NFSH Student Support in Bristol
by Michele Eve, Maureen Wootton, Barbara Warren and Chrissy Holmes
The life of an NFSH student can be both and exciting and a frustrating one! The enthusiasm to try out ones new found skill/vocation/revelations can be quite overwhelming, but having healed all ones house plants, the family pets and all manner of relatives until they are well and truly cooked, enthused about energy balls and the colours of the aura until friends start to glaze over and smile distractedly, it is time to find other like minded souls. We are lucky in Bristol to have a whole myriad of groups, including NFSH drop-in centres and a variety of sessions run by Healer members all of which offer specific experiences, instruction and support, but the self- organised peer support group too has its own quality as somewhere to try out and discuss the act of healing, the sensations, ideas and problems.
Our group essentially grew out of a contact list at the end of the Part Four training and started with just three of us in a room one cold Sunday night. We decided that organising and hosting the meetings would be shared as far as possible so that no one felt burdened by it, but mostly we could see how meeting together regularly would provide a place to learn and share informally. What it demonstrated and highlighted was that we are in charge of our own learning, quite rightly. The NFSH course is highly self-motivated, apart from the four parts and thankfully, due to our Regional Training Officer, a programme of associated courses, ones progress is in ones hands and identifying needs being the first step in this. Some of our group regularly practise at the NFSH drop-in centres, others do not, but in either case it was agreed that it was the healing act that should be the focus of these evenings, whatever else they should contain.
In the early days many times the discussion centred on “what could you feel, if indeed anything”- experiments into our own personal language and system of signs and meanings. Oftentimes I will confess I felt nothing specific apart from wellbeing (if that wasn’t enough!) and eventually, compelled to mention the fact, I was comforted to find that not everyone in the room was having a transcendental experience while my unruly, misbehaved mind slipped sadly to the shopping the next day or whether my children had the babysitter locked in the under stairs cupboard. The point of the support group then became obvious – to help us look at our own development with openness and honesty and to support each other’s truth in a atmosphere of equality.
Early meetings began to take shape – we would have a meditation and a discussion prior to healing and the strength of the group began to grow. By last autumn it was proposed that we look again at the purpose of the group and how to use it, with the healing always constant. It seemed that there were broadly three issues- general support and feedback for members of the group, that kind of ‘where are you?’ session that can be so valuable, secondly a place for learning specifically in regard to student issues, such as the Code of Conduct, and thirdly as a place for spiritual development through the discussion of ideas/methods.
Of course not wanting to relegate the Code of Conduct to the back of the queue, we nevertheless identified some issues that fired the imagination and to date have had sessions centred around a shared CD regarding shamanistic Soul Retrieval, and another led by Chrissy Holmes on decording. Both engendered useful debate and shared experiences and naturally spring boards for further investigation.
Other occasions have provided opportunities for individuals to practise running the meditation/visualisation/relaxation/distant healing session, and therefore enhance skills in that regard.
Just recently the group has floundered a little. Time pressures, changing circumstances and new interests obviously will affect groups such as these where the emphasis is on self-organisation. It is true that sometimes there are three people, sometimes a few more; it is also true that in the end if there are two people present you have a group! We have a fluid attitude, we know that people will come and go as their own journeys and needs dictate and that is perfectly fine, so we maintain a contact list, broadly monthly meetings which are open to all, and provide, we hope, somewhere to come for support, camaraderie and healing.
The above group is known as the “ex-Chrissy group”. Chrissy recently asked someone how long they’d been in it – their answer was “since I ex-Chrissyied” – she was a bit bemused to know that she’d become a verb!
The Redland Healing group has been running for between 10 and 15 years. They have a two hour session every Thursday evening from 5-7 in a very good, warm, cheerful room with a waiting area. They have ten healers who come on a regular basis. Five are Full Healer members, and five are Students.
The format is that all the healers sit in a circle and open up to healing, then light and dedicate a candle to “the freedom of the spirit”. They ask that healing may be sent to the group and do their distant healing.
Usually, 15-20 people come for healing, sometimes more (a problem is trying to keep quiet so that people can enjoy the healing, but, of course, some talking is essential). Any “new” people Maureen usually talks to outside the room, explaining healing and giving them an NFSH leaflet to take away.
At the end of the session all the healers stand in a circle, close their chakras and the Great Invocation is read.
They never charge for healing, but do accept donations that they find sufficient to pay for the rent of the room and a few odds and ends. All healers give their services free of charge.
We’ve also had a drop-in NFSH healing session at the Pierian Centre for over four years now and it has been growing strongly. It’s an opportunity for students to give healing to members of the public. We have a lovely group of students and full healers who work on a rota basis. We are so lucky to have such a beautiful space to give healing in. There is the Well Room where people can wait and then go through into the adjoining room where we have a couch as well as chairs for healing. There is also the opportunity to have drinks and biscuits afterwards in the Pierian reception room. Our slot is from 5-7 in a Friday and people often say it’s a lovely way to start the weekend!
For anyone interested in healing, and for NFSH students in particular, there is a Support group meeting organised by the Regional Training Officer. It meets in the Healing Rooms, above the Bristol Buddhist Centre in Gloucester Road on the third Thursday of the month from 7.30-9.30. £3 is charged towards the room hire. The format of the evening is roughly divided into two – one hour is for talking about anything anyone wants to discuss, followed by an hour’s mutual giving and receiving of healing. The Rooms’ atmosphere is lovely and the ambience friendly and informal. Students may have specific issues they want to talk about, or the conversation may be of a more general nature. Obviously, anything personal can be taken to individual meetings with their mentors, but much can be gained from meeting together in a group.
There is also a small student support group who get together in someone’s home in Fishponds once a month.
