Bryanston Explorers Friendship and Chat Group convenor Shelley Addis shook things up at this month’s meeting. The explorers were joined by wellness coach Tessa O’Grady for the group session held on August 23.
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O’Grady runs a non-profit project called Paren-teen-teacher, wherethrough she seeks to help guide parents, teachers and teenagers with the unique coaching and self-assessment tool she developed for empowering connection through creative expression of feelings. She took participating members of the group in attendance on an inward journey towards self-articulating through the drawing of trees – which she used as a means of assessing the states of mind of each participant. The exercise of the day was to imagine a tree, and draw it.
O’Grady, drawing from techniques in integrating peoples’ inner archetypes and elements towards supporting, healing, and recovery, guided the group through a roadmap to the recovery tree – the theme to her presentation.
“This is a whole self-healing way of reparenting ourselves towards becoming whole, and get to know who we are, and learn to live a much more fulfilled and joyful life,” O’Grady said moments before presenting.
“Everyone has a family inside of them, and that family is highly influenced by the family we grew up in. Often, the archetypes become dysfunctional. This method teaches us how we can heal each different archetype.
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“I developed it for myself. I also had traumas as a child,” she continued.
“When I realised that I had this trauma, I started thinking about what could help to heal me. At that point, 25-years-ago, nature is where I went. This method tied in when I realised that I could use the elements of nature to fill the missing links.”
The Explorers’ journey within – to find their inner recovery trees – began with a guided grounding process facilitated by O’Grady. She brought everyone into the present moment through a mindfulness and awareness exercise, ahead of permitting participants to express themselves in colour, drawing trees on sheets of paper with supplied crayons.
O’Grady’s process is inspired by Chinese element-based medicinal practices that she adapted into a contemporary way to explore how people can self-parent themselves.
“Each element relates to an archetype – and you can say everyone has five basic archetypes in their inner family.”
O’Grady’s method teaches the five elements of earth, fire, water, air, and ether – relating each to an inner-family member within each subjective self. Her aim is to help people rewire their inner networks through a process she described as ‘tremoring’.
“When an animal is being chased by a lion, it will naturally shake out the body, and that resets the nervous system. Humans have the same physiology wired-in for survival, but we’ve forgotten how to use it. It’s a method wherein we use drawing, movement, and a special form.
“Tremoring is a biological response. I was trained in how we can reactivate it.”
The Bryanston Explorers Friendship and Chat Group meets monthly, hosting insightful and meaningful presentations, much akin to the University of the Third Age (U3A) – but in Sandton. To get involved in group meetings, contact Shelley Addis on 083 409 7927.
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