Graduation Paper
Course of Certified Jahara® Specialists

From Patient to Therapist
A Personal Story

By Menachem Mendelovitz
Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

THE 5 CONCEPTS

Page 6

Flowing Movement – Soaring

At the height of a Jahara® therapy session, patient and therapist - each in his own way - grow and become the water. The silent presence of the therapist and the water merge into one in the patient's mind. The softening quality of the water sinks under the surface, into the patient's mind.

Invisibility (Earth)

"Your higher self is always there to be your best friend. Knowing this, you need not feel isolated, fearful, or helpless. Our power of healing exists in every muscle of our bodies, in every brain cell, every nerve fiber, and every blood vessel. We are born with the power to heal ourselves, and we only need to re-discover it. Finding this power is like opening a closet and locating what you have been looking for everywhere. It was there all the time, but you just didn't see it."
(Self-healing - My life and vision, Meir Schneider)

I had two main reasons for wishing to expand my knowledge of Jahara® and study it to become a therapist. One was a desire to know more about "preserving within my body" those physical and mental sensations that accumulated while working in the water, which eased my daily tribulations on the physical and mental levels. The other was a wish to apply the therapeutic concept according to which, one must give in order to receive; in other words, while treating another, your self-healing intensifies.

Over the course of the year, gradually, step by step, movement after movement, I came to know water - not just the water in the therapeutic pool, but mainly the water inside me. I became acquainted with the calm and silence that was in it and in me, the water's ability to soften body and mind, and the constant slow motion of water. This was no philosophic teaching. I learned it from the combination of Jahara® Concepts and principles. I learned it physically, moving in the water and sensing its impact on the centers of gravity. I learned it mentally, by perceiving the principles of buoyancy and lack of friction associated with movement in water. For me as a patient who became therapist, the most important thing is that it expanded my worldview and every-day abilities.

In this new world that I became familiar with, Support, Adaptability, Expansion, Effortlessness, and Invisibility are real entities that exist in the world, around me and in me. I learned that leaving the "therapist's ego" outside the therapeutic session and focusing on therapy - on the effort to use everything I had learned to become "invisible" for my patient, to let me and my motions become one with the water - allows me to make the patient feel the reality of those Concepts. Using the Cone of Power as a therapeutic framework, and thus the need to connect with those entities in me and in the water, intensifies my awareness of the existence of those Concepts inside me. I realized that therapist and patient, like yin and yang, are two parts that make a single whole.

Nothing explains the idea of multitude of Concepts that make a whole better than the Earth Element in Chinese philosophy. Earth serves as the foundation of the other elements: wood grows from the earth, metal develops in it, water flow on and seep through it, and fire burns above and deep under its surface. Thus Earth is the symbol of big Mother, ever nourishing, ever giving, ever present, cultivating and watching over everything. The Earth element represents our ability to accept others as they are, to understand and support them emotionally, and carries qualities such as empathy, identification, and attention.

Linda and me before the therapy session at the Jahara® Decade Festival

Linda and me during the therapy session at the Jahara ® Decade Festival

Grounding

We are coming to the end of the therapy session, to the very final minutes. Before putting the patient down, the therapist makes sure that the patient slowly becomes aware of his limbs, that he assumes control over his body. The patient is brought down slowly until his feet touch the ground. The therapist needs to make sure that the patient is indeed stable and has assumed responsibility of himself, and only then he breaks physical contact, while maintaining presence and eye contact with the patient.

Summary

"Our body carries also the heart's desire. Attention to the body can help us feel the deep life sensation that is not expressed above the surface. Movement and relaxation lead us into sensation, and with movement and relaxation, the sensation can change." (Self-healing - My life and vision, Meir Schneider)

At this point, I find it is important to make it clear to you, who read this paper, that every movement or exercise contain several principles simultaneously because a principle is the practical/applied concept of the philosophic concept. That is, every movement or exercise combines several Concepts. While performing it in the course of a therapy session, therapist and patient, each according to the level of his understanding of the therapeutic needs, accentuates one or more aspects of the Concepts. In the same way, the decision making process comprises various degrees of sensations and emotions felt at various moments during the process and in hindsight, as it was when I wrote this paper.

Still, there are several unique moments in the process whose impact remains and will probably stay with me for life. There were special incidents and events that instilled in me a sensation and I can feel them later on in life, sometimes even stronger. These are events that explain perhaps better than anything else does how the proper application of Concepts in various dosages (or elements of the nourishing cycle) forever imprints certain emotions and sensations in the mind.

One such event was a therapy session I had with Linda Dold at the Jahara® Decade Festival. In itself, the festival was an excellent example of the Jahara® spirit, of the power of the inner fire burning in the Jahara® family. It is the fire that accorded me the mental and physical powers to complete the training, and go on with my life in general. I met Linda for the first time a few days before, when she instructed a group of students in Jahara® Integration, while our group was instructed by Mario. As the two groups met and engaged in a joint meal making lots of happy commotion, Linda and I found ourselves sitting in an isle of peace, discussing this paper.

A few days later, when we met at the Wingate institute, I first became acquainted with Linda's work in the United States, which I believe can be called "holy work." Linda mainly works with the physically disabled and has recently started working with the terminally ill. As soon as we made first contact in the water, my body felt like it met an old acquaintance. The way she held me, the way she maintained proper physical tension, made me open up completely. I knew that everything that happened was right and good. That sense of security prompted me to "leave" my body and let the water soften my outer shell. The session reached its peak when I actually felt her silent presence flowing through my body and mind, soothing, calming, and silencing my pain. Even now, as I write this, my body senses the silent, modest presence of Linda in my body. I can draw on that silence. I can literally use it when the "noise" of life intensified around me. This single session made me understand where I want to go as a therapist and as a human being, if I wish to become a Jahara® therapist.

Another such moment was when I first talked to Ofer Harari. The conversation took place some 18 months ago, when we first met, and I knew nothing about body-mind healing therapies. As he gave me a gentle massage, something in me opened up to him. The questions he asked and the understanding he showed reflected great emotional intelligence and wisdom. I found myself sharing with a man I first met that day my deepest mental experiences. I talked about the stress, the fears, the loneliness I felt, and he listened very silently, accepting everything, taking note. Thanks to his deep intuition and understanding, he knew already in our first sessions how to take me to the places that make me listen, think, accept, and implement. His patience, his willingness to help always, his incessant search for ways to make my life "easier" quickly made him a dear and close friend. My relationship with Ofer is a wondrous example of how the right support and guidance opened me up to new thoughts and allowed me to adjust these ideas to my situation. This process - the result of Ofer's healing work, the way he pushed me to daily activity, and the fact that he had full confidence in my abilities - made me encounter Jahara® and want to be a therapist myself.

Last but not least to be mentioned here is my good friend, Tova Rosen - the woman who for the past year has been my therapist, my teacher, and my source of inspiration. Every meeting with her is an encounter with Jahara® at its best. Ever since I met Tova, my life has been filled with moments such as those I described above - moments that enrich my life, fill them with meaning and, most importantly, guide me to the future. She opened up a world of activities, ideas, and perceptions for me, showing me in everything she does - therapy, study, work, or just talk - how the five Concepts exist in every aspect of our lives, how we can make them a part of us, and how we can put each one and all of them together into use to improve the journey of our life.

This is my story, from my first Jahara® therapy until I graduated the first year. I hope you found it interesting and that trough it, you could understand the methods applied in the Jahara® Technique, how the philosophy that guides the therapeutic work turns the principles of the technique into movements and exercises that contain, each one, the five Concepts of Jahara®. These Concepts, as my case showed, make the Jahara® Technique much more than just a form of hydrotherapy. For me, it has become a way of life - a way that allows a physically limited person, with the help of the gentle power of water, face the difficulties in his life, and win.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people, without whom, this paper would never have been written:

Nava Shilo - your phrase - "Your sensitivity is your power" - serves as the motto of the therapist in me.

Ofer Harari - because he penetrated my soul and drove it into action I met Jahara®.

I would like to thank my classmates:
Bella, for teaching me what openness is.
Dina, for your persistence that inspired me.
Shirley, for igniting the caretaker in me.
Jessie, for your patience and kind spirit.
Tal, for "showing" me the meaning of effortlessness.
Liat, for the feedbacks that gave me confidence.
You are the fire that carries me on. You are the wings on which I soared all that year. I could not have endured it without you.

Special thanks to – Eran Raviv, for being a friend. Barbara, for expanding the Basic Concepts for me. Linda, who in a single session showed me I was on the right track. Tova Rosen, who opened the door for me, held my hand, and step by step introduced me to a wonderful new world. Mario, for Jahara®. Zehava, my dear wife, who has been there for me all along, regardless of the difficulties, overcoming all that I am. You are the real gem of my life.

See you in the water!

Menachem
Hod Hasharon, Israel
June, 2007