Latest / The Trauma Therapist / Moving The Darkness Out of The Way with Alexandra R. Johnson, MD

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Moving The Darkness Out of The Way with Alexandra R. Johnson, MD · The Trauma Therapist

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Trauma Therapists podcast. My name is Gamiferson.
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Speaker 1: I interview incredible people who've dedicated their lives to helping
0:07
Speaker 1: those who've been impacted by trauma. A big thank you
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Speaker 1: to our sponsors and our guests who are supporting this
0:14
Speaker 1: show five four, three, two and one. Our folks, welcome
0:19
Speaker 1: back to the podcast. Very excited to have as my
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Speaker 1: guest today, Doctor Alexandra Johnson. Alexandra, welcome, Thank you so much.
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Speaker 1: Awesome so. Doctor Johnson is an intricative family medicine physician
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Speaker 1: who blends Western and functional medicine with the Brima bodywork,
0:35
Speaker 1: lifestyle counseling, and mind body approaches to support whole person health.
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Speaker 1: Trained in Family Medicine at the University of Colorado with
0:43
Speaker 1: a fellowship and Obstetrics, she has served on faculty in
0:46
Speaker 1: the US and abroad and has developed physician wellness curricula.
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Speaker 1: With more than twenty years of study and teaching Breema bodywork,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Johnson focuses on uncovering root causes of stress and
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Speaker 1: illness and helping patients reconnect with their bodies to foster resilience, insight,
1:03
Speaker 1: and lasting well being. All Right, obviously just a little
1:07
Speaker 1: bit about you before we get going, share with the
1:09
Speaker 1: listeners where you're from originally and where you are currently,
1:12
Speaker 1: then we'll dive in.
1:13
Speaker 2: Thank you.
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Speaker 3: I'm from San Francisco, California and I am currently in
1:17
Speaker 3: Santa Cruz, California.
1:18
Speaker 1: Okay, simple, awesome? All right? So how did all this
1:23
Speaker 1: start for you? How did this interest and passion? How
1:27
Speaker 1: did it start?
1:31
Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 3: I mean I think that from most professionals that I've
1:35
Speaker 3: spoken with who are in this line of work of
1:39
Speaker 3: getting to know others, trauma, working with supporting others, it's
1:43
Speaker 3: like you can't really pick.
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Speaker 2: One time when it all started.
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Speaker 3: It's often like all the many factors that made over
1:50
Speaker 3: made up a life of asking questions, why, why are
1:54
Speaker 3: things the way they are?
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Speaker 2: Why are we suffering so much?
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Speaker 3: Is there something productive we can actually make of all
1:59
Speaker 3: of this suffering in the human experience? So, as long
2:03
Speaker 3: as I can remember, I've asked those questions. And there
2:07
Speaker 3: were certainly different points in my life where different answers
2:10
Speaker 3: came forward for me that really guided and led me
2:14
Speaker 3: to be where I am now.
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Speaker 1: So when, so, when you were young, were you thinking,
2:23
Speaker 1: I mean you were asking yourself these questions? Were you
2:25
Speaker 1: thinking Okay, I want to become a doctor or was
2:28
Speaker 1: it less specific than that.
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Speaker 2: Not at all.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I think when I was young, I was
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Speaker 3: really just thinking.
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Speaker 2: What is going on in this What the heck is
2:38
Speaker 2: going on? You know, I grew up.
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Speaker 3: I grew up in the midst of the AIDS crisis
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Speaker 3: in San Francisco, so that affected people I knew, people
2:47
Speaker 3: I knew were working in that field, And from a
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Speaker 3: very young age, my parents really oriented me towards like.
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Speaker 2: A meaningful life is one in which you help others.
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Speaker 3: So I think I was asking that question from a
3:01
Speaker 3: young age, and then also sort of a personal dissatisfaction
3:06
Speaker 3: that maybe some people call depression, right like, as I
3:10
Speaker 3: grew up, as I was in my teens, I just
3:12
Speaker 3: felt like something wasn't quite right, and then I turned
3:16
Speaker 3: that into you know, like, oh, well, then it means
3:18
Speaker 3: something's not right with me because I'm not fitting in
3:21
Speaker 3: and there's not always the support to say, oh, actually,
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Speaker 3: it means maybe something's not right in both the world
3:27
Speaker 3: and the way I'm looking at and relating to the world,
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Speaker 3: and so that then kind of I mean, one time
3:36
Speaker 3: that I can remember really clearly is I was in
3:39
Speaker 3: college and a lot was going on around me, both
3:42
Speaker 3: personally and that was being expressed emotionally. And I had
3:45
Speaker 3: this doctor that was just like, Okay, start prozac and
3:48
Speaker 3: everything'll be fine. And when she said that, I'd actually
3:52
Speaker 3: never thought about being a doctor before.
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Speaker 2: But when she said that, I just was like.
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Speaker 3: Well, how does that make everything okay? Just because I'm
4:00
Speaker 3: feeling better? Like the world is still fundamentally needs support.
4:05
Speaker 2: There's still a lot of.
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Speaker 3: Broken things happening, and so how does me feeling better
4:10
Speaker 3: about them?
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Speaker 2: It didn't quite sync up.
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Speaker 3: So that really started me asking some questions about what
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Speaker 3: is my place in the world and how can I help?
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Speaker 1: So at some point I'm guessing an answer to that
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Speaker 1: was I'm going to go to medical school.
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 3: What happened was I was interested in supporting other people,
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Speaker 3: and I wanted to work with maybe outward bound and
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Speaker 3: at risk kids. And then I kept looking and getting
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Speaker 3: younger and younger, and then I thought, well, what if
4:38
Speaker 3: we could support moms, What if we could support moms
4:41
Speaker 3: when they were pregnant and to have better skills, And
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Speaker 3: so medical school came from. Originally I wanted to do Midwiffrey,
4:50
Speaker 3: and then it was actually I was working at UCSF
4:55
Speaker 3: with the department that does birthing for HIV positive women,
5:00
Speaker 3: and I just saw the difference they were making.
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Speaker 2: I was working as adula with them.
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Speaker 3: Actually, when I first started studying BRIMA, I would do
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Speaker 3: brima bodywork during labor and delivery, prenatal care, and I
5:12
Speaker 3: just that that was when I was inspired to go
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Speaker 3: to medical school. And then in medical school there was
5:18
Speaker 3: a strong culture of family medicine, and I saw I
5:21
Speaker 3: didn't want to just work with one part of the
5:23
Speaker 3: body or one population, but I wanted to be able
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Speaker 3: to support anyone who who came my way.
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Speaker 1: Interesting, Okay, now the time give us the nutshell of
5:34
Speaker 1: brema bodywork.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 3: So brima is the activity of the body when I
5:43
Speaker 3: am present, and it includes so the way that it
5:49
Speaker 3: is taught today, it includes brima bodywork. So there's partner
5:55
Speaker 3: body work that you learn to give and then you
5:57
Speaker 3: also receive. There are our self care exercises, and I
6:02
Speaker 3: can show you a short one today as part of
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Speaker 3: this talk. And then there's the nine principles of harmony,
6:09
Speaker 3: and all of this creates a platform by which very
6:14
Speaker 3: simply we learned to bring the mind to the body.
6:18
Speaker 3: We learned to do that in the classroom and then
6:20
Speaker 3: in everyday life, and then we can actually participate in life,
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Speaker 3: not just blown over by our reactions or in reaction
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Speaker 3: to whatever is happening, but actually move through life being present.
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Speaker 1: Sounds intense, sounds, sounds almost like a meditation.
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Speaker 2: It's really bringing meditation into the.
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Speaker 1: Marketplace, into the marketplace. And when did when did you
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Speaker 1: start to learn about this? And when and why did
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Speaker 1: it connect with you? Why did it resonate with you?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I discovered it at that same time
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Speaker 3: period when when I began to be turned on by
7:01
Speaker 3: that question of how can I support other people? What
7:04
Speaker 3: is my place in the world. When I was training
7:07
Speaker 3: to be a doula, I was looking for a body
7:09
Speaker 3: work for how to support women. And what I liked
7:12
Speaker 3: about Brima actually is how practical it is, and yet
7:19
Speaker 3: it really deeply connects to the body and the way
7:22
Speaker 3: this resonates with trauma.
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Speaker 1: Right.
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Speaker 3: The theme of your podcast and your work is it
7:29
Speaker 3: doesn't ask you to change, and it doesn't ask you
7:31
Speaker 3: to be any different than how you are, So exactly
7:35
Speaker 3: as you are right now, that is how you need
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Speaker 3: to be to actually do whatever it is you wish
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Speaker 3: to do in life, and by coming to the present,
7:46
Speaker 3: you don't have to change the past, and you don't
7:48
Speaker 3: have to change your personality or any of those things.
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Speaker 3: You simply experience being present right now. So it's like
7:54
Speaker 3: there's always a choice right now to connect mind and
7:58
Speaker 3: body via the breath.
8:00
Speaker 1: I'm feeling it. It's zen. It feels something zen about
8:06
Speaker 1: it being in the moment. All right, So what does
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Speaker 1: it look like? How would you start to work with someone?
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Speaker 1: Give us an example.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so as a practitioner, right, I do integrative medicine,
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Speaker 3: So people come to me for any of the reasons
8:20
Speaker 3: you'd come to see a family doctor, and we evaluate,
8:26
Speaker 3: we work through, Oh here's what's going on with me.
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Speaker 3: You know, there's practical things we can do to support
8:31
Speaker 3: the body and then the brim apiece. So it's body work.
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Speaker 3: It's fully clothed on a padded surface. So we've got
8:38
Speaker 3: carpeting in the office and you just you lie down
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Speaker 3: and there's holds, there's stretches, rocking movements.
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Speaker 2: You know, there's.
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Speaker 3: There's so many different aspects to it based on where
8:54
Speaker 3: your body is in this dit anyway.
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Speaker 1: Give me let me start an interrupt me can you
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Speaker 1: give us a case example, sure, someone, Okay, yeah, that
9:03
Speaker 1: might help.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah yeah. So, oh god, there's so many. You know,
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Speaker 3: I think a lot of people are depressed right now
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Speaker 3: and anxious and have insomnia, and they come in with
9:17
Speaker 3: whatever story they've come in with. Right, So there's several
9:22
Speaker 3: people I'm working with right now, But we can say
9:24
Speaker 3: one person I'm working with right now who has chronic fatigue.
9:28
Speaker 3: They're young, in their thirties, and they professional really want
9:35
Speaker 3: to be functioning, but maybe three four years ago something
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Speaker 3: happened and they haven't quite had the energy that they'd
9:42
Speaker 3: had beforehand, and so this manifests physically as fatigue, joint pain,
9:49
Speaker 3: and then insomnia, and then kind of depression comes from that, right, like, gee,
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Speaker 3: I used to be so productive and now I can't
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Speaker 3: function the way I can't in And you know, one
10:01
Speaker 3: example is like a lot of people have had trauma
10:04
Speaker 3: in their youth, so maybe something did happen in their
10:08
Speaker 3: childhood that then they're saying, gee, what's the connection between
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Speaker 3: all of these things the physical experience I'm having now
10:15
Speaker 3: and just all of my life experiences, sicknesses, I may
10:18
Speaker 3: have gotten, events that may have occurred to me, all
10:21
Speaker 3: of these things. And so when somebody comes to me,
10:24
Speaker 3: we talk about that, and there are like practical steps
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Speaker 3: you can take that a lot of functional doctors do,
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Speaker 3: like let's look at the microbiome, let's try these herbs,
10:33
Speaker 3: let's try different lab tests, just to make sure there's
10:38
Speaker 3: not something simple we're missing. Often all of this has
10:42
Speaker 3: been done before, right, and they still don't feel good.
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Speaker 3: And so one of the Brima principles is no judgment.
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Speaker 3: And so when we bring in that principle of no judgment,
10:53
Speaker 3: we can see, Okay, all of this has happened in
10:55
Speaker 3: my life and it's led me to write now. So
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Speaker 3: I can't change the past, and my only possibility for
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Speaker 3: the future is one in which I actually can not
11:11
Speaker 3: feel disenfranchised over my body like a lot of people
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Speaker 3: feel disenfranchised, but one in which I can make the choice.
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Speaker 3: I can figure out what my body needs to be healthy.
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Speaker 3: So the in the conversation part, I'm helping people fine
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Speaker 3: tune the things.
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Speaker 2: What helps you?
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Speaker 3: What helps you feel better, Not what you've read, not
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Speaker 3: what you've heard on you know, different media, not even
11:33
Speaker 3: what your other doctors have told you, but for your
11:36
Speaker 3: own experience, what helps you feel better? Healthier, like you're
11:41
Speaker 3: doing what you need to be in the world. And
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Speaker 3: then the body work is you lie down and you
11:47
Speaker 3: receive body work. Some of the principles that I often
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Speaker 3: bring into the body work are mutual support, firmness and gentleness,
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Speaker 3: and no force.
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Speaker 2: So there's wretches, there's leans.
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Speaker 3: I mean, you can see videos of a BRIMA session
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Speaker 3: on the YouTube channel.
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Speaker 2: But really it is deeply nurturing.
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Speaker 3: It helps you bring your mind to the body to
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Speaker 3: experience right now, regardless of whatever has happened to me
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Speaker 3: in my life, I can be comfortable right now.
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Speaker 1: Let me just interrupt. First of all, you sound amazing.
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Speaker 1: You sound like a combination between like a physician, a therapist,
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Speaker 1: a body worker. Just as an aside for our listeners,
12:38
Speaker 1: what does it What is a functional physician? What does
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Speaker 1: that functional medicine?
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Speaker 3: Does that mean functional medicine is looking for root cause
12:48
Speaker 3: and so not resting in as I said, like, oh
12:53
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm feeling a little depressed. Okay, take this
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Speaker 3: prozac right Like like i'd say, Western medicine and I
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Speaker 3: use a lot of what stern medicine and I've had
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Speaker 3: Western medicine be very supportive for me in my life,
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Speaker 3: So I'm grateful for that training.
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Speaker 2: It's very much of Okay.
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Speaker 3: This is what we're physically seeing, and this is what's
13:11
Speaker 3: going to make that thing that I see go away.
13:14
Speaker 3: So it's very effective for a quick fix getting you
13:19
Speaker 3: back on your there's places where it struggles, and I
13:24
Speaker 3: think we see that in the chronic fatigue realm a lot.
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Speaker 2: I think we see that with.
13:30
Speaker 3: Insomnia, depression, these sort of long standing maybe cultural illnesses
13:35
Speaker 3: that come from our lifestyles. So functional medicine brings in
13:40
Speaker 3: lifestyle approach, but also looks at your different systems. So
13:46
Speaker 3: what's happening with your digestive system, we look at the microbiome,
13:50
Speaker 3: what's happening with your nervous system. And so let's say
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Speaker 3: this patient I was talking about with chronic fatigue, right,
13:58
Speaker 3: young patient, working professional, just can't do the things that
14:02
Speaker 3: they wanted to do in life anymore because they do
14:05
Speaker 3: a little bit and then they get exhausted.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the biggest.
14:08
Speaker 3: Thing that's getting them is the fear. So it's not
14:11
Speaker 3: even necessarily what's happening to you, but your fear around
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Speaker 3: what does this mean? Is my life ever going to
14:19
Speaker 3: be the same? Am I gonna be able to live
14:21
Speaker 3: like I wanted to. That's what drains your energy.
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Speaker 1: So going back to that example, with the information that
14:31
Speaker 1: you gave us about that individual when they're laying down,
14:36
Speaker 1: how do you begin working with them and edit? And
14:44
Speaker 1: why are you choosing a specific thing to start working on?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
14:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, And this is great for all the professionals because
14:52
Speaker 3: I do work with a lot of healthcare professionals who
14:55
Speaker 3: are burnt out. Nurses, therapists, doctors, you know, we're all
15:00
Speaker 3: all burnt out right now. It's so overwhelming to be
15:04
Speaker 3: in the supporting role at this time on the planet.
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Speaker 3: And so the first thing I start with is connecting
15:12
Speaker 3: my mind and my body. So I want to know
15:15
Speaker 3: that I have a body, my body is breathing. I
15:18
Speaker 3: stay with that experience, and then my feelings settle. I'm
15:23
Speaker 3: no longer in a relationship with the recipient where I'm
15:26
Speaker 3: trying to fix or change them, and I'm not putting
15:29
Speaker 3: myself in the role of the practitioner that's gonna fix them.
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Speaker 3: It's I wish to experience my life, my vitality, and
15:39
Speaker 3: then that's what's shared with them. So then when I
15:42
Speaker 3: when I touch them, that first touch is basically life
15:45
Speaker 3: giving to life.
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Speaker 1: I mean that sounds incredible, it really, I mean it. Part,
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Speaker 1: my guess is a lot of physician Western for posicians
16:00
Speaker 1: that are not practicing in this way.
16:04
Speaker 2: We're not trained.
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Speaker 3: We're trained to fix someone and if we can't fix them,
16:08
Speaker 3: then we've failed. So of course there's high rates of
16:12
Speaker 3: burnout in every helping profession because we're pinning our success
16:17
Speaker 3: on changing somebody else.
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Speaker 1: What you're talking about, and correct me if I'm wrong here,
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Speaker 1: it sounds like it requires that you have done or
16:32
Speaker 1: continue to do a lot of work on yourself in
16:38
Speaker 1: a work.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean Brima bodywork is really the practitioner's
16:45
Speaker 3: inner work, supporting the recipient.
16:49
Speaker 2: To then do their own.
16:51
Speaker 3: Inner work and there's no pressure on them. They don't
16:54
Speaker 3: have to become Brima body workers. But by allowing yourself
16:58
Speaker 3: to receive, so many people come to class or come
17:00
Speaker 3: to clinic and they're actually saying, I'm better at giving
17:04
Speaker 3: than receiving. I don't actually know how to receive from others,
17:07
Speaker 3: how to receive from life.
17:12
Speaker 1: So let's go back. So you're standing there with this
17:16
Speaker 1: individual and you said, you're kind of giving them the vitality,
17:21
Speaker 1: your vitality. So what how does that unfold that process
17:26
Speaker 1: unfold there.
17:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, And just to kind of clarify, vitality radiates, right,
17:33
Speaker 3: like like we can't give anyone something, but we basically
17:39
Speaker 3: become like that that quote, become the good you wish
17:42
Speaker 3: to see in the world. And actually this is maybe
17:48
Speaker 3: a little bit off your question, but like if we
17:51
Speaker 3: think about like all the wars and all the suffering
17:53
Speaker 3: and all the arguments, and if we look like our
17:56
Speaker 3: own interstate reflects the world, right and the world reflects
18:01
Speaker 3: our inner state. So if I wish to do something
18:05
Speaker 3: about all that suffering in the world, if I look
18:07
Speaker 3: at myself, how often am I arguing with myself, trying
18:11
Speaker 3: to change myself, trying to fix myself? And so by
18:16
Speaker 3: like bringing that argument into body, mind and feelings connected,
18:23
Speaker 3: I come to that vitality and that peace within myself
18:27
Speaker 3: and then whoever I'm with, right, so now it's the recipient,
18:31
Speaker 3: I'm like maybe just working on their feet. Not everybody
18:35
Speaker 3: is ready for a whole bodywork session. Some people come
18:38
Speaker 3: in and they're not used to touch. We're not a
18:40
Speaker 3: society in America right now that's comfortable with touch, right,
18:43
Speaker 3: with non judgmental touch, And so maybe I'm just working
18:48
Speaker 3: on their feet, and the more I work with their feet,
18:52
Speaker 3: the more comfortable I get. I'm seeing, does my touch
18:56
Speaker 3: have firmness and gentleness simultaneously? Am I fully part anticipating
19:00
Speaker 3: in that activity? And as the recipient? It is so
19:04
Speaker 3: comfortable to receive the touch of somebody who doesn't want
19:07
Speaker 3: to change you, and they don't want anything from you.
19:11
Speaker 3: You just become filled up with new energy and with
19:14
Speaker 3: life energy. And you know, my aim is to support
19:19
Speaker 3: people to become their own physicians, their own healings.
19:25
Speaker 2: You'll always need to.
19:25
Speaker 3: Go to other people for like support from their own education,
19:29
Speaker 3: but to really know what's right for your body, you
19:33
Speaker 3: have to develop your own inner knowing.
19:38
Speaker 1: When you started working this way, like really early on.
19:46
Speaker 1: What was it like for you when I when you
19:51
Speaker 1: started brema?
19:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well there were two main ways I
19:55
Speaker 3: was working with it. I was nineteen at the time,
19:58
Speaker 3: so I was actually still in college because that's when
20:00
Speaker 3: I went back to do pre med and so I
20:02
Speaker 3: was working doing these burrs at the HIV positive Birth
20:06
Speaker 3: Center in San Francisco, and then I was also working
20:10
Speaker 3: at an alternative center for women with cancer, and so
20:14
Speaker 3: those women all the women were also actively using you know,
20:17
Speaker 3: Western medicine, the cancer patients and the HIV positive patients.
20:22
Speaker 3: But bringing the brima in side by side, like it
20:27
Speaker 3: just moves the darkness out of the way, and so
20:30
Speaker 3: it just shows us like, oh, we can receive all
20:33
Speaker 3: the offerings that the world has to offer, and sometimes
20:36
Speaker 3: those offerings don't come in the way we'd wished.
20:39
Speaker 2: Right.
20:39
Speaker 3: Sometimes the things that open us up to change and
20:42
Speaker 3: to really get to know ourselves they're very uncomfortable experiences
20:47
Speaker 3: at the time. I mean, I think labor is a
20:49
Speaker 3: really good example. Labor is not comfortable, but you can
20:53
Speaker 3: move through it and it can be amazingly empowering and
20:57
Speaker 3: transforming no matter what the outcome. It's not like one outcome, right,
21:02
Speaker 3: and I saw that with women. Maybe they did have
21:05
Speaker 3: a successful vaginal delivery, maybe they had a C section.
21:08
Speaker 3: Either way, it can be an empowering experience. And that
21:12
Speaker 3: line between when something is trauma and when something is
21:16
Speaker 3: an empowering experience, that's a third line. That's about how
21:19
Speaker 3: I receive life, how I relate to it, and how
21:24
Speaker 3: I wish to extract from it the things that I
21:29
Speaker 3: can benefit from and then have acceptance. No judgment, forgiveness
21:35
Speaker 3: for the things that I wish had been different.
21:37
Speaker 1: What do you mean when you say moving the darkness
21:40
Speaker 1: out of the way.
21:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, so one way I think of an example here.
21:51
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, there's so many.
21:53
Speaker 3: You know, I wish to not try to, let's say,
22:01
Speaker 3: change my emotional state. So if I'm depressed, or if
22:05
Speaker 3: someone comes into me depressed, or someone comes into me anxious.
22:08
Speaker 3: The more I try to change it, the more fear
22:11
Speaker 3: I have that it's never gonna change, and then I'm
22:14
Speaker 3: gonna be stuck in it. But if I instead focus
22:17
Speaker 3: on my vitality, then that's like the light grows larger
22:23
Speaker 3: than the darkness. So let's say I come in or
22:28
Speaker 3: like I have somebody who comes in and she's got headaches.
22:30
Speaker 3: She's got chronic headaches, and headaches come from so many
22:34
Speaker 3: different etiologies, and so we go piece by piece to say, Okay,
22:39
Speaker 3: what physiologically like, what are the different ways we can
22:42
Speaker 3: decrease the inflammation. Some of that's herbs, some of that supplements,
22:45
Speaker 3: It may be medications, but maybe those headaches are still there.
22:49
Speaker 3: And so we get to a point where the headaches
22:52
Speaker 3: are there, but with self Brima exercises with practice connecting
22:57
Speaker 3: mind and body. They're there but not oppressing me anymore.
23:03
Speaker 3: They're there, but my own vitality is stronger than them,
23:07
Speaker 3: and so they can go into the background. So like trauma,
23:13
Speaker 3: like suffering, like maybe it's not going to totally go
23:16
Speaker 3: away the markers of that in the body, but we
23:18
Speaker 3: can focus.
23:19
Speaker 2: What we can do is focus on.
23:21
Speaker 3: Growing what is whole, what is good, our own inner essence.
23:27
Speaker 3: We talk in Brima about child of existence and child
23:31
Speaker 3: of society. So the child of society is everything we're
23:36
Speaker 3: conditioned to think we are the way we relate to life.
23:40
Speaker 2: But we can grow that child of existence.
23:44
Speaker 3: That's that light, that vitality that actually can connect to
23:48
Speaker 3: something greater than.
23:54
Speaker 2: Than that which is just born, suffers and dies.
24:00
Speaker 1: We're working with someone, are you also providing quote unquote
24:07
Speaker 1: therapy or talk therapy?
24:11
Speaker 3: You know, it's so funny because my training as a
24:14
Speaker 3: family doctor, it's like that's just included in and so
24:18
Speaker 3: much of what the doctor does is listen.
24:21
Speaker 2: So if I really know how to listen.
24:24
Speaker 3: Gosh, that's the bulk of healing is in learning how
24:27
Speaker 3: to listen and give someone the space too.
24:30
Speaker 1: It sounds so easy but as we know, a lot
24:32
Speaker 1: of people don't do that and can't do that and
24:35
Speaker 1: don't want to do that. But I mean, this work
24:39
Speaker 1: you're talking about seems so multifaceted and multi layered and
24:47
Speaker 1: quite frankly amazing. What is required, if I can use
24:56
Speaker 1: that word of the client in this.
25:03
Speaker 3: Really absolutely nothing. I mean, you don't need to be
25:06
Speaker 3: any different than you are. Just a willingness, a willingness
25:10
Speaker 3: to to move through life and to see yourself. Yeah,
25:21
Speaker 3: there's nothing extra required. I think people come to me
25:25
Speaker 3: because they're dissatisfied with what other people have.
25:27
Speaker 2: Told them in the past. They don't want someone telling
25:29
Speaker 2: them take this or that, or they don't feel good.
25:32
Speaker 1: You know, do you realize how exchange? But amazing this
25:38
Speaker 1: sounds because most people go into a doctor and they
25:42
Speaker 1: want to get better, right, they want to cut out
25:45
Speaker 1: the pain or stop the pain, blah blah blah. But
25:50
Speaker 1: there's what you're describing, seems what's the word for it.
25:59
Speaker 3: I mean, Brima's really revolutionary the way it looks at
26:04
Speaker 3: the way it looks at how we can live a
26:07
Speaker 3: meaningful life because nothing is required of you. Of course
26:11
Speaker 3: you want to stop the pain. Of course you want
26:13
Speaker 3: to stop the suffering. You can do all those things
26:15
Speaker 3: and you can be present while while you're doing that.
26:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, who started who founded Brima?
26:23
Speaker 3: So Brima is a practice, It's been around for hundreds
26:29
Speaker 3: of years. It was the practice of a small village
26:32
Speaker 3: and there was a gentleman from that it was his
26:36
Speaker 3: family's practice, and he came to the United States. He
26:40
Speaker 3: met with a group of people in Oakland, California, and
26:45
Speaker 3: so they created the Brima Center. Currently the director of
26:48
Speaker 3: the Breama Center is John Schreiber, and he's written a
26:52
Speaker 3: lot of different books on Brima if people want to
26:54
Speaker 3: check that out. And so we work together at the
26:56
Speaker 3: clinic in Oakland, and then he comes down here to
26:58
Speaker 3: the Santa Cruz Clinic as well. And I studied with Minouch,
27:04
Speaker 3: you know, for my first year's training Brima while he
27:08
Speaker 3: was still teaching, and I Brima is really it's a
27:15
Speaker 3: practice of you yourself. And so even though he gave
27:19
Speaker 3: us the form of it, and this is the form
27:22
Speaker 3: that we present it as, it's non dogmatic and it's not.
27:27
Speaker 2: Oh, you have to do it this way to get
27:29
Speaker 2: this effect.
27:31
Speaker 3: It's really steps to living a more conscious life, whatever
27:35
Speaker 3: that means for you. With your specific life circumstances.
27:41
Speaker 1: So, Alexander, how are you working now and more capacity?
27:45
Speaker 1: And who are you working with?
27:49
Speaker 2: Yeah?
27:49
Speaker 3: So I work with really anyone who's interested in receiving
27:53
Speaker 3: more from their health.
27:56
Speaker 2: And I work with family. I work with kids.
28:01
Speaker 3: I have actually five kids myself, three are adopted, and.
28:06
Speaker 2: So that journey of raising.
28:09
Speaker 3: Kids birth wow kids, And yeah, I love working with families,
28:15
Speaker 3: working with individuals other professionals too. And then I teach
28:21
Speaker 3: internationally and then workshops here in Santa Cruz, California and
28:25
Speaker 3: in Oakland, California at the Brema Center.
28:27
Speaker 1: Awesome. I used to live in Oakland, and I remember
28:31
Speaker 1: where is the Brema Center because I remember seeing it,
28:33
Speaker 1: but I'm not where is it.
28:35
Speaker 3: It's on Claremont in College, that big intersection right there
28:38
Speaker 3: in rock Ridge.
28:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I'm just picturing that because we used to
28:47
Speaker 1: take our our kids to a daycare on Claremont and College.
28:55
Speaker 2: It used to be a gas station. It depends how
28:57
Speaker 2: long ago living there.
28:59
Speaker 1: Okay, I think I'm picturing it.
29:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so it's yeah, sorry.
29:05
Speaker 1: No, I was just gonna reiterate. I mean, you are amazing, really,
29:10
Speaker 1: you're really inspiring. I do this all the time. I
29:13
Speaker 1: haven't heard this this. I don't think I've ever interviewed
29:19
Speaker 1: anyone who's practiced breema before or even know if that's
29:24
Speaker 1: the right term for it. But it's really inspiring.
29:30
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much.
29:31
Speaker 3: And I really, I mean, I think what I wish
29:33
Speaker 3: to do is for all of us to see that
29:37
Speaker 3: we can we can learn to be responsible for our
29:43
Speaker 3: own bodies, for our minds, for our feelings. Not in
29:46
Speaker 3: any way that takes pressure, yeah, but we just we
29:49
Speaker 3: have to clean up a lot of the junk of
29:52
Speaker 3: the internet and of outer influences, and then the more
29:56
Speaker 3: we can connect to ourselves.
29:59
Speaker 2: It's so simple and so practical.
30:01
Speaker 3: And you know, I think the work that you're doing
30:05
Speaker 3: of bringing voices in to show people.
30:08
Speaker 2: Hey, like, there's choices for how you can live your life.
30:13
Speaker 3: And look at all these options for you to make
30:16
Speaker 3: to make something, to make a beautiful garden from the
30:19
Speaker 3: compost that you've experienced. You know, I think I think
30:22
Speaker 3: that's really fantastic that you're offering that opportunity for people.
30:26
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Were you always like this.
30:32
Speaker 3: You know, I think I've always questioned from a young age,
30:36
Speaker 3: why why is there so much suffering? And why do
30:40
Speaker 3: we relate to each.
30:41
Speaker 2: Other so divisively? That's a question that I've always had.
30:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, well or not, Alexandra. What's the best way for
30:48
Speaker 1: people to learn more about you and the work you're doing?
30:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, Alexandra Johnson MD dot com. You can find
30:57
Speaker 3: out more about my events. You can schedule appointments with me.
31:01
Speaker 3: I do virtual appointments as well, so that includes self
31:03
Speaker 3: brema sessions rather than the body work. And then Brema
31:08
Speaker 3: dot com br E E m A dot com tells
31:11
Speaker 3: you more about the Brema Center.
31:12
Speaker 1: It's okay, awesome. We'll have all that linked up here
31:15
Speaker 1: at the show notes page at the Trauma Therapist podcast
31:17
Speaker 1: dot com. Alexandra, love to have you back at a
31:20
Speaker 1: later date. I felt you exude you do you really do?
31:26
Speaker 1: You just exude this. I don't know what the word
31:30
Speaker 1: for it is, like this compassion. Yeah, it's amazing so much.
31:39
Speaker 3: You have that principle of mutual support. We need more
31:42
Speaker 3: of that on the planet right now.
31:44
Speaker 1: Appreciate it, all right, We'll be in touch.
31:46
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you so much.