SOUL STORIES ARE A SERIES OF NOTES FROM MY CLIENTS EXPERIENCES WITH ME ON THEIR JOURNEY TO WHOLENESS.

EACH STORY IS WRITTEN FROM THE CLIENT, UNEDITED.

​ENJOY!

Hello friends,

My name is Preston & I am honored to share my experience working with The Makaranda Method. Eleanor and I started working together in April of 2020, less than one month after the world shut down, 10 days after entering a new relationship, and on the brink of moving back to my hometown, where my roots had been calling but I had been running.

Our Work
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Unlike any therapist I’ve worked with in the past, Eleanor did not spend 5 sessions learning my life story. She did not ask questions about my parents, or my upbringing. Instead, we would start each session in a deep, guided meditation. It was always in those first five minutes, when the mind was put to rest and the body began to speak, that I would learn what I actually wanted to talk about during our time together.

Through working with Eleanor, I discovered my own healing powers. Her first assignment was 20 minutes of seated meditation every day. I balked. Every DAY?! That is a long time and a huge commitment! But of all the things the pandemic brought us, time was one thing I could not deny I had. I vowed to follow this meditation homework religiously.

A few Breakthroughs:

​One day, my mantra became “invite it all in.” So I repeated: invite it all in, invite it all in, invite it all in. Eleanor’s method doesn’t leave anything out. We’re not simply detaching from our thoughts or focusing on the breath. She taught me to be curious, like a child. When an “unwanted” thought or emotion would creep in, instead of ignoring it and coming back to the breath, I would actually sit with it. I would question, giddily sometimes, ‘ooh, hello! What are you here to tell me?’ I was transforming into my own healer, a witness to my own healing journey.

Another powerful breakthrough I had was physical. Here is an excerpt from my journal from that day:

​“…I then had such a powerful meditation where I started with the five senses and naturally did a body scan starting at my toes - thanking my toes, thanking the balls of my feet, the arches, the soles, the heels, the ankles, the shins, the knees… And so on. On and on, up the body remembering incidents, injuries, times I rolled  

my ankle or injured my knee or poisoned my stomach, or braced myself from crashing into a tree with my hands. The hips felt so feminine and sexual. The back felt so strong and masculine. All the way down the arms, the elbows, the wrists and hands and fingers and fingernails. Not judging or regretting, just thanking. Simply thanking the body for making it through and coming out on top every single time. When I got to the heart I felt it the strongest. Knowing that it guides me. Follow your heart. Listen to your heart. All of those sayings about the heart, knowing they are true. All the way up to my third eye and every ounce of my face until I was on the top of my head literally thanking the energy above and below and in and around me. Moving that energy out into the world. Opened my eyes and of course it had been exactly 20 minutes…”
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​Practical Skills & Practices

Besides meditation, Eleanor has also taught me the power of intention. The power of words. She has taught me the power of earth medicine. The power of community and accountability. The power of cleansing, and taking control over what you put into your body. The power of nature and seeing ourselves in our wholeness. The power of a REAL relationship with a therapist. With someone who knows me and sees me and reflects me, so I can see myself.

​Thank you El, thank you.