Intuitive Wisdom- Love Your Body-Love Your Life..
I loved being interviewed this week by the talented author, intuitive and medium Angela Artemis at Powered By Intuition. You will love her website, her books, and I truly recommend her services as both an intuitive and medium…you’ll appreciate her warmth, integrity and intelligence.
”It is only by grounding our awareness in the living sensation of our bodies that the ‘I Am,’ our real presence, can awaken.” –G.I. Gurdjieff
Today I am thrilled to bring you an interview with Intuitive Body Mentor, Lisa Claudia Briggs of IntuitiveBody.com. Lisa facilitates spiritual healing via her unique therapy process to clients locked in the grips of emotional overeating.
1. Please give us some info on your background.
I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Connecticut College, and a Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work from Boston College. I spent many years at a Harvard psychiatric teaching hospital, on both the inpatient and outpatient children’s units working with children and families. I also worked at a Women’s state prison on the Psychiatric Crisis Team. I was a licensed Clinician for almost 20 years, and became very interested in trauma and how it was ‘stored’ in the body. The last 10 years I’ve trained with healers and intuitives and spiritual thought leaders so my work is now very integrative/holistic.
”Within my body are all the sacred places of the world, and the most profound pilgrimage I can ever make is within my own body.” –Saraha
2. How did you go from being a conventional therapist to creating Intuitive Body.
There came a point when I started to see that trauma and other experiences were stored in the body and that talking alone as a healing modality wasn’t enough- people got stuck in their intellect and were disconnected from where the pain was.. in the body. There was an expression in the trauma field “The body knows”.. I was also studying with a teacher for 4 years who kept telling us to “get back in our bodies” (out of our heads/intellect). It really began to reshape the way I worked with my clients and the way I thought about healing and processing experiences. I had my own issues with my body and overeating for many years, and specialized with women with similar issues.. and as I learned what was healing for me personally, it translated into my work with women into IntuitiveBody.
”The body must be nourished, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We’re spiritually starved in this culture-not underfed but undernourished.” –Carol Hornig
3. What issues does your practice address?
Women typically come to me via the gateway of body /weight/or eating issues.. but from my perspective that struggles with these are often due to a sensitive/empathic nature.. Intuitives, empaths.. we are more likely to absorb the emotions and energy of others and this can create problems with eating and weight..This perspective and the approaches I use with clients are very different than most eating/weight “specialists”.
”The mind’s first step to self-awareness must be through the body.” –George Sheehan
4. Is there a common or primary problem or challenge that you see repeated over and over regarding body issues as related to intuition?
Yes.. definitely. The themes that show up consistently have to do with taking on too much emotionally, people-pleasing, caretaking and over-nurturing others, boundaries that don’t protect the individual well enough, perfectionism (basically feeling that nothing is good enough, things have to be perfect, procrastinating or not being able to get things done because they won’t be “perfect enough”…) and relationship themes that can come from having somewhat narcissistic mothers- where the daughters felt it wasn’t safe to shine too brightly. Also not really knowing how to find pleasure because they are pushing themselves so hard.
”There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophies.” –Friedrich Nietzche
5. What are some of the signs that someone may not be fully connected to their body?
I think the struggles with weight and eating or body hatred are all signs.. women are disconnected from their bodies and what they feel because the body wars take up a lot of space. They may be disconnected from what they feel or they may feel way too much and be incredibly vulnerable emotionally and not know how to stay grounded and balanced.. not know how to stay safe in their bodies. They may get injured a lot, or seem somewhat “clumsy”. Those are some examples.
“The physical world, including our bodies, is a response of the observer. We create our bodies as we create the experience of our world.” –Deepak Chopra
6. Can you give us some tips or an exercise for how we can reconnect to our own body?
First of all people don’t always want to reconnect.. being connected means you are going to feel things that might be painful..Which is often why there’s been disconnection to start with.
One easy and gentle way to “come into” your body is to put one hand on your heart, and one hand on your belly. Just feeling the warmth of your own hand on your heart will naturally encourage you to take a deeper breath.. always a good thing. It’s also comforting.. like a laying on of hands.. healing touch.. even though it’s your own hands. Having your hands on your heart and belly also get you to drop your attention into your body, out of your head where you may be spinning with thoughts.. and down into your core where you can just breathe for a minute or two and allow yourself to settle. This can be very quieting and grounding and very quickly sends out very different signals to your nervous system and actually changes your hormones and chemical profile.. in ways that are really good for us.
Another thing you can do when you feel overwhelmed and disconnected or in a spin emotionally (another sign of disconnect) is to come into “present time” in a really simple way.. Gently press the soles of your feet into the floor, rub the palms of your hands together.. look around and name what you see.. “there is my window, there is my chair, I see a tree outside, I feel the softness of my sweater”.. all of this coming into the moment, through your senses is a simple way to reconnect.
“Think with your whole body.” –Taisen Deshimaru
7. What different services/products do you offer?
I love to offer an initial complimentary consult if somebody thinks they might be interested in working with me. I offer intensive individual mentoring for women that want a different and powerful approach to end the body wars.. That have tried it all and want to go deeper and really get it done, find peace, learn the techniques that work with a mentor that is devoted and really gets it. I also have a home study digital ebook called “Recovering Beauty” that people love and always write to me saying they feel like it was written just for them.
”If you want to find the answers to the Big Questions about your soul, you’d best begin with the Little Answers about your body.”
–George Sheehan
8. How can readers get in touch with you?
I’m easy to reach via either my website contact https://www.intuitivebody.com, email me at Lisa at IntuitiveBody dot com, I have a Facebook page www.Facebook/IntuitiveBodyand I am @IntuitiveBody on Twitter. I have lots of information and articles on my blog and people can also start just by signing up for my complimentary ebook ” The Energy of Weight Loss: 7 Essential Secrets”.
“There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it.”
Elizabeth A. Behnke
Do you have questions for Lisa? Are you comfortable in your body? Could body issues could be holding you back in your life?
If you enjoyed this post please share it with a friend. Thank you.
P.S. Learn to hear your intuition and inner wisdom – click here.
Lisa Claudia Briggs, MSW and founder of the website and blog Intuitive Body is a veritable treasure trove of healing wisdom. She’s a Harvard-trained psychotherapist, eating disorder specialist and sacred streetfighter for gifted, sensitive & empathetic women. With her medical-meets-mystical approach, she guides women through highly-individual rites of passage — over the coals of their own personal firewalks. Lisa also wrote “Recovering Beauty: Sacred Rituals For Clearing Emotional Weight” with a foreword by Hay House author, Denise Linn. Lisa and IntuitiveBody shows women struggling with weight and body-related issues simple sacred solutions for living beautifully in their bodies
Photo: © vgstudio – Fotolia.com
Leah Shapiro says
I feel like I know a lot more about your background and perspective Lisa!
I really enjoy your approach.
Lisa says
Thanks Leah.. xox
Jacqueline Fairbrass says
I love what you do and how you do it. This article is a fabulous over-view of how you work and what makes your approach so special.
I used bio-energetics when I went into talk therapy and found that being able to release emotions isn’t related to talking so much as acting…for me.
Love the exercise you include. Thank you.
Lisa says
So true, Jacqueline..talking and being heard is so valuable. but also getting to connect to where things are being held in our bodies and knowing how to move it out.. and also protect and understand our energetic boundaries really matters especially for sensitive/empath/intuitive/creative types (like us!) Thanks for your kind words.. Love, lisa
Chrisite says
Love getting to know more about your background Lisa.
Lisa says
Thanks Christie.. xox lisa
eyenie says
Holy bananas, you glorious dame! What a magnificent interview…I could see you shining all the way over here, just POPPING off of my screen! I learned some amazing information and your answer for # 4 felt like you were talking about me, wow. I adore your Medical Mystic approach, and your background is fascinating. It makes me giddy to know you’re floating around transforming lives in a way I could have definitely used a few years ago! Three ecstatic cheers for you!
Teresa Deak says
So nice to get to know you even more, Lisa! These exercises are lovely, thank you for sharing them with us!
Hugs and butterflies,
~Teresa~
Karen Ribeiro says
Brilliant! This interview is so well done. I love the flow of your work – how it deepens in connection and impact as you’ve become the Spiritual Streetfighter you are! Very inspiring. Thank you for all you do Lisa!
Tracey Ceurvels says
I enjoyed learning what you do—and I love the topic. I’ve been reading up on Eckhart Tolle’s concept of Pain Body. I’ve always felt we hold emotions in our bodies. I’m glad to know there’s someone so brilliant and caring as you who can help people through their body issues. Thank you, Lisa.I lean red so much more about you in this interview.
Jessica says
Lovely interview! I’ve been using the “come back to your body” tip for a while now, since you first suggested it in another forum — so this is a great time to thank you for the difference it has made in my life. I’ve even taught it to my kids, as a way to calm down at bedtime after a wild day. xoxoxo to you.