Ways of Knowing™ Symposium: Exploring the Role of Intuition in Health & Healing

Ways of Knowing Award

Mary Jo Kreitzer and Gloria Hesselund for Marion Rosen

The evening concluded with presenting the 2007 Ways of Knowing Award to the first receipent, Marion Rosen. The Ways of Knowing Award is an annual award given to a health care professional whose work acknowledges and integrates other ways of knowing. The founder of the Rosen Method, Marion Rosen has been teaching others to profoundly listen to the body and to clear emotional patterns that are often locked within. The award was accepted on Marion’s behalf by Gloria Hessellund.

An Interview & Messages for You
from Marion Rosen, Recipient of the
2007 Ways of Knowing Award

Background: 

In her early 90’s, Marion Rosen has dedicated her life to fostering wellbeing and the restoration of health. Marion’s training began in Munich, Germany during the 1930s with Lucy Heyer, one of a group of therapists giving breath work and massage to the psychoanalytic patients of Carl Jung.  Fleeing the Nazis as World War II approached, Marion studied physical therapy in Sweden and then at the Mayo Clinic in the USA in 1944. She remained in physical therapy practice in California for the next thirty years, until she trained one student in her breathing and relaxation techniques in the early 1970s, and the Rosen Method was born—a method which helps people release unconscious restrictions created by earlier life experiences. Rosen Method bodywork is known and respected worldwide within the field of health education and somatic therapies. Her work has helped countless numbers of people find ease in their lives.

Question # 1: 
Having been in healthcare for over 70 years, what would you like to share with other healthcare professionals?

The body doesn’t lie. 

In our work, we believe that the body stores experiences that we have long forgotten.  Sometimes these experiences are in the way of our living and we don’t even know what the difficulty is until we get in touch with what we have put away.

This getting in touch cannot be forced; something has to be allowed to come out.

When we put our hands on the body in the places where the forgotten experiences are being protected, we support their coming out, so that people can re-experience what they have put away.  This gives them the freedom not to carry these forgotten, protected experiences around with them and their aliveness is set free.  People can then enjoy life without unconscious barriers.

In my opinion, all healthcare professionals’ work will benefit from allowing what the body remembers and knows to come out during their care giving rather than focusing on the suppression of symptoms.

Question # 2: 
What can you tell us about healthcare providers’ use of intuition?

It is important to become aware of your inner feeling, or what I call ‘inner knowing.’

I am more and more aware of how much my work has to do with this inner knowing.  It always has had.  Some place in us seems to know much more than we think.

I say it this way, “My hands know where to go if I allow them.”  If I think, analyze, and try to be clever, it usually doesn’t work as well.  This atmosphere of allowing is very important for the healthcare provider and the patient.  I’ve had to learn not to doubt or second-guess my hands because they always know what to do.

Of course, in the moment I often do not know why I am doing what I am doing, or saying what I am saying, but later I say, “Oh, that’s what it was.  That’s why I did that.”

It is very important for healthcare professionals in all fields to cultivate awareness of their inner, unquestionable knowing. Once they become aware of this, they can experiment.  With experience and practice, they will learn how deeply they can trust this knowing. Often I pray to access inner knowing and then something happens beyond my comprehension.

Question # 3: 
The Rosen Method is being taught all over the world. What advice about inner knowing do you have for health educators?

Speak about inner knowing with your students and colleagues.

Actually, my students forced me to begin talking about it.  They told me, “You don’t teach us all that you know!  How do you know where to put your hands?” This made me ask myself, “How do I know?”  I begin to explore the language to describe this inner knowing and how it guides a truly healing session.

It is not that logic isn’t helpful, but it is important to not let logic get in the way of this knowing.  I find that many students already experience inner knowing, but don’t feel free to talk about it or have the language to describe what is happening.

In a way, we healthcare educators should be talking about inner knowing and, in so doing, give permission to our students to know what they know.

Question # 4:
Do you have any tips for healthcare providers beyond cultivating their inner knowing?

Two very important aspects to everyone’s life are:
(1) meaningful or purposeful work and
(2) happiness in personal relationships.

Where you enter the healing process is important.  In our work, I recommend that you close your eyes and ask your inner knowing where to put your hands.  Other healthcare professionals can also ask their inner knowing where to begin their work.

If little is forthcoming, I ask a question such as, “Does your work allow you to express your deeper self” or “Is who you really are being used in your work?”

It is good to start with meaningful work rather than relationships because most people find it easier to talk about work than relationships.

When people are unhappy in relationships, especially in primary relationships, their bodies are defended around these issues. After they begin talking and sharing about work, they become more relaxed and their bodies begin to open up, creating an opportunity for what is put away to come out.

Partnerships or other relationships are tender areas, so it is important not to push, but to allow what is true to emerge.

Regardless of your healthcare specialization, it is good to keep these two wellness concepts in mind during the healing process.

Question # 5: 
How does spirituality enter your work?

The spiritual state will arise naturally in a session.  I don’t need to talk about it.  People often tell me, “I feel closer to God,” after the session is over.

However, in sessions I ask for help, reach for a higher being, and allow myself to be guided.  Each of us will benefit by discovering what we can do to bring ourselves to that experience of higher guidance.

In fact, I don’t often share this, but I think that profound healing can only take place when this presence beyond the self is assisting the healing process.  Without this presence, a true depth of healing does not occur.

Mary Jo Kreitzer University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality & Healing

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