November 1, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Paperia’s owners cite years of service

Ellen Gayda, a “body psychotherapist,” therapeutic masseuse and healer, consultant and holistic health educator, is forming a women’s circle that will meet twice a month in Chestnut Hill. For more information, call 610-644-2595  or visit www.bodyword.com

“Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until they’re in hot water.”——Eleanor Roosevelt

*****

In a 2004 book, Rocked in the Hand of God (now reprinted as My Three Years as a Tree), the local author, Victoria Pendragon, who is now 60-ish, recounts her horrendous experience with scleroderma, a disease of the skin characterized by thickening and hardening of the subcutaneous tissues. It results in a rigid, painful, at times even life-threatening condition that is very difficult to reverse.

Pendragon, who also had experienced extreme psychological trauma in her personal life, eventually went to a Chestnut Hill therapist, Ellen Gayda, who had founded “BodyWord®,” a holistic therapeutic approach to individuals that addresses physical pain and tension as well as emotional stress held in the body.

“Through BodyWord®,” said Pendragon, “I began to see how I was unconsciously undermining my own life and body, and I started on the road to recovery. My body, which had turned rock-hard, gained back energy and flexibility. Today, without any trace of disease left in my body, I am more alive than ever before.” (Pendragon also pays tribute to Gayda in her book.)

Another client, Jennifer Nadler (not her real name), a pediatric nurse on an oncology ward who was about 35 at the time, had tried unsuccessfully to have children, even spending about $50,000 over five-years on various fertility methods. The result was five miscarriages.

“I saw the best doctors and received every high-tech treatment available,” said Jennifer, who then sought out Gayda’s alternative therapy. “Ellen helped heal old and deep wounds through her extraordinarily sensitive, compassionate and intuitive abilities. I became pregnant three months after working with her ... Ellen’s healing work with me has changed my life. I am forever grateful and blessed.” Today Jennifer has two children aged 8 and 10.

Gayda, a pioneer in the holistic health movement who began persuing her career in 1969 (she will not reveal her age), lives in Chestnut Hill and maintains a full-time private practice as a “body psychotherapist” in Paoli with several Ph.D. psychologists with whom she shares clientele. She holds degrees and certifications in humanistic psychology, Gestalt psychotherapy, several massage therapies, yoga, Zen awareness training and energy healing.

Ellen has piercing eyes, a quick sense of humor and not an ounce of pretense. Her common sense is Kryptonite to those denying the mind body connection, and her explanations about healing are a layer cake of logic. Regarding the pediatric nurse who had not been able to achieve a successful full-term delivery, Ellen said, “My client, as a professional caretaker, was suffering from post traumatic stress because she had worked with so many very sick and dying children. The strong emotions of helplessness, grief and fear were being  carried in her organism waiting to be released. The process oriented work of BodyWord®“ is especially helpful to those willing to address the relationship between the mind, body and emotions. Trauma-based experiences can keep you from navigating successfully through life ...

“I want to bring home the concept that we are all imprinted by our experiences, for better or worse. We are all so busy in our day-to-day lives that we don’t have time to sit down and process all that is happening to us until something major happens that is really traumatic. Then some people might say, ‘Get over it. It’s no big deal,’ but that’s easier said than done. The body is an archive that triggers the emotional body memory, and old, unresolved feelings start bleeding through. Left unaddressed, an individual’s capacity to remain vital, attentive and productive becomes compromised and can result in unforeseen difficulties unique to the individual.”

Of course, the point about unresolved feelings being held inside for years is not new, and it was probably just as applicable in previous generations, even centuries; what is different today is that contemporary women are the heirs of the feminist movement which may have liberated women (and possibly even men) from the stereotypical gender roles of the past.

However, it also produced a generation of women who were still expected to be nurturers and bearers of children in addition to being revenue producers. So, women are now challenged to straddle both worlds trying to find the balance and expression of their feminine and masculine qualities.

“Unfortunately,” said Gayda, “often it is ourselves who are the last to be attended to in the long list of obligatory duties and labors of love. And this has not been without deep emotional cost to women, regardless of the benefits and satisfactions that have been reaped.”

As a result, Gayda will be starting a women’s circle for pre- and menopausal women (40 through 50s) entitled “The Labyrinth of the Feminine Soul.” They will begin on Thursday, Nov. 8, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., at the Village Earth Bead Shop, 8442 Germantown Ave.; they will continue every other Thursday as an ongoing group breaking for the November and December holidays.

“The focus of the biweekly women’s circle will be to address the emotional challenges that emerge through mid-life transitions and disruptions that have an impact on women’s well-being during their peri- and menopausal process,” said Ellen, who pointed out that the group will be structured for presentation, contemplation, discussion and sharing.

“My desire is to create a safe, respectful and personal experience for women within a larger feminine collective. Women need to designate a qualitative time solely for themselves to examine the roles, themes and myths they have lived out. They need to identify what aspects of self have been disproportionately relied on and which have been neglected, undervalued or abandoned.”

There is no cocktail of escapism and self-deception here. “What I expect to emerge out of this qualitative time and process,” Ellen said, “is a rebirth of the feminine self that enables a woman to take charge of the second half of her life with greater ease, playfulness, humor, wisdom and grace — all the qualities of a beautiful, self-possessed woman.”

(Gayda is a single mother of two — Iris, 24, an artist who went to the Crefeld School in Chestnut Hill and worked in the Village Earth Bead Shop, where the women’s circle will take place; and Matthew, 25, who works in real estate development in Colorado.)

To attend the circle or obtain more information about the “Labyrinth” workshops, call 610-644-2595 or email ellengayda@bodyword.com For more on BodyWord“, visit www.bodyword.com.