What can a holistic approach offer businesses during the recession? SYLVIA THOMPSONfound out
AMERICAN HOLISTIC therapist and former scientist Julie Williams has an interesting take on the global financial crisis.
“I recognise the financial crisis but I choose to look at it as a financial detox,” she says. “The banks were loaning too much money and people were overspending so now we will have a leaner, cleaner, more efficient world.”
Her words may be cold comfort to those facing negative equity on their homes and a lifetime of paying off debts but she continues, “yes, some people will fall but I believe sometimes the harder the experience, the richer the gift at the end. I have a belief structure that everything happens the way it should for the bigger picture.
“I don’t separate myself from what’s happening but there will be a subset of people who will stop spending money and who will instead have more quality time and go inside for inner reflection.”
Williams is in Dublin for the International Mind, Body, Spirit Festival which ends today.
Later this week, she will lead healing workshops at Chrysalis Holistic Centre, Donard, Co Wicklow and next week, she will run workshops and offer individual sessions in Cork city and Naas, Co Kildare. In California, she runs an integrative wellness clinic for individuals and businesses.
So, what can a holistic approach offer to businesses at this time of crisis?
“In my work, I look at the energy of the company. The life force of the company is made up of the individuals, their projections onto others, past employees and the building itself,” she explains.
“Some businesses have great strategic and tactical plans in place but they find that they can’t achieve profits. Sometimes, it’s because the employees aren’t aligned to the strategic vision of the company and sometimes it’s about people’s limited beliefs about abundance and success,” she says.
Her own transition from working full-time in the corporate scientific world and doing her holistic therapy work at weekends to now working only in holistic therapy informs her approach.
“I left full-time work in the corporate world because I lost my passion for it. As I discovered my spirituality, I found it more difficult to work in that environment,” she explains.
“I worked really hard developing projects for different companies and I always took time off when projects were up and running. I know all the different personalities in the business world and I managed people in large projects. I learned how important rapport and communication skills are and I now bring that experience into my business consulting work,” she says.
Williams uses a combination of therapies in her practice. These include neuro-linguistic programming, quantum healing and ancestral healing.
Many people are familiar with neuro-linguistic programming, the talk therapy which identifies limiting belief patterns which keep individuals stuck in certain mindsets and behaviours.
However, quantum healing and ancestral healing are on the more esoteric end of complementary therapies. Williams agrees but is adamant about their value.
“When you look at disease or how people struggle in a relationship, with their career or with money using these therapies, you can find out where the problems are coming from on a deeper level,” she says.
By way of example, she describes a client who had an addiction to smoking cigarettes which led her to the early stages of emphysema.
“She said to me that cigarettes were her best friend which allowed her to sit down and have a rest so I had to work with her so that she could find other ways to rest and make friends,” she explains.
An avid cyclist and a competitive open water swimmer, Williams often works with athletes.
“Quantum physics explains how it takes more energy to hold an injury whether that’s physical, physiological, emotional or from the family. So, through this healing approach, I aim to release the energy of the original trauma which allows someone move back into a better energy state,” she explains.
Her scientific background – a degree in biology and 15 years working in genetic research, biotechnology and life sciences – allows her to carry an understanding of the physiological and genetic processes of disease into her holistic practice.
“My work bridges the subtle energies and scientific understanding,” she says.
“Physics teaches us that the more force you create, the more resistance you will get which translates as the harder you try, the less you’ll get. Quantum physics also teaches us about the ‘observer dependent effect’ which explains how different scientific researchers get different results that are dependent on what they set out to prove.”
Ultimately, Williams’s approach can be boiled down to one core belief which is that we all create our own reality.
“Yes,” she says. “And that challenges people’s belief structures but I see it all the time in my work. But, I also say to people if they trust what comes, and live in gratitude, their lives will have flow and will deliver to them what they need.”
And, if that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the core belief of most world religions.
See also www.integrativewellnessca.com