The Icelandic Dialogues: Healing the Healers

by Jacqueline Mast, PT, MSEd, FAACPDM
Winter/Spring 2009

Jacqueline Mast is a pediatric physical therapist providing developmental evaluation and physical therapy to infants and young children at Mast Clinic, Inc., in Portland, Maine. She has been a TMI Professional Member since 1999 and uses her intuitive abilities to choose the Hemi-Sync® selections most appropriate for physical therapy sessions. Jackie’s professional honors include a fellowship in the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine and the vice presidency of the Section on Pediatrics, American Physical Therapy Association. With the assistance of Icelandic colleagues—Thora Halldórsdóttir, Anna Katrín Ottesen, Erlendur Magnús Magnússon, Lilja Petra Ásgeirsdóttir, and Örn Jónsson—Jackie and Brian Dailey, MD, organized the third annual “The Icelandic Dialogues: Healing the Healers” conference around the theme, “Water: Motion and Emotion.” In this article Jackie shares some of the magical healing interactions that characterized the event.

The international presenters for “The Icelandic Dialogues: Healing the Healers, 2008” arrived at Keflavik airport just as the sky was evolving from dark to light. Snow blanketed the ground, an unusual but lovely sight in Iceland. As Thora Halldórsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic contingent of our conference committee, drove us toward Reykjavik, the sun rose from behind glacier-clad mountains. Awed by the sight, Brian Dailey and I agreed, “We will give whoever attends the best conference experience ever.”

The October 3–5 conference enabled the sharing of the positive, healing energies we all had in abundance. Sharing and caring occurred within the group, as well as through learning from our amazing presenters who came together to teach and practice multidisciplinary methods that incorporate water—including Iceland’s geothermal pools—for health and well-being.

As an example of intergroup sharing, I’d complained to my niece, Leda, that I had a bad headache. Lots of pain relievers had helped me to cope for the past two years. She said, “Go in there,” and pointed to our lecture hall. I looked and saw that all the massage tables were taken and three to five people were working on each reclining person’s body. I said, “The tables are all taken.” Leda reiterated, “GO IN THERE.” So, I did. A pair of unattended feet sticking out at the end of one table caught my eye. Because I always ache to use my hands, I grasped Solveig’s feet. Sensing that she needed work closer to her core, I climbed onto the table, picked up her pelvis, and started lifting and rotating it as I would with an infant or a young child. Suddenly a release was felt in her upper body, a signal that we were finished. Solveig got up from the table and announced that we had helped her to disperse the energy buildup from a recent divorce and other unhealthy events. She could breathe deeply again. My headache was gone and it has not returned.

Healers trained in a variety of methods and possessing an eclectic mix of talents developed the conference theme of “Water: Motion and Emotion.”

• Keynote speaker Les Moore, ND, MSOM, LAc, a naturopathic doctor, acupuncturist, and member of a multigenerational family of practitioners of botanical medicine, discussed balneology—healing with mineral water—an integral component of his practice.

• Daniel J. Benor, MD, is a journal editor, author, and holistic psychotherapist who developed Whole Health—Easily and Effectively® (WHEE), a holistic hybrid derived from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Dan demonstrated how WHEE can help to clear chronic pain by addressing body, emotions, mind, relationships with other people and the environment, and spirit so that healing may flow more clearly and cleanly, as and where it is needed. We all witnessed the success of WHEE experiential exercises successfully releasing physical and psychological pains, stress, and residual hurts from the past. Brian experienced relief from years of low-back pain in one fifteen-minute session. Thora had persistent thoracic, cervical,and head pain from a car accident fifteen years ago. In a few short minutes, her body language changed from tension to relaxation. Now Thora’s eyes sparkle and she e-mailed, “i have changed … thank god … i needed to change.”

• TMI Board of Directors member and Professional Division member Brian Dailey, MD, FACEP, FACFE, shared his knowledge of using crystals, Hemi-Sync, polycontrast interference photography, guided imagery, and energetic and vibrational medicine as aids to healing. He led participants in using Hemi-Sync and crystals for hands-on sessions with volunteers.

• Lilja Petra Ásgeirsdóttir, a biomedical professional, and her husband, Erlendur Magnús Magnússon, have taught Shamballa multidimensional healing around the globe for ten years and are cocreators of the extraordinary “waterfall essences.” Lilja led us in experiencing the power of these wonderful living light essences, which hold powerful transmutational energies from plants, places, stones, and beyond.

• Dr. Rick Patterson, a minister of great humor and warmth, told stories of traveling around the globe to share his healing abilities. In a demonstration of instant healing, Rick and Dr. Brian Dailey both placed their hands on the heels of a participant who had chronic back pain because one leg was one inch shorter than the other. Brian was amazed when the shorter leg lengthened an inch in a few seconds!

• Leda Mast, artist and creator of the Joy! method, led participants in right-brain activities beginning with individual artistic involvement and ending with group interaction that fashioned them into a coherent whole.

• Marta Eiriksdóttir, a dance therapist with a huge heart chakra, led the group in power yoga and power dance. In an interesting synchronicity, Brian met Marta and her husband in August when he was standing at the top of the Airport Vortex in Sedona, Arizona, imaging the vortex energy. A wonderfully radiant couple asked if he would take their picture. Recognizing their accent, he asked where they were from. They replied, “Iceland.” He told them that he loved Iceland and would be there in early October. It turned out that Marta would also be there for a conference called “Healing the Healers.”

• Finally, I demonstrated my approach to physical therapy with infants and young children. Because I have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, METAMUSIC® Winds over the World calms me while I’m working. Unfortunately, using that selection as background music for my presentation proved to be too calming for many of the attendees, who fought to remain awake and alert during the presentation. The effect of the music selection was immediately obvious to everyone when the audience suddenly became alert again after Winds over the World was turned off.

The conference culminated with participants’ sharing their healing energies in the Bláa lóni• (Blue Lagoon), Iceland’s most famous geothermal spa. During a fierce storm of sleet and high winds, the warm waters—rich in minerals like silica and sulfur—washed away unwanted energies as we exchanged hands-on body work with one another, a transcendent experience!

Thora noted: “It was interesting to see the difference … in some in the group from Friday to Sunday. There was much more smiles, brightness, lightness, and happiness in the faces and all over. Together we managed to create a special weekend for everyone who joined in. We all learned a lot that we can use for ourselves as well as to help others. By combining everything learned from the weekend, we can all do miracles.”

[The next “The Icelandic Dialogues: Healing the Healers” conference will be held October 2–4, 2009, in Reykjavik, Iceland.

© 2009 by The Monroe Institute