I know. And like a lot of my podcasts, I say Om. And I'm so into like integrative wellness. I'm like, I should just say om instead of ohm. Right? It'd be so much better. Yeah, right.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: To say Ohm. And I walked in and said, and I had just started meditating for my own self. And it said ohm said sound bath. This is in 2019 now. Yeah, the dates are coming back. And I was like, oh, let me try it. Because I tried to meditate.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: I think I remember you telling me about that, actually.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Or maybe you didn't.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: I may have told you the story. Yeah, I don't think I knew. I don't think I knew you then. But it was right pretty quickly.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:00] Speaker A: So I went in, I did a sound bath. I was hooked.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Could you explain what a sound bath is? Because a lot of people think you're like in bubbles in a bath and you know, maybe. And then all of a sudden there's sound like, you know, like literally thinking sound bath. Like a lot of people don't understand what a sound bath is that.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: But let me go to. Because I'm like going on a sideways tangent. Let me just sort of do the one.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: How I got here and then just because I to. I don't want to forget things. So I found that and I started doing that. Then this, then covet Hit a little after. I mean, I was their only person there getting sound bats during Kobe because they had like one session a week, a day, then covet hit. And I was like, okay, I need to do something, because I'm very busy. I'm very active. I go to movies, restaurant. I couldn't do anything, so I was at home. So I decided to become a recovery coach. I'd been in recovery, and it's called ccar. I know you've done your.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: You know, I've done certification, and I
[00:16:47] Speaker A: did, you know, six courses, a main course, and you had to do six different classes. And I became a recovery coach. I actually did that. You get, like. The way you get tested is like an interview. It's, like, crazy. The first time I failed. It's not fail. It's like, you have to.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: And what do you do?
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Recovery coach.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: I know, but what. You get tested.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Yeah. You can see if you could be a recovery coach. They ask you a lot of rap. It's like an hour. It was zoom. They ask you all these different questions. You know, what would you do if someone stole money from their.
From the bar? They ask you all these different situations, and you had to answer quickly. But basically, the theme of being a recovery coach, which is the. The theme which I will get into of all the modalities that I teach, is meeting people where they are. Like, I can't say to somebody that's coming in for drinking or drugs or anything, you need to do this. You need to go here, and you need to go to aa. You need to go to spirituality. You need to exercise. So the point was in. And the first time that I did the test, I was more. I didn't tell them that do anything. I just had to be a little. It was really the best thing that I ever. I would say, failed it. You don't get grades. And then I took six months later, and I passed. I decided at that point, maybe would
[00:17:44] Speaker B: you say you felt more comfortable?
[00:17:45] Speaker A: No, I didn't really get.
I understood a little bit, but I didn't really, you know, resonate with me. Like, you need. And this is with all my modalities to just really be very caught. You know, you need to really meet. It's called, like, meeting the way they're at. And it wasn't that I wasn't doing that, but it was just the answers. Maybe it was just the way they were presenting it. So then I. So as a recovery coach, I didn't actually practice it. Then I went through the next part was I Actually it was. There's like a lot of things I decide. I was heard about IIN Institute for Integrated Nutrition and this was in 2021. I did the six month accelerated thing and this was. Covid was over at this. Getting over at this. No, it was just still there a little bit. And I remember and I was in a relationship and the relationship ended pretty quickly and I was like, I need something to do. So right that point I wasn't working or doing anything and I didn't.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Right. We know how that can turn into a lot of negative banter.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: And I just needed something to, you know, fill my mind and I got all entrenched. I did the six months. You would be year or six month intensive program. It was amazing. So an integrated nutrition IIN is. It's a very. Well, that's very. It's a very solid place to learn. A lot of people have heard of it that are coaches. It's. You have two types of.
There's like your primary food and then there's your secondary food. So nutrition is really secondary what you're eating. You know, the first is like as they call it, the circle of life. And there's things like joy, finances, budgeting, spirituality, your relationships, sexuality, your home, your environment. And you look at this circle and see, you know, if there's something wrong that could cause sleep problems, that could cause overeating, you know, it's the over.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: So one works off of the other.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Right. You need like if someone's not eating well, it's like, well, maybe it affects everything. Right. So. And then you deal with the nutrition. So I did this, I did the training, it was great.
And then after that I just sort of just. So that was like my, my main. That was like the. And it's also the same thing with the coaching. Whether it's recovery coaching or wellness. For coaching health coaches, you know, people get confused with the names. Life coaching. It's all like looking at a client. They're individuals, they're unique. Everybody, everyone, whether it's recovery coaching, health coaching. And then my other model is the same thing. What's going to best work for this but right.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: Learning about the person and meeting them where they're at. That's such a great way of looking at it.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Taking the lead from not saying just
[00:19:55] Speaker B: because they're in recovery or they're dealing with alcoholism, that this is exactly who they are. And this is exact. Like there's a. There's a model of who they have to be.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: Right. And also just seeing what you know What? Listening to them, really listening to them. Not talking, not thinking what you're gonna say next. And just, you know, I mean, I'll give you an example afterwards of a recent client. So then that I did that. And I just love to learn, you know, and I, you know, that's great.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: That's so important.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: And then I did a two year.
After that, or maybe overlap, I did a two year mindfulness meditation certificate program which was led by Tara Brack and Jack Kornfelden.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Why don't you tell, tell us who they are, Because I know they're.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: They're mindfulness or. Which will lead into the sound a little bit.
Mindfulness or vispasana or mindfulness. Vispasana or insight is the lineage of the type of meditation. It's not. It means our minds, human minds have a lot of thoughts going on all the time. You know, something like 10,000 thoughts in a day.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: And I think I have 20,000, maybe
[00:20:53] Speaker A: it could be a hundred thousand. I don't have to get the statistics.
And that's what minds do. But what, what the goal is, is to be aware of your thoughts. Like, it's not the goal of meditation in this training or is not to sit here and have no thoughts. I mean, maybe the Buddha did that, I don't know. And there's a lot of Buddhism in it, which is, it's not, it's. Which is really pretty fascinating to me. But so when, when minds are going, ruminating or thinking, it's.
What is useful is called a stabilizing force or an anchor. So if my mind is wandering, the most common one is the breath. So it's like if I'm focusing on breathing in and breathing out.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: That felt great.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I'll give you an example. And then the second most common one is to do a body scan. Fill your body.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: How does one do a body scan?
[00:21:42] Speaker A: I would say close your eyes.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Let's do it really quickly. Okay.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: So let's imagine there's the sun or the moon shining on your head.
Feel the light on your, on the top of your head.
Feel this light moving to your forehead.
Your eyebrows, your upper lids, your lower lids, your nose, your cheeks, your lips, your chin, your neck, your shoulders, your chest.
And you go kind of down the body. And then your mind. Is your mind less scattered?
[00:22:36] Speaker B: I feel really good. I may fall asleep. I'm still relaxed. So you might have to finish the interview.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: So that's a body scan. A mantra is like, is like. What do you call it? What's a mantra? Like there's meta loving kindness, meditation made the world.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Are those like affirmations?
Because I know affirmations are very powerful if they're, you know, positive ones.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Mantra could be anything. You could say, oh, it's just basically what these do are stabilize the thoughts, you know, and you can think of a thought as it's a cloud going by. It comes and it goes. Or even in a train station, if one pulls up, one goes, one pulls up. So it's really being aware and having insight into.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Right. Awareness is key, but you also have to have action with awareness. I always see that meaning like you could be aware of something but you have to kind of put it into position, you know.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Well, yes, but maybe that's not necessarily the goal of meditation. It's just to be aware of your thoughts in the sense of. And they're saying you're not your thoughts.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Like that's something. I mean it's very true what you're saying, but not necessarily with meditation. No, you don't want to start analyzing. I mean you can do whatever you want. There's no right or wrong. And I also tell people you don't have to lay down, sit down and.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Right. Which is great because I was very fortunate to do one of your meditation series and it was so. It was so wonderful. Yeah, it was so. I felt so open, I felt so relaxed. I was calm, which thank God at this point in my juncture, you know, my journey, I'm calm a lot. But it was just so eye opening and it was such a.
Like you said, the awareness was paramount.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Right?
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: I mean in the four part series which I offer Laurie, it also there's a little bit of teachings. Right. There's joy and you know, in getting through different parts of your life. And the class was two years I was online and. But you have like mentors and you have groups and you have all these different things. And it wasn't just about meditation. It was about having how to deal with, you know, trauma, how to deal with this. I mean I'm not, I can never say I'm an expert on trauma. I would say, you know, in any of the modalities, if you need medical treatment, if you need mental health treatment, I can facilitate, you know, add to it, but it's not replacing anything. Right. That's a very important thing to that I tell to my clients. But now because it's segue back into the sound. Right. Because that's what you question. Your was so going into what I like about what sound bath is. It's like so many different ways to say it. It's like a massage. It's like you're massaging your brain. But the anchor, which I talked about,
[00:24:57] Speaker B: the breath, the mantra, I like that.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: It's a really stronger, visceral way to calm your mind. I mean, I've meditated many, many different ways. And like I said, someone's walking, someone is cooking. You know, my feeling is also about being present. And if I'm cooking, I'm like, I'm not thinking about what I regretted about yesterday or where I'm going tomorrow. I'm like, I want, you know, this cucumber.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Being present comes peace, you know?
[00:25:18] Speaker A: Right. Yeah.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: So that's so important because I think so many people, you know, there's that saying that says peace surpasses all understanding. That's what so many people are grasping, trying to find in their lives. And, you know, they may have this. They may have money, they may have MBAs and PhDs. They may have, you know, children. They may have, you know, but they can't find peace.
Peace of mind, peace of spirit, peace of heart. So, you know, I think a lot of the modalities that you teach give people more. More of an idea, especially with spirituality involved as well. Idea of peace.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: Right. I never heard that saying that. That's really interesting. But what. The sound, you know, and it can be done virtually. It can be actually, you know, I used to be like, oh, I only want to do it in person. But it actually can be really effective virtually because you put headphones on, you can hear it a little better. But the resonance, the vibrations, they break up blockages in energy that are stuck. And it's. And it's. It's almost like meditation made easy. Because if you listen to the sound, you listen to the sound, you know, you focus. You focus on. And that's your stabilizing force. And I just love it. Like, I've tried all these different meditation. I mean, and when I.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Those are with the bowl.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Aren't those with other instruments? But my. I always go back to my crystal bowl.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Can you tell a little bit about those? They're so beautiful. And the way they sound like. Tell a little bit about how they sound a little bit.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: I have.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: The bowls that I primarily use are.
They're made by this company called Crystal Tones. I mean, they are like the Rolls Royce of bowls. They're aesthetically.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: You lease those, right?
I'm joking. I'm joking.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
They're really stunningly beautiful. And they're 99.9 pure quartz crystal. And they're infused with special metals and gemstones and they're, they're. There's different frequencies, there's minor 528. They have to all be tuned into different frequencies. And when you buy them. You can't buy these on Amazon. You have to go through it through the. Someone that knows the different bowls and the different frequencies. Like plus 25, minus 25. I have 14 bowls broken three. But they're insured and they're. I have a chakra set, an endocrine set and then I have bowls that make bondual beats which just gets you to a theta.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: What's. What is a shock for people that wouldn't.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Energy centers.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Energy centers. Yeah. And we're gonna get to that as well because you just came back from a very adventurous, exciting trip.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: But there wasn't so much shock when I was a reiki thing. I mean I do a lot of things but I, you know, kind of put it, put it all together. So when you, the bowls, you know, you start. There's a lot of music theory to it. I did, I did after. At the very end of the two year program I did a three month very intensive training in sound healing. And it was virtual. But we had these meeting. We had a lot of breakups mentoring group but. And a lot of it was. Wasn't just about playing the bowls. You can't do that all day. It's something you got to practice and learn. But I was fortunate that a woman who lived near me was one of the they called keepers of the bowls. Who sold me the bowls. I figured not soul me knew which bowls she thought were, you know, intuitively new. Like, like I said, there's three frequencies.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: I'm like four.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: I'm like totally fine. I just know mine are 528 frequency of God. But it's not about God.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: It's just. That's just the way it's like a higher awareness. She thought that was good for me. And she lives near me in Connecticut. And after the course was over, she's amazing. She's been doing this for many years. I would go to her house and get lessons on just the music theory because there is theory to it. You know, there's like major chords, minor chords because they get you into a. You get grounded and then you go into a deeper medicine, meditative state and then you come out and I would take, I took, you know, many.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Wow, it sounds very, very deep. Very, very involved.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it is. I mean anyone can do it. But if you get trained in it and you do it, you know, and.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: And tell us a little bit about. Because I know you work with people that are dealing with many different challenges. Tell us some of your different, you know, the experiences you've had and how the sound bath has really helped them and opened them up to, you know, finding victory and their challenges.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: So I have dealt with. I've had people come to me. I do. I do group sessions, usually a few a month, and then private sessions. And I've dealt. A young woman in her 30s was getting ketamine for severe depression.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: And her doctor recommended that she do, you know, alternative ways to.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: I love that. That so many of the doctors today are really. I know, I know. I had heard from somebody that was going through the experience, unfortunately, of cancer, they being treated at Sloan Kettering with Reiki. Right.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Now I was going to go into the Reiki thing because the Reiki. Yes, Sloan Kettering does Reiki. People are like, what's Reiki Energy?
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Whatever.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: And they don't necessarily think it's.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Well, I know I just found out my dad, who passed away 38 years ago and had AIDS from open heart surgery, was. My mom just told me 38 years later that he was being treated with reiki. And that's 38 years ago. It's been around, yes. But it's. It's amazing how so many things have been around, but a lot of them just, you know, to have been coming more and more to the forefront.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: It's more like, you know, people are searching and looking for other ways to, you know, you know, so many things, you know, I mean, mental health, anxiety, you know, which with all these modalities, you know, really help with. With anxiety, stress, mental health illnesses. So this woman was doing that. So I would actually went to her apartment, Connecticut, and I did some sessions with her. And then there was another woman. She reached out. Her mother was 80 and had colon cancer.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: And she was getting chemo.
And I did several sessions with her. But, you know, it was interesting. I went to this woman, went in her bedroom. She's the cutest woman. And I'm doing this and like talking about meeting them where they're at. She would be like, I had to be. This is a new modality for her. Sound man, what is this? My daughter's doing it. And we would do it and she was asking questions in the middle, and then she started to talk about. She was from.
Where was she from? Ecuador.
Where's Quito?
Where the Galapagos she's from there. She started talking about her family and the memories that she had as a kid. And it was like the sound, you
[00:30:53] Speaker B: know,
[00:30:55] Speaker A: I like, I was like, you know, my job was to do a meditation, but that's really not something.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: And you meet a lot of people somewhere, relationships. And you must also make some really. Because, you know, you're really connecting on
[00:31:05] Speaker A: many levels with these people. Right? And we were talking, you know, it was more important than my agenda of going there with the sound, because that's what I was hired to do. But to hear her and talk, you know, there's a saying, people want to be seen and heard, right? And that's really what, you know, what I, what I, what I, what I try, you know, what I try to do. I had a client yesterday who does my integrated wellness package, which is very interesting. And she was, she's taking care of a 95 year old mother and it's who's at Alzheimer's. And she had canceled the session. And I said, and she has a series. I said, you know what, let me give. Because Reiki you can do in distance. I do Reiki and sound with right to combine. I said, you know what, Susan, I don't give any names. I'm gonna, at 3:15, I want you to spend 15 minutes quietly somewhere because you can do Reiki virtually. You don't even have to do it on zoom. You can send it the Holy Fire Reiki, which is what I was trained in. And we did a 15 minute. I did the Reiki and I said, and I had the music on and I sent the symbols that are the Reiki symbols. And she, on the way here, it's like a very busy car ride here. On the way, she's like, I feel better. And it also helped my mother, maybe my mother got the benefits of the.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: I'm telling you, it went down the whole generation.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Okay. You know, I just got back from England, I got my master's in, in, in Reiki, you know. And then I learned like three years ago, I did Reiki one traditional Reiki.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: And what is that?
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Reiki is like you take a light touch, you know, and you, and you go through, you feel it and you put. You have to get attuned and you have to get attunements and procurements and you learn about the history of it.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: And it deals with opening up chakras, certain chakras.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: Reiki has nothing to do with chakras.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Oh, because I've had, I had, had it done.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: And I no And I just got back from my training and people think it. He goes, I don't. Then this is the. So there's, this is the founders called Holy Fire Reiki, which is based on traditional Reiki. But Holy fire is a pure form of it. Like I said, you could do it virtually and you could do it without the person even physically being there or even on zoom. No, it's nothing to do with chakra. It's just like you go through the different. I mean, you can touch the chakra, you can, you know, hit the chakras.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: But it's not specifically chakra clearing.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: It's just you do a body scan.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: I was told, you know, I was told it was. But maybe, you know, that's a different type of Reiki or me.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Well, not Reiki. It could be different type of energy.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: Right?
[00:33:08] Speaker A: There's many, many types of energy.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Okay. There's, there's different.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, chakras are very, you know, they're true.
They are energy centers that if your chakras are out of alignment.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: Right. That could be.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: It can do it, but it's not the, it's not a shot.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: The crocs of it.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: It's not chakra healing. It's energy healing in a different way. So you, you do like a light touch. You feel with where the body needs healing with touch. I mean, I, I.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: So you have to have an enormous amount of intuitiveness.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: I can tell you in all these modalities. I mean, I could, I don't know how much time we have. So I. Let me get to the point. I get an amazing Reiki story that I just showed a few weeks ago by a woman that I met. But so I learned it. And then you have to take time to integrate it and then before you take twos, Reiki 1, Reiki 2. And it never, ever happened. And I was like, I've had, I've had Reiki dentamine. It never resonated with me, but I was curious about it.
So I won't do. For just because I'm trained in Reiki, if it doesn't and all these modalities, I can do it myself. And if it doesn't work for me or have a benefit, then I will never say just because I'm trained in Reiki, I could do Reiki. You. It's like I feel like a fraud. So I then a friend of mine who's a sound healer had in her house about a year and a half ago, reiki Holy Fire 1 and 2. And I did it.
And then I had to practice it. We had training with other people.
And a few months before that, I did this intense 10 day breath work with David Elliott at the Omega Institute, which is a. It's a deep breath work. It's not like breathing in and out.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Yes. And the Omega Institute is up here. It's in Dutchess County.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: It's in Rhinebeck.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Rhinebeck, yes.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: And they have like the creme of the creme. And I did both these modalities around the same time, but neither.
I didn't feel the benefit of them. So I'm like, I'm not doing it, but it's good knowledge. Right. Then like six months, eight months after
[00:34:42] Speaker B: this training, you're gonna get the blue ribbon for best student.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: I'm a good student. Yes. And I do, you know, and I'm like, it could be snobby, whatever you want to call it. I do like to do, like, my balls are the best. It's not.
I just feel like if I'm getting. If I'm getting the best quality, it's a better.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: Right. But people can still do it.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: You can do samples, of course, from Amazon. I'm telling you, I don't have to do.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Jeff Bezos can. Yeah. Continue to sit on his island.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: You can still do it with any. All these things you can, by the way. You can do on your own.
You know, you don't have to have the best. Whatever. But that's just my feeling.
[00:35:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: So I was trained in both these modalities.
Then I went through a few months later, some personal things with the relationship, whatever. And I was, you know, had some feeling emotions that weren't to deal with.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: And I actually went back to David. I did a zoom session. He's in California. And it was funny. When we did the breath work, people had a lot of release. It was like, pretty intense. And they were like crying and screaming. I'm like, it's okay, Nothing's happening. I'm like, are you surprised to see me, David? You know, because I wasn't like, I didn't think I was the best example of how it works. And he's like, no. And we did a session. And then at the same time, I did a session with the person that I did the Reiki with. A private session. And then for 21 days on both modalities, I did it on myself because I said, yeah, I can do this on myself. And I. I wouldn't say I was cured. You never cared, in my opinion. But I was like a different person every 21 days. I'm like, you know what? These modalities can work. And then I started to incorporate them in my practice, but not until I knew that it would work okay.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: And it may not work for you.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: It may not work for somebody else. But the point. And now I, now I have like a sound is still my passion and my love. I could do it all the time. Time. I love it. And when I do, would you say
[00:36:23] Speaker B: that's your focal point?
[00:36:24] Speaker A: I would say it's my focal point, but not, you know, someone says, what's your elevator? What's your success story? I said, I have five kids. Four of my five kids love my sound bath. Love sound bath. One son, Andrew. It's okay if you're listening to this. Doesn't like it. But he says, but you're really good at it, mom.
That's good. And you know, he lived with me for like a year and a half and he would sometimes hear my sessions and he's like, oh, it's not, you know, he'd be not right next to it because, you know, not everyone's gonna want everything. And I, you know, you don't want to be a jack of all trades and you know, and not really specialize anything. But I think as provider of integrated wellness, it's important to be able to expand and to reach, you know, to reach the biggest client base or not reach the biggest client base. No, no. To be able to say to somebody, what's going to work for you?
And I'm going to give an example of this woman that I did this. So I have this integrated package which is based on my health coaching and it's, it's on my website. So it's two sessions a month. And like everything that's structured can be gifted, individualized to whatever the client wants. So it's, this is like one package that I have which is two months of health. Two, it's one, it's six months. But you could do month by month and there's every other week you do the, well, hellness, like what's going on in your life? I'm not sleeping. I'm not, you know, I have, I don't like my job. And then the other two are healing sessions which, with this person, client. I, this is, I'm just using this one example. I do Reiki combined because you can't do Reiki with sound. You can infuse it. And I went to her house for the first session and she, you know, I have an intake form and she answered all these questions, and I had my plan. I was gonna, you know, talk about what, you know, was like with eating and sleeping. And I get there, and she's like.
She's living with her mother. This is the woman. She's like, look at my room. It's a mess. I mean, I need to paint. I need, like, completely. Had nothing to do with what I thought I was gonna be there for.
But we went into her room, and this. She was. Her mother was sleeping in a tiny room. Just two bedrooms, like, room. Small one. I don't know what the size is. And there was this big room that wasn't being used. And I'm like. And she was sleeping. Waking up at the night and sleeping on the cot, you know, a hospital cot. And she wanted to meditate.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: She did.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: She works at a hospital. She's a nurse, and she wanted to meditate. So there was nowhere to do anything.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: And she.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: So we ended up getting sort of like, a game plan. I was like a decorator.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: You never know what you're gonna be. You never know how you're gonna be utilized.
[00:38:33] Speaker A: I was into your design, but you know what? It ended up. So it's like, I had my agenda, which is the whole point. I really don't.
I don't.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: But I think in life, that's the beauty. Sometimes we just have things that are surprises or unexpected and things work out. We can't go in with, you know, A, B, C. You know, it's not. We can't be that methodical.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: No. Because it doesn't. You know, I went in. I mean, I need to go in with some plan because.
[00:38:53] Speaker B: Right.
I can't get out this scout paid or whatever.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: But, you know. But then what ended up happening was we created a whole space for her. She did a medic.
She has a med. She got some bowls. She did some meditation. She painted. And that was really. You know, because back to the circle of life from the IIN is Things were out of balance, and it wasn't serving her well. So even though she wanted to talk about her diet wasn't good, or sleeping or exercising wasn't good. It was a completely. Was, like, went completely everything. I think it helped everything else because she, you know, if you come in and your place is not the way you want to be. And then she ended up. She's paid. She got. She had someone paid for samples.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: I'm like, well, that's great. That's a great way to wrap this amazing, amazing interview up. And I want to ask you Something. Lisa, if you could give, like a kind of ending for the interview mantra of your particular integrative wellness practice, what would you say? Kind of fits it like a vision mantra.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: What do you mean by vision?
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Like, what your vision is for, like, what you want to attain with, you know, all the different practices and things. You know, what would you say?
[00:40:03] Speaker A: That's a good question. I have that question answered. You know, I mean, for business wise, I just want to grow it because I, you know, when you. When like the same. She's like my client that's most steady, and she comes to my house and she feels everything. I feel so good. And I use sage and sound. She's like. And that. There's nothing more gratifying. You know, I say when I end every sound bath, not all my sessions. I say when I give, I receive. So I feel universal, I feel better. But, like, when I give a session. But wait, what was the question? What was the mantra? But the most important thing is that we as individual people have to be willing. Like, I am not a healer. I don't like to use the word sound bath healer. I don't have that much power. I can facilitate it. I can work with you.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Right? Like, I'm a vessel, right? I'm not God.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: I'm not, you know, and. But, you know, people need. It's. It's like when I. People come to me, I'm like, I'm so glad you came to me, you know, that you're willing to help yourself.
And that's what's really.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: You have to be open to it. You would say, people have to be open.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: You have to be open. But like I said, there's nothing better than the feeling of someone, like, being in a state of peace.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: And it's knowing you had a hand in that.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: It's. It's, you know, it's. It's definitely very, very gratifying because, you know, I probably could have used it when I needed it. I didn't have anybody. I was at my own resources, you know, for a lot of my struggles. But it's okay because that's, like I said, that's. It's right.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: It aligns. It aligns us and doesn't define us.
So anyway, that's a wrap. So here we are once again.
Coffee in one hand, confidence in the other.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: You've been a pleasure to have this conversation with Lori. We had a great friendship, and I'm very honored to be here today. Thank you, Lisa.
