Listening To The Body That Is Ours
With Dr. Kaeri of Spiral Healing Liberation
Bodies are awesome. They are always trying to help us move towards thriving, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. Our bodies want to be acknowledged, appreciated and understood. Listening to the Bodies that are Ours is an invitation to learn and practice our connection inward, opening our abilities to gain knowledge from our bodies. We will be exploring this connection through movement, conversation, contemplation and curiosity.
Please join us for this dynamic opportunity to deepen our body connection — exploring how we personally connect to our bodies, why we might have disconnected from them, and how we can bring what we learn from our wise bodies into our healing journeys, healthcare experiences and overall sense of wellbeing. This workshop is facilitated by Dr. Kaeri — a body communicator, medical guide, and MD.
“What’s been personally profound is that when I’ve trusted my body, when I’ve gone back to my body’s own intuition and the body’s knowledge, allowing the body to speak to me directly so I can understand all of these other fragmentations in my life, the more I’ve done that, it’s allowed me to see that there’s new pathways of potential and ability.” ~Fariha Róisín
Imagine you could walk into a white-walled medical office or hospital and feel grounded in the knowledge that your experience is your truth, that you are the expert on your body, that you get to choose the next steps on your healing path and move forward with aligned and relational support. Having practiced and spent time connecting to your body, you have a wider understanding of what your body is communicating and have gained trust in your body’s wisdom and desire to move you towards thriving. You are feeling prepared to receive the recommendations of the providers and support team as advice, not requirements.
I fully believe — and have witnessed time and time again — that as we better understand our bodies and their communication, we gain trust, feel safer in our bodies, more deeply support our body’s natural ability to heal, and can bring that trust, agency and autonomy into our healing experiences. Listening to the Bodies that are Ours is an invitation to begin to connect with and understand our bodies’ communication.
Our bodies are always working to take care of us. They tell stories and communicate to help us move toward healing. They really want us to “hear” and understand them. Our bodies don’t (generally) communicate through words, they communicate through experiences. In the medical system, you may have heard the word “symptoms” to describe those body experiences. I prefer “experiences” or “sensations” because it widens the possibility of the descriptions that can be used.
Most people (including myself, and possibly some of you) learned that it was easier or safer not to connect to their body experiences. This pattern develops as a protective tool…which was likely helpful for a time and may no longer serve you. In order to give ourselves permission to listen to our bodies it can be supportive to thoughtfully explore our relationship to our bodies.
Sometimes starting this connection can feel difficult, big and/or scary. It may also feel exciting, relieving or any other emotion. Whatever you are feeling is okay. It is where you are in this moment. This class is built with an awareness of our diversity of comfort levels and experiences and honors that we are all in different places in our journey of body connection. We will explore ways we connect inward and invite the process with gentleness and compassion. Throughout our gathering you will get to choose in what ways and to what depth you participate.
During our two hours together, we’ll move gently to music, journal in response to explorative prompts, engage in guided conversations and explore ways to bring this new learning and connection into our healing processes.
The cost of this class is $50. If you have financial spaciousness to pay slightly more, please consider paying $65 to help make this offering accessible to a wider range of participants. If you have less financial spaciousness and it is helpful for you to be uplifted by our community, please pay $35.
To support a gathering that can more effectively honor our individual needs while also offering opportunities for connection the group size will be limited to 10 people.
Things to bring to our gathering:
Your awesome body
Curiosity and a willingness to try new things
Something to write on
Something to write with
As our bodies allow, we will be moving from sitting to standing and you may choose to lay down if that will best support your body during our time together. There are chairs, stools and the floor available for sitting. If you’d like to bring a blanket, pillow or a meditation cushion to help you feel more comfortable in whichever position you choose please do.
“I think that what our bodies are telling us and what our bodies are showing us through illness, primarily, [is] that everything from grief and depression are lighthouses back to ourselves. They’re lighthouses back to our internal feelings and the way that we are inside of not just our brain, but also our emotions and our body. Our body is a vessel and a vehicle for us to heal and better understand one another.”
~Fariha Róisín
About Dr. Kaeri
My name is Kaeri Schaefer. I am a queer, cis, able-bodied, womyn. I am a loving wife and a mama to two incredible kids. In my work, I see my role to be a body communicator and medical guide. I have an MD from the University of Wisconsin, family medicine training from Providence Milwaukie Family Medicine Residency and now offer care and healing support in Portland, OR on the stolen lands of the Clackamas, Multnomah and Cowlitz people.
These credentials mean that I know a lot about bodies and how they work, but most of the knowledge I use each day I didn’t learn in medical school or residency. My most important teachers are my kids and the many amazing humxns who have trusted me to support them in their healing journeys.
I intentionally lead with the word “guide” in describing myself because of the negative associations that many people (including myself) have with the word “doctor.” Additionally, in seeing how the colonial patterns of saviorism and hierarchy have permeated the western medical system, I want to separate from the story that I am here to “fix”. My work is built on the idea of helping people better connect with and understand their bodies so they can step into their agency. I am so grateful to have the honor of walking (or dancing) with people as they find their own paths towards healing and wellness.
TESTIMONIALS
“Our work together has allowed me to see how deeply emotional, relational expression makes its way into my body. This is really significant!” - C.G.
“When I began my work with Kaeri, I was afraid of my body. As a decades-long sufferer of panic and anxiety disorder, my body was an unsafe place where fear and sometimes even terror lived. Over the years, Kaeri and I have collaborated to address inflammation through diet and lifestyle while reframing my approach to and relationship with my body. Through our work together, I've learned not only to not fear my body but also to [listen to] the language that it speaks and to honor its messages. I could not have done this without the sage guidance, patience and experience of Kaeri. [Our work] has blessed me with the gift of fully inhabiting my body and experiencing the range of sensations, emotions, and wisdom it has to offer as I walk through this physical plane.” - Devon Detweiler, https://www.metamorphosisnw.com