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Polarity Therapy
Explanation of Polarity Therapy
Polarity Therapy is a comprehensive health system involving energy-based bodywork, diet, exercise and self-awareness.
Polarity Therapists work with the Human Energy Field, electromagnetic patterns expressed in mental, emotional and physical experience.
In Polarity Therapy, health is viewed as a reflection of the condition of the energy field, and therapeutic methods used by Polarity Therapists are designed to balance the field for health benefit through four main disciplinary areas:
Bodywork
In a typical Polarity Therapy session, the practitioner assesses energetic attributes using interviewing methods, observation and palpation. Sessions usually take 60-90 minutes, clients usually remain fully clothed, and both touch and verbal interaction are used. Touch contact may be light, medium or firm. In the session, the practitioner supports the client in increasing self-awareness of subtle energetic sensations, which are often experienced as tingling, warmth, expansion or wavelike movement.
Communication and facilitation
Polarity Therapy has a strong and unique dimension in verbal support for clients. The principles of energy shed light on a wide range of life situations, and are a frequent companion to Polarity sessions or classes. The Polarity model is unique in describing specific links between body and emotions, including the mental-emotional attributes of the elemental chakras and the psychodynamics of yang and yin experienced internally (as mental-emotional health and coherence), and externally (in relationships). Polarity Therapy is very effective for building inner resources to manage stress. As a person is more able to sense and appreciate subtle inner energetic experience, he or she is more capable of self-regulation and less likely to be affected by external factors.
Nutrition
The Polarity Therapy approach to Nutrition is based on the energetic properties of foods. In addition, Polarity Therapy employs foods for specific beneficial effects, particularly cleansing and health rebuilding through specific high-energy foods, herbal properties, good food combinations and matching foods to specific constitutional and activity needs.
Exercise
In Polarity Therapy, great emphasis is put on self-help and personal responsibility. Clients are encouraged and supported in taking charge of their health situations. Polarity Therapy exercises offer many self-managed energy-balancing strategies which facilitate the movement of energy in the body-mind. These movements and postures are reminiscent of the techniques of traditional Hatha Yoga and related systems, but generally are easier to do and are specifically designed for energy balancing benefits.
Origins of Polarity Therapy
Polarity Therapy was developed by Randolph Stone, DO, DC, ND (1890-1981), who conducted a thorough investigation of energy in the healing arts over the course of his 60 year medical career.
Drawing information from a wide range of sources, he found that the Human Energy Field is affected by touch, diet, movement, sound, attitudes, relationships, life experience, trauma and environmental factors. Since Polarity Therapy lends an energy-based perspective to all these subjects, the scope of Polarity practice is often very broad, with implications for health professionals in many therapeutic disciplines. As a result, Polarity has strong, mutually supportive connections to many other holistic health systems.
Basic characteristics of the Human Energy Field are described in many sources, both ancient and modern. For example, the term "Polarity" refers to the universal pulsation of expansion/contraction or repulsion/attraction known as Yang and Yin in Oriental therapies. Similarly, Polarity integrates the "Three Principles and Five Chakras" of Aryuvedic tradition, and has been called the modern manifestation of ancient Hermetic Philosophy. At the same time Polarity Therapy also enjoys rich ties to modern science, which has confirmed its essential theme of energetic relationship as the basis of all phenomena.
Application of Polarity Therapy
In the Polarity model, health is experienced when energy systems function in their natural state; energy flows smoothly without significant blockage or fixation. When energy is unbalanced, blocked or fixed due to stress or other factors, pain and disease arise. Blockages generally manifest in sequence from the subtle to the dense levels of the field. Polarity Therapy seeks to find the blockages and release energy to normal flow patterns, and to maintain the Energy Field in an open, flexible condition.
Benefits of Polarity Therapy
The results of Polarity Therapy sessions vary, and may include profound relaxation, new insight into energetic patterns and their implications, and relief from numerous specific physical and emotional situations. In the healing arts, Polarity Therapy is special in its comprehensive exploration of multiple dimensions of the human condition, and in its effective bridging of the full spectrum of experience, including body, mind and spirit. Applying the Polarity Therapy system can take diverse forms, always based on the underlying intention to support the client's inherent self-healing intelligence as expressed in its energetic patterns.
Typical costs of Polarity Therapy
Polarity Therapy is a very effective form of treatment which is much sought after in this age of holistic and complementary approaches to ill health. Clients who visit a Registered Polarity Therapist self refer and can expect charges to vary depending on the location of practice and experience of the individual Polarity Therapist. Generally prices can range from £25 to £60 for a 1 hour session.
Useful Polarity Therapy Organisations in the UK and USA
This information above has been sourced from the American Polarity Therapy Association (APTA) and edited by
Andrew Harry, a UK Registered Polarity Therapist, based in Bath, Somerset (UK).
In the UK, Polarity therapy is recognised as a professional complementary healthcare profession and is regulated through the UK Polarity Therapy Association (UKPTA), which maintains a Register of those entitled to practise as Polarity Therapists in the UK.
To find a Polarity Therapist in your area contact the UKPTA:
UKPTA, Monomark House, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3XX, UK
tel: 0700 7052748
email: info@ukpta.org.uk
website: www.ukpta.org.uk
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