Grief Art Therapy Workshop

Art Therapy Workshop for the Grieving

3-Hour Workshop: Jan 21 from 2-5pm

3-Hour Workshop: Jan 28 from 1-4pm

$75.00 incl. tax, tea and cookies per workshop

at Double M Ranch Energy Healing Centre

What is it? Verbalizing thoughts and feelings can be difficult, especially during stressful life events. Art therapy is based on the belief that the creative process involved in creating art is healing and life-enhancing. No artistic skill is necessary to benefit from art therapy.

Who is it for? Art therapy is used with people of all ages in a variety of settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and hospice centers.

How does it work? An art therapist will guide you through the creative process in a safe and comfortable atmosphere. The artwork can also be a stepping stone to verbal communication about feelings or events. The simple use of color or line can communicate complex feelings or experiences without words.

How does it help? Art therapy can assist in moving through the grieving process because it allows people to do the following:

• Get in touch with, accept, and express feelings;
• Foster positive coping behaviors;
• Gain insight and understanding;
• Reduce anxiety and provide emotional release;
• Participate in memorial activities that express the significance of the life of the deceased.

 

Please register: Call Monika:

204-636-7787 or email: monikamargueritelux@gmail.com

 

I believe in you – I have faith in you

Some time ago a woman asked me:”Why should I pay for counseling. In Manitoba we have stress lines I can call and there are social workers I can contact for any problems.” I asked back “What are those people doing when you’re asking for help.” and the person told me “They’re listening and giving some advice…” I said “Well, I’m listening too, but I won’t give advice. I’ll let you find your way to deal with an issue, but at the same time I CARE AND I BELIEVE IN YOU!” She looked at me pretty amazedly “What does that mean?” she asked and like always I was telling her a story.

My mom died very fast. Her kidneys failed and when I came to the hospital she was already in a coma because she had signed a piece of paper saying she wouldn’t like to have dialysis. I gave her Reiki and was told that I would be phoned when she would die during the night. Early in the morning the phone rang… My husband prepared to drive me to the hospital and found me sitting at the table exhausted, sad and anxious. He knew that I wasn’t able to see my father again after his death and I told him that I was not sure if I can go there to see the dead body of my mother and cried. “I’m not sure if I can handle that.” I said to him. He took me in his arms and hugged me for a long time, then he looked into my eyes and said “I know that you can handle it.” We drove to the hospital and I petted and kissed my death mother, sending her the healing light of Reiki for her journey into the unknown realm. On our drive home I thought: He believed in me and I was able to do things although I have felt so weak and had no faith into myself.” In the days before the funeral I suddenly felt like writing a poem to honour my mother’s life and I did. My husband praised my creativity and supported me a lot with preparing everything for that sad day approaching fast. We followed the priest who carried the urn. He put it into the grave and said some nice superficial words abouth death and paradise. I didn’t listen, I thought about my mother and my childhood and started crying. I held firm to my poem, looked up to my husband and said “I don’t know if I can read this poem, when I have to cry all time. I think, I can’t handle that.” He squeezed my hand, looked into my eyes and said “I know, that you can handle it.” I started reading and my voice got stronger and stronger and the people who knew my mom thanked me for my words and even wanted a copy of my poem. Again I could have come out of an overwhelming situation that made me feel very weak with the faith my husband had into me.

“That’s my kind of therapy,” I said to her “I’m hugging my clients, I’m challenging and sometimes provoking them to find their own way, but at the same time I have that unshakable faith into them that they can handle IT.” I don’t know if she understood but I’m thinking that I can make a difference as a therapist.

Namaste!

“What’s the best energy healing method for ME???” I’m asked all the time…

I’m often asked “What energy healing method would be the best for me to learn?” and I’m going back in my mind to how everything started in my life.

It was end of February 1997 when I got a call in the middle of the night. Half asleep I remember the doctor of a hospital telling me that my father had an accident… a severe accident. Within seconds I was awake and knew that something terrible had happened and that I will be experiencing the first loss of a loved one in my life. The doctor told me I should come asap and hang up. I found myself screaming “No, no, no, not my dad!” It was a 90 minute drive from where I lived and I was crying all the way to my birth town. I found my dad lying in one of those cold hospital rooms with all those machines around him and a tube going into his nose. “He’s in a coma,” I was told “and he better don’t wake up again because he would be disabled and would have to learn how to eat and how to speak if he would be able to do it… His skull is broken due to a fall down the stairs hitting a stove and his brain is severly damaged.” I couldn’t listen, I was overwhelmed by sadness and pain. I couldn’t imagine living without him and I didn’t want to live myself anymore in that moment.

After his death I was told by many people to get back to normal life again because I wouldn’t be the only one who loses a parent. I tried hard to do so. Short before his death I had started to learn an instrument but after a while didn’t have too much fun with it anymore because all that note reading and counting tacts was too mathematical for me. Nevertheless I thought it would be of some distraction and went there again. My teacher was a very wise man, always grounded and calm. He welcomed me with all his warmth and immediately noticed that there’s something wrong. I told him what had happened and he said “Have you ever heard about Reiki?” and explained it in short sentences. I thought whatever it is, I want to try it. Werner turned on some relaxing music that sounded kind of Asian and let me close my eyes. It felt as if he would take my head in his hands and something strange warm and calming coming out of them. Suddenly everything around me disappeared and a movie full of emotions, thoughts, people and events run in a fast speed through my mind. Pictures I couldn’t determine appeared and disappeared and suddenly there was nothing – simply nothing. I felt empty and unbelievable calm. After a while the music came to an end and I opened my eyes. “How are you?” Werner asked me and I told him that it felt so loving, safe and calming when he held my head in his hands. “I’ve never touched you,” he said and I looked at him in disbelief. One week later I began learning Reiki Level I.

What I like about Reiki is that it’s not just a technique; this was the beginning of life changing teachings about being in the present, how thoughts are influencing emotions, how emotions are influencing behaviour and finally how to live a balanced joyful life and find your purpose.

On this continent Reiki often is a weekend course – in my country it is an apprenticeship about personal growth and learning. Werner was my master for all Reiki levels and I’m still in contact with him.

So, I’m saying “I can’t tell you what’s the best way for you to start your spiritual healing journey but for me Reiki was the right way, at that period of time to do my first energy healing steps towards the point where I am now.

And this point is not the end. I’m continuosly learning about new ideas in the field of quantum and matrix and whenever I like something I’m integrating it into my work in MY WAY.

Namaste!

Family/Systemic Constellations as a Complementary Therapy for Cancer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppN3-W–QIw  Family/Systemic Constellation Therapy Work explained by M. M. Lux

This kind of therapy is very well-known and I would say almost famous in Germany, but when I ask people here in Manitoba about it and try to explain what’s happening they back off and ask me if it is one of my voodoo techniques again like EFT.

It is very sad for me to see day by day people suffering and being poisoned by chemical drugs they are eating like candy because “the doctor is always right”. And then they’re suffering from the side-effects and they say to me “well, what can you do?”. They’re consciously giving up their responsibilities for their physical bodies and treat them like automobiles, they would drive to a garage to get new parts. “Yes,” a farmer said to me those days “that’s exactly as we are here and we won’t change.” I was pretty shocked by his words because I’m coming from a country where people started to think different already in the 60ties because I can’t remember one pharmacy that wouldn’t offer natural remedies, mix teas and tinctures and have aromatherapeutic oils since I’ve been a child. My mother, our neighbours, my relatives they all used home remedies on their children when they got sick. I grew up with peppermint-eucalyptus creme on my chest, chamomile tea for my stomach and calf wrappings against fever. Last time I met a woman with a bad cough and said “you better gurgle and drink some sage tea.” She looked at me and repeated “sage tea? Where would I get something like that? That takes too long, I’m on my way to the pharmacy.” The body needs time to heal but I haven’t experienced that natural remedies take longer than drugs to have an effect on the body. The difference is that drugs are making the body numb and senseless for pain and so the body is not able to talk to you anymore. But people here won’t listen anyway. I’m living in a little town in rural Manitoba now for four years and almost everybody who dies here dies of Cancer.

There are psycho-emotional roots for that disease. In a Powerpoint Presentation I’m mentioning an Intuitive Medical and a Doctor from Germany who made a lot of research to find out that Cancer is caused by negative emotions, trauma and unfinished business. Family/Systemic Constellation Therapy is healing the roots of Cancer deeply and long-lasting.

You may ask if there can be so much trauma in a little rural town (population around 500) because I couldn’t believe it when I moved here. I’ve never heard about so much abuse, giving children away for adoption, abortions and addictions before in my life and I was born in a city that has around 60,000 people living there. This should not be a reproach but an appeal to reach out for help. As a people person and professional in the Counseling and Health business I’m not judging people for something they did in their past that is still influencing their present because I know sometimes in your life you don’t know better and then later you regret or hate yourself for that. But it’s hard for me to see them suffering because they’re still suppressing their traumatic experiences and linked emotions and are hating themselves. A woman asked me “there are things in my life I wouldn’t even tell to a stranger; why should I come to your place and tell you about it?” I mentioned the privacy pledge I’m doing with every client signing my consent form but it couldn’t convince her.

Karen Carnabucci and Ronald Anderson said: ” Systemic Constellation work is a new and powerful healing process based on the notion that people are connected by unseen energetic forces not only in the here and now but also across time and space.” That means we can heal a relationship to a family member even if the family member has died already through the “knowing field” of energy that connects us in a system.

Family/Systemic Constellation Therapy is about discovering HIDDEN (conflict) DYNAMICS and integrating new perspectives and solutions. It is about restoring or creating order in a system – “the order of love” through “the movements of the soul” and “acknowledging what is” (three terms used by Bert Hellinger).

It’s based on the statement that “Thoughts, feelings and perceptions that are externalized and expressed can be altered in the course of a session”.

I have recorded a little Video to tell you the story about a constellation I did for a Cancer patient who wanted to deal with some unfinished business in his family of origin. I invite you to watch it in order to see how I work. And I invite you to try it out. What can you lose? But there’s a lot to gain – like healing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppN3-W–QIw

 

Christmas Family Photos at Double “M” Ranch Photo Studio

Cancer from a systemic point of view

I ask my client: ”Would you please position three stuffed animals in the middle of the room. One stands for yourself, one for your disease and one for the healing, your future without disease. Don’t think about how to position. Do it intuitively.”

The client puts down the figures and I ask him to sit down and watch. I’m standing on his place “When I’m looking at the disease I have no feelings at all, neither positive ones nor negative ones. I can look at the disease emotionless, like saying “There you are, but I don’t know what to do with you…”

The client laughs and confirms what I just said.

“But,” I continue to express what happens to me on his place “I can’t see the Healing or Future. It’s almost out of sight…. All I can see is the disease.”

The client becomes aware of the distance and the bad angle between himself and his healing. “What would happen if I turned towards the healing?” he asks.

I let him follow this movement and step into his position himself. “There’s still something wrong,”he says “but I have no idea what it could be…” He looks to me for help.

I let him sit down and look at the constellation as an observer but he has no idea. “When I’m standing in your position,” I begin telling him”I now can see my healing, but my future ends with the wall of this room. I don’t have a free view into my future….”

“That’s what’s wrong,” my client confirms “now I can see that too.”

We’re changing the positions. Now the Healing/Future is in front of a window and through the window my client can see the endless countryside. I let him step into his position again. “I have some dreams for my new life without cancer” he says and “it feels good that there are no limits to fulfill them.”

Some sessions ago we found out that he feels very close to his aunt who he has never met because she had died as a child. So I asked him “You know, we can’t always do everything on our own; sometimes we need some support from somebody close to us. I’m putting your aunt behind you and I’m stepping into her place, putting my hands on your shoulders. How does this feel?”

“I’m feeling very strong with her as my back-up” my client says and smiles. “Go deep into that “being strong feeling”, I tell him “and then tap through your EFT sequence and take this feeling into your heart and mind.”

We’re sitting down. “I’m so glad, you had this idea with the constellation” my client says “I feel strong and peaceful at the same time. Thank you so much!”

Art Therapy for anybody suffering from or grieving any kind of loss….

 

ART THERAPY BEREAVEMENT GROUP WORKSHOP – Healing through Drawing, Writing and Music

3-hour Bereavement Group Workshop – Healing through drawing, writing and music:  

Choose from Saturday Jan. 14,      3-6pm       or Saturday, Jan. 21,      3-6pm.     

Enjoy tea and cookies and an enchanting atmosphere in the new healing facility.

CAD 75.00 (plus taxes) for the 3-hour workshop. Please register asap. A down payment of CAD 20.00 is taken and will be refunded if the enrolment is cancelled up to 5 days before the workshop.

Place: Double “M” Ranch Energy Healing Centre, phone for directions of find map at “contact us”.

“Art Therapy, isn’t that something for children?” I was asked by somebody when telling about doing an art therapy workshop for people who are grieving. “No” I said “it’s just another way to communicate and express ourselves when we struggle finding the right words.” and started to explain:

Art therapy is not limited to any age. As we develop language follows symbolic thought.  All our experiences are stored in our unconsciousness. Traumatic memories often can’t be accessed because we tend to suppress emotions that are very painful.

Pictures connect us with our soul and help us understanding, redefining and healing ourselves. The collective symbolic language has the power of setting us free and putting us at peace when we seem to be stuck in our grieving process.

The workshop participant moves from isolation and loneliness to connection with other group members who have quite similar feelings and thoughts. Denial will change to acceptance through insightful conclusions about him/herself. Loss of control and anxiety are resolved to a general sense of relief through actively working on the grieving tasks. And finally despair can be transformed to hope again that helps moving on with life.

But art therapy doesn’t only include drawing. We can express ourselves creatively by sculpting, writing (poetry, tales), dancing, singing, composing and acting/role playing as well; techniques used in other forms of therapeutic approaches like Gestalt or Systemic Family Constellation Therapy.

Art therapy is about following our heart like children do, spontaneously, honestly and without a fear of consequences, taking life as it comes.

Just give it a try!

Namaste!

Did you know that you’re grieving constant losses?

Actively accomplish the tasks of grieving!

Life is in motion and every change means a loss. Every loss means grieving. 

As we’re growing older we might grieve the loss of youth.

With longing for achievements in our career we might grieve the loss of past positions.

With marriage we might grieve the loss of at least part of our independence.

With being fired from a job for economic reasons we might be grieving the loss of financial stability.  

And with experiencing traumatic events like betrayal or disasters we are definitely grieving the loss of safety.

We can also grieve the loss of treasured objects that has been with us since childhood and suddenly being taken away or destroyed.

Our pets can give us grieve as they can run away and are missed the rest of our life keeping us in the everlasting uncertainty about what has happened. This again leads us to the army and missing soldiers who let the grief for their partner and family never come to an end.

Then there’s the unexpected loss by accident that’s often grieved very intensively and long because we just can’t believe that somebody can leave us from one second to another in the bloom of life. 

With the loss of a partner we’re also losing and grieving our role of being a husband/wife.

With the loss of a child we’re also losing and grieving the role of being a mother/father.

A loss always forces us to re-think, re-question and re-shape our lives and our roles. That makes it not only a bad thing but also reason for learning and growing personally. As soon as we have accomplished the first tasks of grieving, accepting that our loved one has gone forever, acknowledging that we can feel all different kinds of emotions and that none of them are bad (guilt, blame, relief, fear, anger, sadness), we can go on re-defining ourselves, re-defining our roles, re-defining our goals, meaning, purpose in life and as well taping into skills that have been hidden or never needed, as well as developing new skills. With actively working on that previous task we will automatically find a place for our loved one inside our heart and in our new life and many ways to live the memories we shared.

As a counsellor I always have to say “STOP!” if a client tells me that his/her loved one “was taken away from him/her”. First of all, you don’t own or possess another person. All the people we’re meeting in our life are only accompanying us for a certain time of our life journey. Second, the wording of “is taken away” indicates passiveness and victimizing and we are not victims but creators of our lives and we have to actively accomplish the tasks that life gives to us.

Victor Frankl, the father of Logo Therapy lost his wife and his family in Concentration Camps and he himself had to suffer inhumane tortures in Auschwitz, but he always carried the memories of his wife within his heart and he never gave up hope because he had given meaning to his life and even in the most dramatic and traumatic situation visualized himself holding a speech about his realizations and knowledge arising from losing everything but his dignity. He often used to recite Nietsche who said: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

Namaste!

Family Constellations and Matrix Re-Balancing with EFT

Watch my latest Video, a story about clearing a “money” issue in self-work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHDhrUpzdTE !

Sometimes a constellation gets stuck and it seems that nothing can get the energy flowing again. All representatives and the client who is dealing with a certain issue are under extreme stress and tension. When I learned the tools for constellation work I was advised that in situations like this I should stop the constellation even if the solution is missing. Then it happened with one of my own constellations as well and I was very disappointed to leave the workshop without a solution in my heart. I knew that something has to change for the good of the client. I decided for my work that there must be peace in a client’s heart when (s)he’s going home after a workshop. And it’s definitely not done with talking about it like my instructor did with me.

I was thinking about all the techniques and tools I have and then it was like a dark room lightened by the sun…. Everyday EFT accompanied me wherever I went and was at hand whenever needed. Why not trying it in a family constellation?

The next time when one of the representatives acknowledged what is but wasn’t free of tension I let tap him/her and suddenly a door opened again and either we found that there was still something missing, the energy flew again or the representative took a deep breath and the body relaxed. It was fascinating.

When the solution picture was visible, I remembered what I learned with NLP, the senses, submodalities and resource etc. I let my client integrate the picture with colours, smells, sounds and a certain place of peace (resource). I let my client send a symbol for this picture to the mind, heart and into the future.

I never had such overwhelming feedback before. I felt like an artist putting together a new “healing collage” with certain pieces of energy techniques. And it’s working and is refined with every constellation!

Happy Healing! Namaste!

Healing, Freedom and Peace in Mind and Heart - What a feeling!!!

EFT for Children

Watch my little EFT story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi8sXk5vvjE

Children are so open for energy work and there are really fast results with EFT for acute situations. Try it on everything and enter the palace of endless possibilities!

Come with your children to learn this wonderful technique. I will be glad to teach you and we’ll have a lot of fun doing it. Try

There are two great quotes I love very much because they’re so true:

We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.

I am often accused of being childish.  I prefer to interpret that as child-like. 
I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things.  I tend to exaggerate and
fantasize and embellish.  I still listen to instinctual urges.  I play with
leaves.  I skip down the street and run against the wind.  I never water my
garden without soaking myself.  It has been after such times of joy that I have
achieved my greatest creativity and produced my best work. ~Leo F. Buscaglia

EFT makes happy! There is nothing in this world sweeter than the sound of children's laughter!