We have a family counsellor/healer that we have been seeing for the better part of ten years. Karen is a BodyTalk practitioner, what the booggily is a BodyTalk practitioner??? Well if you want the official definition try HERE I still can not entirely understand or explain the process to you, but I can say that for us it has been such an amazing tool. To greatly simplify, the treatment takes cues from muscle memory in the body, highlighting stored beliefs and areas of concern, then uses techniques to balance energies. To be honest Karen is so lovely that we would enjoy seeing her for any occasion, the subtle yet huge improvements to our wellbeing is just a bonus.

Boston is 20 months old and waking between 2 and 5 times a night. We have good weeks and bad weeks, which I have mainly accepted as typical toddler behaviour (except on those mornings where my eyes are hanging out of my head, then I would swear it was the problem of a demon from the dark depths of the planet ZAARRR). Every few weeks there seems to be a new secret to helping him sleep, but just when we get the knack the process starts again.

Yesterday Boston had a treatment with Karen, we were not focusing on anything in particular but just seeing what surfaced. This would be his third treatment, the first two were shortly after his cranio vault reconstruction surgery. When it came up that “Boston does not like sleep” I was actually a little surprised. Yes he can be sensitive, but on a whole he still has a two hour nap each day and sleeps from 7 till 7. Once a problem is identified the practitioner will go deeper, trying to find beliefs and causes. Boston’s belief around the emotion was a fear of falling into sleep, of letting go, so ingrained that he becomes distressed in between sleep cycles when he realises he has let himself fall. Why this belief? His body showed us the times he was put under anaesthetic.

The penny dropped and then a million more came crashing down. Boston has been put under anaesthetic four times! Twice for scans and twice for surgery. The first time he was only 3 months old. Unlike a lot of people who wake groggy and disorientated Boston always comes out hysterical and screaming. The sensation of the drug alone is scary enough, then add the times after surgery when he woke in pain, with swollen eyes and tubes running in and out of his body…my heart aches when I see the clear picture. Then I thought back to all those different soothing techniques we needed to help him sleep, the way he seems to fight it with arms flying, biting his comforter, smooshing into pillows, rolling over and over then jolting awake just before he manages to nod off. The countless times he wakes shaking and crying in the night (it started after surgery and still happens a few times a week). We tried sleep training at one point with a bit of improvement but after a couple of days I stopped, it didn’t feel right and the more research I did (partially covered in our friends blog HERE) the more I knew it was not for us. Now I feel so relieved that we decided to co-sleep and use gentle soothing techniques.

To some I know this will all sound far fetch, but I wanted to share because it is important to us and so will be important to some one else out there. Karen worked with Boston energetically to balance his body and we are changing bed time rituals around, attempting to bring a new more peaceful meaning of sleep to Boston’s thoughts. Wish us luck xo