If you are in the process of taking inventory of your soul’s pantry — what you’re cooking with in this lifetime, and what you’re here to create — you may have engaged with some kind of intuitive practitioner or may consider doing so. When I say “intuitive practitioner,” I’m referring to a huge range of modalities including physical practices like massage, craniosacral, acupuncture, reiki, and other bodywork; readings based on your birth patterns like astrology, Human Design, and Akashic Records; conversations aided by symbolic tools like tarot and oracle cards; and other interactions that involve you, your energy field, broader patterns or fields beyond you, and some kind of facilitator or channeler working with the information they perceive.
Healers in body and soul work can be incredibly helpful partners in your journey, as they have been in mine. However, it helps to approach these engagements with some tactics to protect yourself and keep your experiences in perspective. These are tactics I’ve developed working with practitioners of all the modalities I list above.
I credit my mom, Susan Rotman, a lifelong clairvoyant with decades of experience as a lawyer and business owner, for connecting me with resources for things I didn’t even know I need, like energetic boundaries, that helped me shape these tactics.
6 Tips for Working With Intuitive Practitioners
Go through your trusted network. This is sensitive, vulnerable work. I almost always work with practitioners I’ve met through personal relationships with people I trust. Sometimes, I’ll find a practice I didn’t know existed, like when I asked my yoga teacher in Los Angeles, Carry Kim, for someone who could help me with my tight forearms and wrists. She recommended a Rolfing practitioner, who works on the fascia with intense massage, which ended up being the perfect modality for me to work with at that time.
Activate your boundaries and your guides. This is an imaginative practice I do whenever I work with any kind of practitioner. I picture a sphere around me (the material varies), and say to myself, “May only vibrations in my highest and best interest enter, and may all others not.” I ask for support from the highest version of myself (which I picture as some gray-haired, glowing wild woman), my spirit guides, and supportive ancestors. This is just an example — you can use any practice that feels right for you to invoke some self-protection and support.
Grant permission. I then say silently, “I give permission for my wisdom body to work with [my practitioner]’s wisdom body, to serve the highest and best interest of our selves and the communities we serve.” Again, this is just an example, but I find that this kind of consent is important for letting myself relax because I know I am safe and I am acting from a place of agency. If anything doesn’t feel right to you, say so.
Set an intention—and stay open. Sometimes, but not always, I will go in to a session with a practitioner and have something specific I want to work with, like releasing tension in a specific part of my body, working with an emotional pattern, or asking a specific question. Typically, they will ask. Whether I have an intention or not, I hold it lightly. As long as my boundaries are activated and I’ve granted permission to work with this person I trust (see 1, 2, and 3 above), I am open to receiving whatever comes up.
Integrate with discernment. This is the most important point: Take away what’s useful, and leave the rest. Keep in mind that intuitive practitioners often work and speak in terms of symbols, metaphors, patterns, and possibilities, which means you should not interpret what they are saying literally or determinatively. Only you can decide what’s true for you, and what resonates. Even if the essence of what they say or what you experience is true, taking it literally can be misleading.
Thank your practitioner, your guides, and your self. I always end a practice with gratitude. I thank my practitioner out loud, and silently I thank any supportive guides (see #2), and my self for having the courage and the trust to engage in this practice.
A final note: You know this already, but you are intuitive, too. Everything you need to know is within yourself. With that said, it helps to have a partner, and a team, and with these tactics, you can honor your own deep knowing and get support, too.
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