Spiritual Support Of Women Leaders

The Center For The Spiritual Support Of Women Leaders knows that healing the body means healing the mind and spirit as well. We offer Integrative Bodywork with Annie Johnstone in Silver Spring, MD.

Though traditionally trained and licensed as a Physical Therapist, Annie's approach is anything but traditional:

"It was clear from the beginning of my practice that there is no such thing as a medical "cure." Modern medicine can—at its best—augment, clean, protect, and facilitate. It can never do the healing itself. It can't knit bones or restore vitality. That is the innate ability of the body. All healing comes from whatever magic transforms a wound to wholeness.

My best and most favorite gift is my ease with holding people and getting excited when something real starts to grow. Holding people with spaciousness somehow weeds out the clutter, the noise, and whatever is choking the Spirit. It sets the stage for healing.

When Spirit breathes, something real starts to peak out. That puts me into an ecstatic state, which sparks even more growth. I think that is the way we were made to grow—to have another recognize the essential parts of who we are and get excited. The energy is immediately diverted from defense, and is freed up for healing, creativity, growth, and new life.

So I work a lot in the empty spaces, with no agenda, just listening for what is right and real in a person. For an hour or two, what is emphasized is space, trust, and time to do whatever you feel like. Women leaders, especially, don't get that very much.

But nature is restorative and our body IS nature, so when you come back to experiencing what it's like to be in your body, it is a "coming home" to yourself. There is a great deal to learn from being in a body. It is the woman's way, our body's way, and nature's way. Unfortunately, it is not the way our society functions.

Many of us drive our bodies like trucks that eventually wear out and break down. How many of us know how to be kind? How to listen to and trust our physical needs and feelings? How many of us know what it is to thrive and have our needs be met in a deeply satisfying way? I'm actively engaged in this experiment.

A vision I hold is: What would the world be like if we were all well nourished and thriving, bringing our best gifts to the world? How would it be if everybody knew the best food, the best light, and in what kind of "soil" they grew the best? And what if we really could make that happen, even recruit others to help make that happen?

The body knows how to bring us home to nature and belonging. I offer the space and warm, strong company to help you find your way home to yourself."

About Annie

Annie Johnstone is a Physical Therapist, Integrative Bodyworker, recording and performing artist, Qi Gong instructor, and a movement specialist.

Annie has been practicing Physical Therapy with a specialty in manual therapy for 20 years. Her training includes Craniosacral Therapy, Joint Manipulation, Biomechanics, Visceral Manipulation, Strain/ Counterstrain, Somato Emotional Release, Lymphatic Drainage, Muscle Energy, Lymphatic Drainage of the Brain, and Myofascial Release.

Annie treats women, men, children, and infants from one day to a hundred years old. She works with many different needs and diagnoses, including Learning Disabilities, Fibromyalgia, Autoimmune Disorders, Cancer, Musculoskeletal Dysfunction, Neuromuscular Dysfunctions, physical challenges that come up as a result of life transitions, and more.

Watching and listening to people's bodies for hours and days and years, Annie has developed a profound respect—and ever deepening wonder—for the intelligence of the body. She notices that, like nature, when we truly enter and experience our bodies, it is as soothing and restorative as being out in nature...especially, when we have warm, competent company in the painful, scary parts. Through Integrative Bodywork, which encompasses many healing modalities, Annie allows for the incredibly restorative process of allowing the body to do what it wants to do. At the same time, she listens skillfully, with an authentic interest in who you are and what lights you up.

To Contact Annie about Integrative Bodywork, call 301.891.1412 or write johnstones@earthlink.net.