Services

Presence in Healing is the foundation of all the services offered by Sara.

Presence in Healing creates holistic mindfulness. By becoming more aware of our somatic (body) experience, we become present in body, mind, energy, emotion and spirit. Presence is the foundation for true holistic healing, insight and function.

Requests may be physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and or functional in nature. People who have benefited from these services are of all ages, in individual sessions and small groups. As a wellness perspective, this is especially useful to those interested in taking responsibility for healthy and fulfilled living with the guidance of others. Life transitions are more easily attended to and improved, chronic illness is more mindfully addressed and general life skills are enhanced with Presence in Healing.

Presence in Healing is an integrated healing form that fundamentally focuses on the question “What is it to be human this time?” Each session, class or workshop in self-discovery, explores this in part. Working in partnership, we create an experience that is personally relevant to each individual. This work is especially useful for individuals seeking change. Individuals with chronic illnesses, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and recovery have found this work to be especially useful.

Presence in Healing is offered as individual or group teaching through table sessions, classes, workshops and intensives. Each of these encourages the individual to discover for themselves, with the support of the teacher and experience, how to address whatever concern or expansion is requested. These requests may be physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and/or functional in nature.

Presence in Healing is offered in a variety of ways. Each of these doorways into self- inquiry, change and wellness make up the “components of Presence in Healing”.

Individual Sessions

Presence in Healing sessions are generally an hour in length. Sessions begin by verbally exploring your desires for change.  These requests may be physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and/or functional in nature. Working with intention, touch, and movement you are encouraged to discover for yourself, with the support of a teacher, how to address whatever concern or expansion is requested. This is done primarily by learning how to become more somatically aware and mindful. Body based learning results in better body and self-awareness. From this more clear perspective, choices in self-care and relationship are more apparent and sustainable.

Presence in Healing facilitates change, specifically inner change. This requires self-awareness, mindfulness and doing something you don’t already do.

During a session you are fully clothed, on a massage table. Some or all of the session may be done in sitting or standing, depending on your preference and the flow of the session.

Additional information:

Presence in Healing is the compiled work of Sara Pierce and multiple other healers who have chosen to share their gifts to others in the form of teaching through the body using forms of consciousness, thought, movement, development, family and community systems, daily practice and play. Presence in Healing is an outgrowth of the work of a variety of techniques and healers including Integrated Awareness®, Craniosacral, Visceral Manipulation, Feldenkrais, Sensory Processing and Integration, Coaching, and the writings of Sara Pierce and Karen Sjostrom Hedger.

Presence in Healing sessions specifically address multiple levels of consciousness (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and energetic) in the body. By working with intention, touch and movement, clients are encouraged to be both occupied and aware of their bodies and to be mindfully aware of present time and space from their unique inner perspective. This more holistic approach of increasing awareness of self specifically in relationship to the change imagined or requested, assists the individual to come to greater acceptance of “what is” and “what has been”. The result of this brings greater creativity, vision and manifestation to life purpose (the life that we choose to create).

Sara Pierce is the founder and a practitioner of Presence in Healing: an integrative body of work that encourages synergy of consciousness of the body towards a more whole state, so that daily function and the creation of life becomes congruent with soul’s desire. Her practice seeks to:

introduce an intelligent component that strengthens the inner workings of the body as well as the external

offer core stability and authenticity across multiple levels of consciousness

include more parts of self in greater congruence

provide flexibility and possibility that is about opening, letting go and choice

encourage breath, compassion, connection and resulting awareness that is integrative in nature

awaken individuality and foster being true to one’s soul.

model and encourage joy, playfulness and the cultivation of a body and spirit that is happy and at ease within day to day life.

Water Sessions:

Water sessions are also offered at some locations. These sessions use the natural properties of water – buoyancy and resistance – to support movement, accentuating self-trust, permission, and possibility. Please contact Sara for details.

Classes and workshops

Presence in Healing workshops offer an opportunity for people to gather in a supportive and safe community to explore healing while focused on a particular topic. Movement sequences may be explored in standing, sitting, or lying on the floor. At times you may also work directly with another person or in a small group. The underlying theme of how habits are perpetuated in our bodies and how to insert conscious choice into these patterns are built into each class.

Workshops are offered as

• 1 ½  – 3 hour classes
• 4 – 6 week series of 2-3 hour classes
• 1 – 3 day workshops, 6 hours per day
• Multi-day retreats

Customized Workshops

Customized workshops are provided for couples, families, or other small groups. This gives you the opportunity to work as a group on the topic of your choice. People choose customized workshops for a number of reasons, including deepening their relationships, resolving long-standing family issues, addressing chronic health issues, or improving communication. The duration of the workshop will depend on the nature of your request, from a couple of hours to a full day’s length.

Learning Presence in Healing:

Teaching of Presence in Healing is arranged through Children, Families and Communities (www.childrenfamiliescommunities.org). Feel free to contact them with any questions.

As human beings we encompass many different levels of consciousness: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual. All of these levels of consciousness are accessible through our physical bodies, and can be healed through touch, energy, and awakened awareness. Accessing the wisdom of the body and restoring movement where it has been inhibited are at the heart of Presence in Healing.

What is massage?

Massage sessions offer an opportunity to release compensation patterns that are no longer useful. In a safe, comfortable and nourishing environment, therapeutic touch skillfully and compassionately guides awareness and letting go with nervous system relaxation.

Holistic therapeutic massage is based on a strong foundation of wellness through awareness, mindfulness and presence using natural methods and resources. Using movement, breath and posture as a guide, specific techniques and resources are used to optimize what the body does innately—heal.

Sara offers integrated, therapeutic massage. The foundation of all sessions is Presence in Healing with the integration of what manual skills are most needed. Generally, the skills used most frequently are: craniosacral, myofascial, visceral or neuromanipulative, lymphatic, pressure point, essential oils and Ayurvedic.

The best health insurance is aware self care.

Who benefits from massage?

Therapeutic massage benefits a variety of conditions and is also considered to be preventative in nature. Underlying most if not all conditions of the body and psyche is stress, or dissatisfaction with “what is”.

Massage or conscious touch is a recognized modality to manage and decrease stress. From a more relaxed state specific techniques to address specific conditions and presentations is possible. Some of the more likely conditions that people arrive with are: depression, anxiety, neck and back pain, headaches, chronic pain, gut issues, hypertension and chronic health issues.

What to expect:

All sessions are tailored to meet your individual needs. Sessions begin with your request, followed by a brief postural, movement and energetic assessment to assess for a starting point. From this starting point I may ask that you remove some and as much clothing as you are comfortable removing.

Massage is interactive and your impressions and feedback are important to the process. Ask any questions that are helpful to your process. My goal is to work with your body in a way that provides long lasting relief, allowing you more freedom, ease, mobility and possibility.

For optimal results I encourage you to drink lots of water before and after the session to hydrate the tissues and assist with detoxification. Wear loose comfortable clothing. For your comfort, please eat lightly or not at all before the session.

Massage with Sara

I have been a hands-on practitioner of bodywork for more than 30 years. Over the years I have come to understand that I am a “mixer” of a variety of techniques and practices with a strong understanding of the anatomy and function of the body from eastern, western, alternative, holistic and allopathic perspectives. I love providing integrated, therapeutic massage.

I believe the body is naturally capable of healing though often we have “forgotten” how. In this way massage becomes a process that encourages resilience and remembering so that there is balance and healing within the body.

I am an explorer and student of  movement; balance; energy and consciousness; craniosacral and muscle energy techniques;  myofascial/ fascial, visceral and neural manipulation; breathwork and  ayurvedic, acupressure and supportive massage.

Additional information

Massages may add years to your life, according to a recent study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. People who went for a single deep-tissue massage showed an average 7-point drop in both their systolic and diastolic blood pressures, as well as an 11 beats-per-minute decrease in their resting heart rates. Over time, these subtractions could add as many as 6 years to a person’s life span, says the study author, Alan Kaye, M.D., Ph.D. “The benefits of massage actually last for days, and the more you experience them, the more likely your body is to adjust permanently.” A 2010 meta-analysis in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that  massages reduce stress hormone levels, heart rate, and blood pressure while boosting mood and relaxation by triggering the release of oxytocin and serotonin.

Craniosacral therapy focuses on gently removing restrictions in the connective tissue while enhancing the function of the nervous system by balancing the cerebral spinal fluid movement. The balancing of the nervous system with attention to the immune system further results in greater balance. This is a very gentle form of massage.

Myofascial/Fascial Release  opens, lengthens and unwinds the sheet of connective tissue that surrounds muscles and organs. Restrictions in this system can be functionally impactful and difficult to release without hands on assistance.

Visceral and Neural Manipulation uses light specific touch to release restrictions and compensation patterns that prevent fluidity in and between internal organs including the nervous and vascular system.

Movement re-education is based on the compassionate assumption that our bodies have simply “forgotten” how to move in a more easeful and biomechanically efficient form.  By assessing movement and guiding through touch, feedback, massage and mindfulness, we relearn what was generally known previously. Ultimately, we come to understand that with greater movement there is greater possibility, less suffering and ease. The addition of new movement patterns following release allows the body to move itself towards healing.

What is Yin Yoga?

Currently my class in yin yoga is offered through Yoga in Your Park, These classes are offered outside in the summer in Acadia National Park in Maine. For more information please go to: www.yogainyourpark.com

The terms yin and yang can describe any aspect in the world. Yin is the stable, unmoving, hidden aspect of things; yang is the changing, moving, revealing aspect. Yin and yang are relative terms that interact within and in relationship to one another.

Though Yin Yoga seems to be passive style of yoga, it may also be intense and meditative. Simple seated poses are held for approximately 3 minutes or more.

Who benefits from yin yoga?

Yin Yoga calms and balances the mind and body. Benefits include:
Reduced feelings of stress and anxiety
Increased circulation
Improved flexibility
Fascial release
Greater joint mobility
Balance and mobility to the internal organs
Improved flow of chi or energy

Yin Yoga elongates the denser tissue types of ligaments and tendons that frequently impact joint health. Any disease process whether emotional, physical or behavioral that would be better served by awareness to the self, benefits from the slow, inwardly directed and guided process of yin yoga. (this simply puts 2 paragraphs together)

What to expect

Currently my class in yin yoga is offered through Yoga in Your Park, a program of Children Families and Communities. These classes are offered outside in the summer in Acadia National Park in Maine. For more information please go to: www.yogainyourpark.com

Private classes and sessions are available by contacting Sara directly any time of year! These classes are designed to include anyone interested in exploring the inward process of yin. There is no need to have prior experience.

Yin Yoga with Sara

Yin Yoga is the only type of yoga I teach. I do this because this is the practice I find that resonates most fully with myself and my practice.

I wholeheartedly believe that our bodies have wisdom if we only take the time to be with ourselves quietly and slowly.  Yin yoga creates space for this. At this time in my life, this is the most useful and informative practice I can imagine. And for this reason I invite you to slow down, breathe and be in the quiet stillness of possibility and posture that is yin.

Additional information 

Depending on who we are in the moment of practice, we “let go”, bringing our awareness to the process in the moment. In that moment anything might change in ourselves and in the environment.

Yoga in the United States has become more mainstream. The more popular forms of yoga are more yang in style, reinforcing strength and power in the form of doing. Yin yoga has come into fashion as a form in response to a need for more balance between being and doing in this culture. The culture by nature is very yang – busy, goal oriented, full of mind and moving outward. Yin is still, surrendering, meditative and inward. Yin yoga is well suited to assist in this balancing for wellness in our society.

Yin yoga is well suited to assist in this balancing for wellness in our society. We have in many ways forgotten how to feel inside ourselves or trust what information we glean from this practice. As a society we are quite busy fulfilling the needs of others while convincing ourselves that we are fulfilling our own needs.

 

 

 

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mahatma Gandhi

 

What is Meditation

Meditation takes many forms. At the heart of this is becoming more whole and aware of who we are in this time now while being in stillness.

There are many types of meditation techniques. Meditation is as brief or as long as we choose. It is as moving or as still as we choose. It is as noisy or as quiet as we choose. It is as guided or not as we choose. It is as inward or outward as we choose. Meditation is fundamentally choice: Choice in how and where and to what extent, we place our minds.

Who benefits from meditation

All of humanity benefits from meditation. Eat well, sleep enough, move joyfully, play and meditate every day while expressing who you are is one recipe for a good life.

Meditation is making friends with yourself

Chogyam Trungpa

Meditation with Sara

I am certified specifically in Transformation Meditation and practice a variety of forms of meditation. I strongly believe that meditation is one of the most useful daily habits we can bring into our lives.

I love teaching, sharing, guiding and leading meditation. I offer classes and private sessions as well as walking meditation. In particular, I enjoy teaching those who have never tried meditation or have decided that it is too difficult.

I generally bring greater somatic or body awareness (beyond breathwork) with mindfulness to my meditation. This serves to ground the process of meditation. Over the years I have found that this grounding allows for meditation to move beyond the mat or place where we practice, and into the world. In this way a more mindful life may be created.

I offer meditation individually and in groups upon request.
Meditate a little, play, work, eat consciously and move.
Share with others who you are and dream. 
Really that’s all there is to do.
The rest is being.

Additional information 

Studies by Herbert Benson,MD (1975) show meditation to be useful in stress management as meditation decreases oxygen consumption, respiration, heart rate and blood pressure (all signs of stress).

Research has indicated that meditation positively influences a number of psychiatric disorders, hypertension and heart disease, chronic pain, insomnia and cancer treatment. Meditation though not a cure, is supportive in dealing with suffering that we create within our minds.

I have spent the last 30 years of my professional and personal life learning and teaching from my experiences. Ultimately, this has meant that I teach what I’m working on in all its variations.

What this means in my current practice is that I am dedicated to teaching the importance of self-care while creating a life that is full of purpose that is uniquely meaningful to you.

As long as I can remember I have wanted to guide others in becoming who they are in their most positive and unique expression. This requires self-awareness, mindfulness, thoughtfulness and compassionate self-discipline in creating actions that are congruent. Self-care is a part of that.

I hope to share practical tools and guided insights that help improve your life. I have come to understand that caring for self is both selfish and the greatest gift we can give to others as we authentically and truthfully live our lives.

From a healthy well cared for self, selflessness flows easily as we begin to understand that we are all interconnected. Caring for oneself, not at the expense of, but in support of others, is a gift to the world –our families, friends, communities and global environment.

What is coaching?

A coach helps you identify goals in your professional or personal life and motivates you to make those goals a reality for your future. Coaching provides an opportunity for conversation where the client has a problem to solve or a rough spot in life to get through.  Coaching is confidential and a safe space to inquire deeply. Together we get to the root of the matter and help you to discover the steps needed to meet your stated desires.

In this process, by creatively exploring what is of importance to you there are opportunities to discover possibility, clarity and functional tasks that meet your goals.

Coaches are valuable in all of these facets of living a life as part of reaching your goals by:

Goal setting
Encouraging clarity
Promoting action
Providing motivation
Offering support.
Guidance in overcoming challenges
Promoting balanced living
Providing informed pieces of information
Creating safety and confidentiality.

Coaching is offered via Skype or by phone. This is often a wonderful entry into other types of personal work as well as a very powerful transformative experience on its own.

Who benefits from coaching?

One of the habits of highly successful people is that most of them use, in some form or another, a coach to help them get to where they want to be in their professional and/or personal life. First and foremost, life coaching helps individuals to meet their goals — with awareness and in action.

Coaching is useful to all of us at one point or another in our lives, but especially useful for those who are goal oriented. Generally, a “rough spot” in life brings people to coaching for insight as to how to functionally change the life one is living. This uncomfortable period of time or circumstance is the guiding star that offers a light to move towards and into the place you want to be and the person you wish to become.

Those who prefer a more verbal approach to problem solving often enjoy this type of approach. At the heart of coaching is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a mental state brought about by being aware of present time while thoughtfully acknowledging one’s feelings, thoughts and body sensations.

If you are goal oriented by nature or habit; wish for something to change in your life; are at a crossroads in your personal or professional growth and are wishing for support and insight into this change, coaching is especially valuable.

Coaching with Sara:

Coaching offers an opportunity for myself and clients to be in greater awareness of the words and thoughts we habitually use. Using presence, lightness of approach and gentle humor, we can begin to appreciate our humanity and in the process direct ourselves towards what we desire. I would want for all of my clients to dare to live their dreams to the fullest.

My evolution into coaching started with my need to raise children more consciously. As a therapist working with children and their special needs I witnessed that children with special circumstances required that their parents raise them more mindfully within oftentimes dysfunctional educational and medical (mental health) systems. As a parent, where I often got “stuck” was exactly aligned with lessons I needed to learn personally.

As I grew along my path of raising children I was eventually confronted with issues of raising teenagers and young adults in the presence of “not fitting in”, substance abuse and recovery. Here I confronted my persistent denial of substance abuse, justice/ injustice, imprisonment, our legal system and recovery as well as all the heartbreak and disappointment as part of that experience.

I humbly and compassionately seek to serve those who desire change in their lives, especially those who have found themselves in circumstances of needing “recovery” from whatever life circumstances they have found themselves to be in.

I am a recovering addict of codependency. Only by letting go of this within myself do I offer the possibility of independent, “adult” healing for my loved ones. This I do consciously, mindfully and compassionately.

My areas of expertise are in family relations, chronic health issues, recovery of all kinds, creative process, entrepreneurship, social responsibility and peace.

We create. The greatest gift we have is that of creation—

creating our lives, our children, our relationships, our Selves.

And this we do with other—always with other. There is nothing

created solely by one. As if creation itself is our continual

affirmation that we are connected to All.

Additional information:

Coaching comes from a transformational worldview perspective rather than one of pathology. We assume that all people are inherently creative, courageous and whole. As humans we sometimes get “stuck” – in our thinking, behavior and movement towards what we desire. Joining with another in coaching process helps to move through these habitual patterns.

Speaking and teaching sessions are available as requested in a variety of topics within the services that are listed as well as those that follow below.

Holistic Stress Management Instruction

In addition, Sara is available for Holistic Stress Management Instruction. Holistic Stress Management Instruction may be customized to any group. The class may be anywhere from 1 hour to multiple days in length.

Within each class, information about stress is presented as well as functional activities to address both coping and relaxation techniques. Sara provides classes in holistic stress management using foundational Presence in Healing and mindfulness skills throughout the country. She has a special interest in bringing these presentations to substance recovery.

As a presenter, Sara has been described as a resourceful, trustworthy authority with natural enthusiasm and curiosity for health, healing and living authentically. She is a co-creator at heart —of self, family, communities and concepts. In her roles of explorer, author, teacher, visionary, mystic and healer, she founded Presence in Healing—a path of conscious awareness and choice in present time available to all who seek to express their true natures.

Sara is dedicated to serving others while balancing and teaching self-care through conscious personal experience, present time awareness, curiosity, learned skills and intuition. She has and encourages faith that the Universe knows what its doing as power moves through us while recognizing that love is the ultimate source of life.

Examples of presentation topics:

Holistic Stress-Free Living in A Stressed Out World

The World Health Organization calls stress a global epidemic. In this time of change around the world, no one is immune. The good news is that growing research supports a wide variety of behaviors, activities and skills that when combined with awareness and regular practice serve to diminish the impact of stress on the individual. This presentation will explore what stress is and holistic mind-body techniques that address the impact of stress physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Stress Relief in Recovery

If you are in recovery or have a loved one in recovery, you already know — Recovery is stressful. Recovery requires change in some of the most personal ways. And change by it’s very nature is stressful. . Sara Pierce firmly believes that the foundation of deep recovery is to create a safe space — to be in and to experience within yourself. Creating a toolbox full of strategies to both cope with stress and heal through recovery will serve through a lifetime, day by day. With a special focus on those skills that can be practiced on a daily basis or in a moment, we will weave storytelling, theory, experience, humor and readings to create holistically inspired tools for your personal toolbox.

Being with Children as We Are

Based on the book co-authored with Karen Sjostrom Hedger, Sara is available to speak on a variety of topics based on this book.

We invite you to join in this adventure as aware stewards of our children and the children in our care. This book addresses the following:

Children actively co-create themselves in pursuit of answering the question, “Who am I?” while they come to terms with their developing soul and personality.

As parents and caregivers, we have the opportunity to become more self-aware as we support the child’s process of discovering what it is to be human this time.

By modeling and instilling choice and our current understanding of self and other, while holding ourselves in curiosity and unknowing, we support the child’s unique manifestation.

Ultimately, children seek feedback from their world that they are connected, that they are accepted as they are and know that they belong.

The book expresses our perspective of children as they are. The Learning and Behavior Pyramid encompasses and addresses the following four questions related to our development as humans of all ages.

What is it to be a conscious human?
What is it to perceive as human?
What is it to be human?
What is it to act human?

Both theoretical and functional day to day activities and perspectives are offered for speaking events.