 I am a massage therapist licensed and practicing in the state of Florida since early 2000. I am a Reiki Master of the Usui lineage, a Certified Quantum Touch ® Practitioner, as well as an instructor/student of Tai Chi. Usui Reiki is a very gentle type of Reiki. Simply put, Reiki allows one to move the universal energy through the body into or out of areas of discomfort for healing purposes. Quantum Touch is a technique whereby each person's vibrational level is lifted higher and higher creating a space within which healing may happen. After observing several demonstrations and then finally experiencing my own vibro-acoustic sound session, I was strongly drawn to this healing technique. I then trained with a local facilitator who has many years of experience in sound healing. I began my current work by incorporating the vibro-acoustic sound into my massage sessions. I saw my clients relaxing even more, and getting a greater benefit from their bodywork. Now I use the vibro-acoustic sound therapy with Reiki and Quantum Touch only. It appears to be just as effective (physically) as massage, and even more powerful as an emotional healing tool. I love what I do: within the safe haven I create for my clients, and using both my healing and listening skills, I am able to help people to feel better about themselves and within their bodies. "Becky is a genuinely caring and concerned person who knows intuitively just what I need in each session. I look forward to seeing her for my sessions, and the relief from stress. I come away feeling that I have been nurtured and enveloped in a safe harbor." Therapist Explores Healing Qualities of Sound Brandon News July 28, 2004 By Scott E. Rupp Correspondent Don’t ask her to explain the experiences brought on by vibro-acoustic sound therapy, she can’t, or at least won’t. That’s something Becky Clemments leaves to her clients. They're the ones benefiting from the work anyway. Clemments is a healer of sorts, and for more than four years, has been filling her soul and changing the lives of those she’s served just by going to work. A sound therapist and Reiki Master working in energy healing is something Clemments has been doing since the early 2000 after completing the massage therapy program at Safety Harbor’s Bhakti Academe (and her training to become a Vibro-Acoustic Sound Therapist). Her eyes were opened to the power of energy healing and sound-based therapy long before that though, when her son was suffering from fluid in his ears and an infection doctors couldn’t treat. She became intrigued with alternative healing routes after taking her son to a health food store, where the owner simply put her hands on him and the pain slipped away. Her son's experience was a first for her, but it sparked the desire to learn more. The introduction to energy healing came in 1992 when she discovered tai chi, an ancient form of moving meditation. Then, in 1999, she was introduced to sound healing while a student in massage school. As her fellow massage peers awaited turns to undergo the sound session, Becky decided she wanted to be the last one in line so she could get the longest turn, she recalled. Everyone before her described it as a sense of flying or melting and having all stress float away; and they all mentioned a strange spinning motion around them as they lay prone. Of course she didn’t believe in the work, and remained skeptical, but continued to watch, shrugging it off as malarkey, or simple tricks, until it was her turn. Afterwards, she was changed. “Everything in my body was jumpy,” Clemments said, describing the first time she underwent the therapy. “I had answers to my questions - and then I couldn’t move.” She soaked it up and began to realize that there was something very real about what she had just experienced, something valuable that she needed to help pass on to others. She just felt better, clear and more aware of the world around her. Now, after more than a dozen years studying and teaching Tai Chi – she’s a founding member of Taoist Tai chi society that meets at 224 Oakfield Drive - and a stint in massage-therapy, the Brandon woman feels she has finally found her life’s work. She now helps others alleviate stress, grief, find life's meaning, grow spiritually, develop a sense of peace and greater self-esteem and even find relief from physical pain. “She provides a loving caring, space,” said client Harold Aldrich. “She’s a lighting rod for something larger she’s tapping into.” Aldrich, a 58-year-old Temple Terrace resident has been coming to Clemments for the past six months for sound therapy sessions. Sometimes his sessions are grounded and earthly. Other times he said he feels like he is in a womb-like state. It just depends on what he is hoping to work through in his life at the time. Each experience is different although the sound therapy sessions themselves may be similar. Clemments plays music of various types, such as chanting or tribal, drumming and Celtic, and every client lies on a speaker-filled mattress, the Somatron Body Mat, which distributes the therapeutic vibrating tones. The vibrations, along with the music, are designed to soothe. They are the keys to the procedure; a practice Clemments says dates back to ancient times. The atmosphere, too, is the same: a small, dimly lit room, with a couple chairs, a stereo and a swirled patterned fabric hanging from a wall that provide a sense of spinning. The circles seem to descend upon each client as the session progresses to carry away pain, worry, frustration and feelings of insignificance. Those are where the similarities end. Shirley Desrochers of Brandon experienced the spinning. It started slowly then got faster and faster, swirling around her head, in all sorts of colors, like a tornado, moving closer to the pain, closing in. And then it just receded and took the pain in her side away. Her doctors told her the pain, brought on by five abdominal surgeries in less than a year and a half would be permanent and that she had better find a way to live with the pain. All of it disappeared, though, after a one-hour sound session using Clemments' non-invasive therapy. It hasn't returned in the four months since, Desrochers said. “I went to the doctors and told them what happened and they just said, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’” Desrochers said. The 72-year-old owner of Under the Gypsy Moon, located at 1500 N. Parsons Ave., said unfortunately the medical community looks at those who use the energy healing as though they are “just a bunch of tree huggers.” “I hope the main stream accepts this, that it’s okay to do this without a pill,” she said. “We need to get beyond the barriers we put up.” Dale and Julie McNitt, founders of the Bhakti Academe, have worked with energy healing for 30 years and can’t explain why it works, but say it does. Dale believes it's because the technique focuses on spiritual and artistic realms. The couple is currently writing a book about their energy experiences. Dale, who has a master’s degree in social work and is a licensed psychotherapist, said the goal is to have people become more aware and conscious of what’s going on inside themselves. “We hold everything in and create dis-ease in the body.” Like Clemments, Julie McNitt works to free people from their emotional restraints and tries to let them know they have permission to feel what is already inside of them and to let it out. She remains contemporary in her approach, using music from artists such Alanis Morissette, Tracy Chapman along with more traditional meditation styles such as chant and tribal music. Clemments said she's just happy to be able to help people and do work she believes in. One of her main goals is to help people find the clarity she discovered through the process; to serve them in their hunt for answers, which she feels, will lead to greater contentment and the ability to better reflect on life. All of this from a woman with a degree in math, she said laughing. She jokes that she's one of the world’s few individuals capable of using both the left and right side of the brain, allowing for creative insightful reflection as well as carefully calculated execution of plans. Like the McNitt’s, Aldrich doesn’t defend himself to others who criticize his choice of healing. “There’s a whole branch of science that says this is pooh-pooh. It’s okay that there are nonbelievers,” he said. He knows that it's made him feel more connected to the world around him. More importantly, he knows what it's done for his wife, Sandy. Sandy Aldrich has Lou Gehrig's disease, and has found relief from pain through Clemments' treatments. Aldrich said his wife is physically stronger after a session. (Sandy passed away in August 2004.) The following was edited out of the original article: And Becky Clemments will continue her work, for the love of it; to soothe the despair that comes through her office door and to help wake people from their day-to-day slumbers. She too believes in her role as facilitator, “conveyor of information” and doesn’t expect to receive any type of acclaim for what she does. Her work is for others, there’s no ego in it, she said flatly, seriously. “Some people walk through life asleep,” she said, “this can be an awakening.” Like she said, the process in nearly unexplainable, so she doesn’t waste her time talking about it. Try it, she says, because you are the only one who knows whether it’s going to be a success or not. On a personal note, the experience is nearly indescribable. For me, there was a tremendous spinning sensation, circling above me as my body relaxed and became calm. The vibrations pulsed through me, and yes, I felt as though I began to float and became one with the circling motion flowing about me. It seemed as though I was made more aware of the situations affecting the world, from the past until now. Issues such as war, suppression, disease, people suffering, even hunger, and by the end, I felt called to become more involved, to help in some way, to reach out to those who need me. I began to feel like I wanted to have a more positive impact on society and the well being of the world, rather than just taking my share. When the music stopped, I sat up, calm, clear, feeling a bit guilty about my lack of social concern, and a cool sensation flowed throughout my body. It was very refreshing and clean and stayed with me for several days. Now, though, I am left with the responsibility of trying to become more responsible. 
 Becky Clemments (813) 684-8385 To send me an e-mail, simply click here |