BodyTalk: Consciousness Based Healthcare

Dr John Veltheim, the founder of the BodyTalk system, presented a full weekend workshop called Finding Health: Mapping the Healing Process in Portland, Oregon which I found fascinating and awe inspiring. He also gave a public lecture and I was asked to say a few words before the presentation. I have included my remarks below.

“8 years ago, I received a handwritten letter in the mail from someone I had never met, the letter said that a speaker was coming whom I had never heard of, and he was to discuss a technique known as BodyTalk which I never imagined could become part of my daily clinical practice as a physician. I followed an inner prompting to follow the directions in that letter and I showed up for the talk just like you all have done tonight. That night 8 years ago, I listened to an interesting Australian named John Veltheim, and afterwards my pathway was set, I enrolled in the first BodyTalk class I could find and my learning which started back then continues to this day.

This curious twist of fate or what I can call a synchronicity happened when I was in the middle of transitioning from a conventional pediatrics group practice to the complementary or holistic medicine practice I have today. I had always wanted to treat kids with non-invasive approaches whenever possible, and in my opinion, BodyTalk is the ultimate system when it comes to natural, gentle, respectful techniques used in the treatment of children.

Let me just back up a little bit and tell you that I was trained in the conventional way as a physician. I graduated from medical school, went through a 3 year residency program in pediatrics at the University of Michigan, I joined a pediatrics group in Vancouver WA and practiced for 6 years as a primary care pediatrician. My duties included seeing newborns in the hospital, performing well child check ups and school physicals, putting in sutures for lacerations and cuts, and spending time with parents trying to give them the best advice I could.

At that point in my career, I didn’t have the faintest idea what energy medicine was or even how it could be useful to me or my patients. I was on track to put in my 30-35 years and retire along with my colleagues. That was my assumption and I had planned to stick with it.

However, something was pulling me toward new ways of thinking. I was gradually exposed to the energy medicine paradigm which included fascinating fields like acupuncture and Chinese medicine. And then when BodyTalk came along, my mind was really expanded.

What I now realize is that a consciousness based system like BodyTalk is able to embrace the simple notion that we as human beings are much more than what our anatomy and physiology reveals. What I learned in my conventional medical training was no doubt useful and necessary, but I did not realize how incomplete it was until I became exposed to these concepts. Seeing kids in my practice over the last several years has taught me even more about the energy dynamics that play a role in all aspects of health and wellbeing for children and their families.

Before I finish, I want to express my personal thanks to John Veltheim for writing the foreward to my recent book called Energy Medicine Principles for Parents. I wrote it with the intent to make it available to my own patients and families in my practice, but then it became clear that it could be useful to the larger community of parents who are looking for answers to help their kids.

Even though it is our job as practitioners to help alleviate problems and prevent them wherever possible, I have found that it is the awareness of parents and kids themselves that is the first necessary step. It is my hope that this book will serve as an introduction and a resource for parents who are exploring this new realm of medicine called BodyTalk.

I know you will enjoy tonight’s presentation by Dr Veltheim. Thank you.”

-Peter Hanfileti, MD

You can find more information about my ebook at www.principlesforparents.com

You might also want to visit the International BodyTalk Association website at www.bodytalksystem.com.

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