September Meeting Recap: Shamanic Healing

Our September meeting with Contemporary Shaman Beatrice Pouligny was a great success. Beatrice spoke about shamanic healing and how it works, and about her role as a Shaman. She shared what she has learned about helping children physically and emotionally from her role as a Shaman working with children, adults, and families. She also showed us some simple practices and exercises we can do with our children at home to keep them grounded. Thank you Beatrice for an amazing evening. We also thank the Takoma DC Public Library for our new meeting space and look forward to seeing everyone in October!

September Meeting Announcement: Shamanic Healing

On Tuesday, September 6, Béatrice Pouligny, Shamanic Healer, will discuss her work as a contemporary shamanic healer and the work she does with babies and children, which ranges from sleep and behavior issues, to sicknesses that doctors cannot understand, autism, and ADD. Béatrice will talk about how her experience as a shaman as well as a volunteer baby cuddler with babies in great pain have led her to understand key elements that are crucial in her work with kids and that can inform the way parents can relate to their kids and handle different kinds of emotional, mental and physical issues. Béatrice will share concrete exercises, rituals and tools that kids like and respond to, and are beneficial for the whole family, including adults. Her insights and very concrete tips can help mothers to help their kids on a daily basis.

Béatrice Pouligny is a contemporary shamanic healer. She was introduced and initiated to shamanism in different cultures while she was working as a peacebuilder, trying to identify local resources that could support people’s resilience capacities in the aftermath of widespread violence. She was told repeatedly that she was a shaman and needed to “remember”. Béatrice did her apprenticeship in the U.S., with a contemporary shaman, and was given the name “Allowing the Light” because of her deep connection to the Light as the main source to facilitate healing and transformation. She has completed her training with indigenous shamans in the Andes and Amazonia. She has also received some training in cranio-sacral therapy and holotropic breathwork as well as mindful (Vipassana) meditation, which she practices on a daily basis and teaches. She has also been a volunteer baby cuddler at hospitals with babies who are struggling with great suffering in the early phase of their life. She considers her role as a contemporary shaman as one of a facilitator, assisting each person in her own self-healing, self-discovery, and self-opening to new avenues of transformation, growth, and creativity. She pays particular attention to the needs of each person and creates a safe, sacred, and loving space for each session. Béatrice also holds a PhD in political studies and has been working on conflict resolution and peace building all over the world for the past 25 years.

Our "Daily Practices to Support Your Children: Insights from a Shamanic Healer" meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 6, from 7:00-9:00 pm in the Community Room downstairs at the Takoma Park DC Public Library. The Takoma Park DC Public Library is located at 416 Cedar Street NW, Washington, DC 20012. There is street parking, and the library is also metro-accessible from the Takoma/Red Line stop.

August Meeting Cancelled

Our August 2011 meeting was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. We hope everyone is safe and we will see you in September!

July Meeting Announcement: Lyme Disease

Please join the DC Chapter of the Holistic Moms Network on Tuesday, July 19 from 6:30-8:30 pm for an evening learning about Lyme Disease from Michael Taylor. Michael will discuss recognition of symptoms of acute, late-stage, and chronic Lyme Disease; the safe method of tick removal; prevention of Lyme Disease through nutritional, herbal, and homeopathic support; vectors of transmission; methods to diagnose Lyme Disease through physical presentation as well as lab testing; and treatment options focusing on a non-pharmaceutical approach.

Michael Taylor lives with his wife Kendra and three-year-old son Benjamin at Fox Haven Farm and Nature Preserve where he is currently working with others to develop a Holistic Healing Center that will be rooted in communal living and connection to nature. Michael has worked as a counselor, environmental activist and holistic health practitioner. He is currently employed as a medical assistant for a Holistic Medical Doctor in Washington DC. For the last three years, Michael has been primarily focused on researching Lyme Disease by studying with indigenous peoples, apprenticing with a Holistic MD, and learning through direct experience by working with plants and spending time in nature. Through his work, Michael has found that Lyme Disease is reflective of a much larger problem than the disease itself.

Our "Lyme Disease" meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 19, from 6:30-8:30 pm at Seekers Church in Takoma, DC. Seekers Church is located at 276 Carroll Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20012. There is street parking, and Seekers Church is also metro-accessible from the Takoma/Red Line stop.

Holistic Moms DC Moves to Takoma, DC!

This summer, Holistic Moms DC is moving from our location in Cleveland Park, DC to Takoma, DC. For our July and August meetings, we will be meeting at Seekers Church in Takoma. Please note that due to summer schedules, our July meeting on Lyme Disease will take place on Tuesday, July 19 from 6:30-8:30 pm at Seekers Church. Our August meeting will take place on Tuesday, August 2, also from 6:30-8:30 pm at Seekers Church, topic TBA. Please join us!

Seekers Church is located at 276 Carroll Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20012. Seekers Church is metro-accessible via the Takoma Station stop on the Red Line.

We hope to see you this summer!

June Meeting Recap: Lacto-Fermentation

Thank you to Monica Corrado for coming to speak to us in June about Lacto-fermentation! Monica discussed the importance of caring for our digestive system, and talked about some of the problems the modern American lifestyle and diet create for our digestive flora. Lacto-fermentation is a method to create live beneficial bacteria in some of the foods we eat (such as ketchup!) that help our body to digest. Monica demonstrated how to make ketchup full of good bacteria, and then gave a taste test. It was delicious and incredibly easy to make! Thank you Monica! Information from this meeting will be available to members on our Yahoo Group list. Hope to see you next month!

June Meeting Announcement: Lacto-Fermentation

Please join the DC Chapter of the Holistic Moms Network on Tuesday, June 7 from 6:30-8:30 pm for an evening on Lacto-Fermentation with Monica Corrado. Lacto-Fermentation is an age-old technique reborn into a modern day miracle cure. Lacto-bacilli are the “gut good guys” found in live foods that are full of enzymes (lactic-acid producing bacteria). Every child needs them, and Monica will show us how to make foods you use everyday into nutritional powerhouses for your family. Come learn how ketchup can be a superfood!

REAL Food Chef and Certified Nutrition Counselor Monica Corrado started her own “REAL Food Revolution” in 2006. Since then she has taught hundreds of people how to cook nourishing, traditional food. Monica helped found one of the first CSAs and owned one of the first organic catering companies in the DC metro area. Her current work focuses on helping children come to balance through food, including those with AD/HD and on the Autistic Spectrum. Monica teaches cooking classes around the country and works with clients in her private practice in Takoma Park, Maryland, as well as by phone.

Our "Lacto-Fermentation" meeting will take place on Tuesday, June 7, from 6:30-8:30 pm at the Cleveland Park Public Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. There is street parking in Cleveland Park, and the library is also metro-accessible from the Cleveland Park/Red Line stop.