Hi Nancy,

 

I've been thinking about your question, how the Alba Method worked on me during the specific period in my life, right after losing my father. I find it so hard to answer your question, because normally I am very self aware and analytical, but I noticed that during that time and the weeks that followed, it feels like it was all a blur. I was so in the moment, living life each day, that it is hard to remember what happened internally.

 

However, I actually think this is the key to what Alba did to me/supported. I feel like, if anything, there was so much suppressed sadness and fear, from having to be strong for my father. I have always had trouble "showing my weakness", but especially during those six months, as my father got weak, my constant role was to motivate, inspire, give strength. Something that I loved to do, but I also think it made the pain difficult to experience myself.

 

I feel like grief is a process of slowly opening up bits of pain now and then. It still comes back now, sometimes just as intense. Alba helped me not be afraid. It helped me experience pain and experience that it will pass. Instead of forcing to feel anything, it helped me feel that emotions are something that flow through us. Just as it is okay to feel everything, it is okay to feel nothing.

 

So I think this is the most important difference that made Alba not something that just ripped open a wound, and let it bleed me to death. It just gently took my hand and let me look at my wounds, experience them, touch them. It showed me it's okay to bleed, and that eventually, the bleeding stops.

 

As long as the course does this, this gentle, open minded experience (which is, ofcourse, the exact spirit of the complete Alba technique), I do not think it can harm. However, it takes a strong teacher like you to guide, to recognize when people are taking the wrong road, and to create safety.

 

I just had to write this because your class impacted me in a deep way, but somehow I never found the words to describe it.