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The Courage To Move Forward with Paola di Floria · The Trauma Therapist

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Trauma Rivers podcast. My name is Guimi
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Speaker 1: Ferson and I interview incredible people who share the story
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Speaker 1: of how trauma has shaped their lives. And a big
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Speaker 1: thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to my guest
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Speaker 1: and our sponsors. So five four, three, two and one,
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Speaker 1: our folks, welcome back to the podcast. Very excited to
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Speaker 1: have as my guest today. Paula de Florio, Paula, welcome.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, guy. I'm really pleased to be here.
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Speaker 2: Thanks for the oppor.
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Speaker 1: You are welcome. So. Paula is an Oscar and Emmy
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Speaker 1: nominated filmmaker and co founder of Counterpart Films with her husband,
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Speaker 1: author and filmmaker Peter Raaider. Their breakthrough documentary, Awake the
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Speaker 1: Life of Yogananda, became one of the top grossing indie
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Speaker 1: docs of twenty fourteen and twenty fifteen and set their
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Speaker 1: mission to create media that quote awakens the human spirit.
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Speaker 1: Since then, they've developed in consult are numerous projects exploring spirituality,
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Speaker 1: science and healing, including Infinite Potential and the award winning
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Speaker 1: My Father the Healer All Apollo. Just a little bit
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Speaker 1: about you before we get going, share with the listeners.
1:12
Speaker 1: Where you're from originally and where you are currently.
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Speaker 3: I grew up in Moorestown, New Jersey from parents that
1:22
Speaker 3: were Italian. There were doctors who had come here to
1:26
Speaker 3: start a life in America, and I spent my life
1:30
Speaker 3: back and forth.
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Speaker 2: I grew up very biculturally and.
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Speaker 3: Found my way into telling stories and being a storyteller
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Speaker 3: at a very young age, at like age ten.
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Speaker 1: Okay, very familiar with New Jersey and East Coast.
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Speaker 2: And exit for.
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Speaker 1: So, I mean, okay, how did first talk to us
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Speaker 1: about getting into films and then this whole focus or
2:02
Speaker 1: interest in spirituality and even intergenerational trauma. How did all
2:07
Speaker 1: this evolve for you?
2:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question.
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Speaker 3: So, you know, I got into film really working in
2:14
Speaker 3: the news, and I was working for Italian television in
2:17
Speaker 3: the news, and before that, prior to that, as a
2:21
Speaker 3: child that was an actress, I got you know, my
2:24
Speaker 3: mom had four kids, she you know, needed.
2:26
Speaker 2: To get us out of the house.
2:27
Speaker 3: And one day I got cast in a role that
2:30
Speaker 3: I played for two years in Philadelphia, the role of
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Speaker 3: Helen Keller. And after that it was just one thing
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Speaker 3: after another, and it was mostly acting, acting acting.
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Speaker 2: I was definitely interested in scientists.
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Speaker 3: My parents are both scientists doctors, and I think what
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Speaker 3: happened was the story aspect of things. I found that
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Speaker 3: it was very easy for me to slip into other
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Speaker 3: people's skins. I didn't know at that time that there
2:55
Speaker 3: was a value to that, but I understood very quickly
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Speaker 3: that it wasn't hard for me to I could feel people,
3:02
Speaker 3: and I could kind of I had a certain level
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Speaker 3: of sensitivity that I didn't know was a gift, and
3:09
Speaker 3: so that sort of got lauded, and that's kind of
3:12
Speaker 3: the direction that ended up making me a storyteller, and
3:16
Speaker 3: then went into the news. Really by accident, but I
3:20
Speaker 3: had a wonderful experience as a child where my parents
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Speaker 3: we lived on an Indian reservation in Navajo Reservation, and yeah,
3:29
Speaker 3: and I really it was fascinating experience. My father served
3:34
Speaker 3: as a doctor on the reservation, and I just felt, Wow,
3:39
Speaker 3: other cultures, other ways of living this felt and I
3:44
Speaker 3: just could feel myself expanding through the experience.
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Speaker 1: So to.
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Speaker 3: When I graduated from college and went into the you know,
3:54
Speaker 3: it was in the media. I did a story for
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Speaker 3: Italian television. I pitched on a story about the Columbus
4:00
Speaker 3: Centennial happening there at the Navajo Reservation, and sort of
4:03
Speaker 3: that got me into storytelling through the news. But it
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Speaker 3: wasn't until later that I realized, no, there's just something
4:11
Speaker 3: much I news was kind of all in here, and
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Speaker 3: there was something very much in the heart that was
4:18
Speaker 3: like screaming out and needing to participate in this type
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Speaker 3: of storytelling. I made my first independent feature called Speaking
4:27
Speaker 3: in Strings, about a brilliant violinist named Naja Seilerno Sonberg.
4:32
Speaker 3: And Naja broke every mold for a classical violinist, and
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Speaker 3: she taught me so much, and her mother was my
4:40
Speaker 3: piano teacher growing up. So as na just career sort
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Speaker 3: of took off, there was something I was chasing in
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Speaker 3: that story, and it was her authenticity. So I realized
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Speaker 3: that authenticity and who we really are despite everything around
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Speaker 3: us is at the core of all the stories I've
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Speaker 3: ever told.
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Speaker 1: When you first of all this this violinist, it was
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Speaker 1: a she.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, what was her name, Naja Sealerno Sonnenberg.
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Speaker 1: World phenomenal, you said, she broke mold in what way?
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Speaker 3: She was herself one thousand percent herself in a classical
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Speaker 3: world that did not really invite lesbians at that time,
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Speaker 3: did not invite her radical interpretations of the classics and
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Speaker 3: her personality which was just very forceful, very powerful. She
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Speaker 3: was powerful and she didn't she didn't play around, she
5:45
Speaker 3: didn't play games. She just went on stage as herself
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Speaker 3: and so she stood.
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Speaker 1: Out, Wow, I got to check this person.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to check her out.
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Speaker 1: So you said it doing that, having that experience really
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Speaker 1: struck something in you about authenticity when you what do
6:04
Speaker 1: you mean specifically? I mean, we all, how do you
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Speaker 1: what does that mean to you? Authenticity? And specifically about
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Speaker 1: doing this with her? What did that ignite in you?
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Speaker 3: It ignited the masks that I was wearing. I knew
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Speaker 3: I came through her story and through being at the
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Speaker 3: Navajo reservation. I was aware of at that age, very young.
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Speaker 3: I could feel. It was more like I could feel
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Speaker 3: because I had that sixth sense. I could feel that
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Speaker 3: we were walking through life with masks, with parts of
6:39
Speaker 3: us that were you know, created to get the rewards,
6:46
Speaker 3: get the rewards that we wanted from first our tribe,
6:50
Speaker 3: our family, and then our school. And it just went
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Speaker 3: on like that, and I was I was very attuned
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Speaker 3: to that because what grabbed me about not was that
7:01
Speaker 3: she went out and played baseball and had dirty hands,
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Speaker 3: and you know, her mother would scream at her, why
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Speaker 3: are you playing the violin with dirty hands? And you know,
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Speaker 3: she was playing a stratavarius for crying out loud, and
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Speaker 3: she had to go on a stage like, don't play
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Speaker 3: baseball and get your hands dirty, and she's like, that's
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Speaker 3: who I am, you know. So there was a sense
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Speaker 3: of that that in every story looking back, because I
7:24
Speaker 3: wasn't aware of it as I was telling stories and
7:27
Speaker 3: as a filmmaker, but looking back, I think that was
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Speaker 3: the quality that I was attracted to.
7:31
Speaker 2: In all of the heroines.
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Speaker 3: All of the heroes and heroines in the stories that
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Speaker 3: I was telling were people that were able to tap
7:40
Speaker 3: into that despite anything else going on around them. And
7:45
Speaker 3: this connects to trauma, and it connects to master lee.
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Speaker 3: And that's why, you know, I'm excited to share that
7:52
Speaker 3: with you because I think that that that's the key,
7:57
Speaker 3: right we are, each one of us has It's a
8:00
Speaker 3: very unique and distinct nervous system. You know, no two
8:03
Speaker 3: of us is alike, and there's a reason for that.
8:08
Speaker 3: And that sort of confluence of psychology and spirituality is
8:14
Speaker 3: absolutely fascinating to me, because we wake up into who
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Speaker 3: we are. And I think that that happens in some
8:26
Speaker 3: ways through psychology we understand like what made us or
8:31
Speaker 3: what may have created certain pathways for us. But the
8:36
Speaker 3: next level of understanding that on a much more expansive
8:41
Speaker 3: level to me, is a spiritual awakening, which is when
8:45
Speaker 3: we realize I'm not just this body, I'm not just
8:48
Speaker 3: this brain, I'm not just this physical person walking through life.
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Speaker 3: I'm actually something so much bigger than that.
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Speaker 1: Let's get into the film about Masterly, but before we
9:03
Speaker 1: do this topic, because you've got me going on this
9:06
Speaker 1: topic now of authenticity. Now it's you know, one thing
9:12
Speaker 1: to appreciate that I think authenticity and observing it in
9:17
Speaker 1: other people and being excited about it. But for my
9:22
Speaker 1: way of thinking, it almost is a mirror and reflects
9:28
Speaker 1: back on ourselves, and it almost like ignites within us
9:35
Speaker 1: this tension about you know, these questions, am I being authentic?
9:40
Speaker 1: How can I be more authentic? Did you feel that
9:45
Speaker 1: same way? And if so, how, Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I was aware in the body of a
9:52
Speaker 3: certain tension building up, and I think that it was
9:56
Speaker 3: a tension that was speaking to me.
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Speaker 2: It was saying.
10:02
Speaker 3: Something that I was suppressing, was needing to arise. I
10:09
Speaker 3: didn't understand what it was, and being a storyteller and
10:14
Speaker 3: being a filmmaker helped me get in touch with that.
10:17
Speaker 3: Then I experienced a major trauma, experienced the loss of
10:24
Speaker 3: my son, and that was I think the biggest wake
10:29
Speaker 3: up call for me in my life to help me
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Speaker 3: understand I mean, just trying to keep him alive for
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Speaker 3: four years while he was struggling with his mental health.
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Speaker 3: Of course, that in and of itself is a trauma,
10:43
Speaker 3: but it really put the spotlight back on me as
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Speaker 3: to what that trauma of losing my beautiful Luca did
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Speaker 3: to me was wake up all the other things that
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Speaker 3: I was suppressing, all the other things that I wasn't
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Speaker 3: actually fully living, fully in touch with. And so that
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Speaker 3: big wake up journey has been a big part of
11:11
Speaker 3: what's been going on for me in the past well
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Speaker 3: four years of his struggle and then.
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Speaker 2: Going on three years now. Excuse me of his death
11:23
Speaker 2: or his transition.
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Speaker 1: I like to say so sorry to hear that I'm
11:27
Speaker 1: sorry for your loss. I mean, thank you for sharing that, Jesus.
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Speaker 3: I say that because I think these things are catalysts,
11:38
Speaker 3: you know, I think I look at trauma this is
11:41
Speaker 3: a trauma podcast. I look at trauma now as an opportunity.
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Speaker 3: Trauma is an opportunity for me to see, to look
11:52
Speaker 3: fully at who I am, why I'm here, and what
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Speaker 3: my purpose is, but to book fully because if we
12:02
Speaker 3: don't do that, the alternative is disastrous. And so it's
12:08
Speaker 3: really it's really about having courage. It's having courage to
12:11
Speaker 3: move toward. And I do think that all the gifts
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Speaker 3: are there in moving toward. So the stories that we
12:18
Speaker 3: can tell that show that and share that are only
12:23
Speaker 3: going to help others do that. But to hide whatever
12:27
Speaker 3: it is that's maybe knocking down the house, To hide
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Speaker 3: that and to suppress that creates more pain, not just
12:37
Speaker 3: for us right, creates more pain for everyone around us.
12:42
Speaker 3: And that's why I'm so thrilled that you have a
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Speaker 3: podcast speaking to this, and that all the great people
12:50
Speaker 3: you know, the Gabor Mantes and the Dick Schwartz and
12:53
Speaker 3: the you know, the really big names out there, and
12:58
Speaker 3: I've read their books, you know, Peter Levine, basle Vandelcork,
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Speaker 3: these are people. These are giants that really helped me
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Speaker 3: understand what was going on inside my life and then
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Speaker 3: enabled me to see it in a story like Master.
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Speaker 1: Lee's let's talk about this this film. How did this
13:23
Speaker 1: get on your plate as it were, How did this
13:25
Speaker 1: come on your desk? How did you get involved in?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so this project came to a counterpoint initially, as
13:31
Speaker 3: you know, a book that he had written and so
13:36
Speaker 3: it was a memoir and he was they were looking
13:39
Speaker 3: for help to get it out and to create a
13:44
Speaker 3: brand around Master Lee. And we we started out with
13:49
Speaker 3: a book and then we talked about a film, and
13:52
Speaker 3: we sometimes we do have an arm that is that
13:54
Speaker 3: is like a branding arm for projects that are squarely in.
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Speaker 2: This space, so the Awakening space.
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Speaker 3: We make independent films, we write, we produce, we we distribute,
14:08
Speaker 3: but we have an arm that is specifically for in
14:10
Speaker 3: this branding of of people that are working in spirituality wellness.
14:19
Speaker 3: This kind of branding is our area of specialty and
14:23
Speaker 3: and we have teams that we work with. So that's
14:25
Speaker 3: the capacity with which we were working with Masterly. And
14:29
Speaker 3: it started out that we made this film and we
14:32
Speaker 3: were making it initially as a branding film about you know,
14:37
Speaker 3: him being a healer. He was, you know, he's a
14:39
Speaker 3: master healer of Chigong. And as we started to tell
14:44
Speaker 3: this story. It was so clear that there was a
14:48
Speaker 3: very big story that wasn't really being told, that was
14:52
Speaker 3: knocking and shaking the walls of our studio. And at
15:01
Speaker 3: a certain place, after really editing and re editing and
15:04
Speaker 3: the director, Nick Canadera and Tom Pritchard, his co director,
15:08
Speaker 3: we ended up taking a pause and going back to
15:14
Speaker 3: the leaves and asking if we could have an honest
15:16
Speaker 3: question about maybe something that might be missing from this story,
15:20
Speaker 3: that we're sensing that there's something missing from the story,
15:23
Speaker 3: or let me hear.
15:24
Speaker 1: Refere it there. So, at what point did you realize that, whoa,
15:30
Speaker 1: there's another story here. What was that?
15:34
Speaker 2: Hm, that's a really good question.
15:40
Speaker 3: So part of it was just intuition, but it was
15:46
Speaker 3: it had to do with the story that something wasn't
15:50
Speaker 3: adding up. Masterly was helping to heal so many people
15:55
Speaker 3: around the world. Thousands of people were coming to him
15:57
Speaker 3: for healings. He was very successful, and it all crumbled,
16:05
Speaker 3: It all fell apart after a certain point and the
16:09
Speaker 3: story just couldn't We couldn't get to the.
16:12
Speaker 2: Real why it didn't really add up.
16:15
Speaker 3: You know, yes, there's always some bad apples that you know,
16:18
Speaker 3: show up for healing. They can cause a lot of problems.
16:22
Speaker 3: If you look in the history of so many spiritually
16:25
Speaker 3: advanced teachers, there's always stories of breakups and fallouts, and
16:32
Speaker 3: so it's not that uncommon for something like that to happen.
16:35
Speaker 3: But when we would scratch to try to understand what
16:38
Speaker 3: exactly was at the bottom of this story, it just
16:41
Speaker 3: it just felt like there was there.
16:43
Speaker 2: Were missing pieces.
16:45
Speaker 3: And that's what made us want to have a conversation
16:48
Speaker 3: to say, maybe we're getting this wrong. Can we have
16:51
Speaker 3: a conversation with you, because it's not showing up on
16:54
Speaker 3: the screen when we talk about the timeline, it's like,
16:57
Speaker 3: what's the screen, it's our editing.
17:00
Speaker 2: In editing, we're not we're not.
17:02
Speaker 3: It's not adding up, and we've tried so many different
17:05
Speaker 3: angles and we're not getting to it. We think maybe
17:08
Speaker 3: we missed asking the right questions. So we went back
17:14
Speaker 3: and we asked some questions about.
17:18
Speaker 1: So they said they agreed to that.
17:19
Speaker 3: They agreed, and I have to say that all along,
17:23
Speaker 3: to their credit, the LEAs have been amazing all along,
17:28
Speaker 3: Like whenever there's been a question that some people might
17:31
Speaker 3: recoil and just say that's it. That's all I'm telling you.
17:35
Speaker 3: You know, that's not the case with the LEAs. They
17:37
Speaker 3: were very curious and open, you know, they didn't understand
17:41
Speaker 3: like filmmaking necessarily and like why we had to go
17:44
Speaker 3: in the direction that we were going, and we did
17:46
Speaker 3: our best to explain that. For us, the audience and
17:52
Speaker 3: who we share the film with is that's who we're
17:55
Speaker 3: speaking to. We want truth to be felt because if
18:00
Speaker 3: we can feel truth when we're watching a film, then
18:04
Speaker 3: we get to understand who we are. If we see
18:08
Speaker 3: a facade or a mask, it actually truncates our own
18:11
Speaker 3: development as we watch. So, you know, what we want,
18:16
Speaker 3: what we live for, is for us to feel the honest,
18:20
Speaker 3: our honesty when we are on a film. If we
18:25
Speaker 3: are subject of a film or a participant our honesty,
18:30
Speaker 3: it might feel like you're protecting something because you don't
18:34
Speaker 3: want to be seen in a certain way, but in reality,
18:38
Speaker 3: everyone watching a film is dying to feel understood and
18:42
Speaker 3: to know more about themselves, and they're going to do
18:45
Speaker 3: that through your level and depth of honesty. And that's
18:51
Speaker 3: the irony, is that we're not protecting ourselves. We're actually
18:54
Speaker 3: doing a really.
18:55
Speaker 2: Sacred act of sharing.
18:57
Speaker 3: And when we get those special people like Master Lee
19:01
Speaker 3: who really.
19:03
Speaker 2: Are willing to go there.
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Speaker 3: That's when real transformation happens, not just for Master Lee,
19:09
Speaker 3: but for anyone who is actually in the audience participating
19:12
Speaker 3: in this journey.
19:16
Speaker 1: Wow, what you just said right now is emblematic of
19:23
Speaker 1: what I try to do the work on my podcast.
19:27
Speaker 1: You know, get to the core of things. Now. Initially,
19:32
Speaker 1: before you had that discussion and went back to Master Lee,
19:40
Speaker 1: was he as forthcoming as he wanted to be? Or
19:48
Speaker 1: was he just waiting for the right questions or you
19:50
Speaker 1: didn't ask me the questions and now that you are okay, yeah,
19:55
Speaker 1: kind of like that.
19:56
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting he didn't give us resistance. It
20:01
Speaker 3: was as though we hadn't answered, we hadn't asked the
20:04
Speaker 3: right questions. He didn't know, or perhaps the questions were asked,
20:07
Speaker 3: but he had learned to answer them in a certain way.
20:13
Speaker 3: I mean, we learn from the outside how to be right.
20:18
Speaker 3: So that Masterly was answering the questions. But when we said, hey,
20:24
Speaker 3: you know what, we're more interested in this other Masterly
20:28
Speaker 3: that you know, lived through the cultural revolution in China
20:34
Speaker 3: and who was traumatized as a child, and who was
20:41
Speaker 3: beaten and tortured, and who had to do so much
20:47
Speaker 3: in order to survive, and for whom hiding under the
20:52
Speaker 3: bed was his safe.
20:55
Speaker 1: Place, he might not never have had that opportunity to
20:59
Speaker 1: talk about that.
21:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it was really about saying, let's go back
21:06
Speaker 3: to China, Let's go back to where this story really
21:11
Speaker 3: maybe needs to be more fully understood. And that's when
21:15
Speaker 3: we decided, when he was willing to explore it further,
21:20
Speaker 3: that's when we decided to send him back to China.
21:23
Speaker 3: And that's when Tom Pritchard, who was our cinematographer, really
21:29
Speaker 3: went back and became co director, you know, went back
21:33
Speaker 3: and really captured the journey to China with his family
21:40
Speaker 3: because don't forget, you know, his son and his wife,
21:42
Speaker 3: there was a lot they didn't know.
21:45
Speaker 2: About.
21:46
Speaker 3: Masterly, he was holding the position of the confusion, the master,
21:51
Speaker 3: the father, the you know, the strong one, and he
21:56
Speaker 3: was doing that brilliantly until he couldn't any more. And
22:02
Speaker 3: when his following all fell away and he went into
22:06
Speaker 3: silence for years, didn't teach for a decade, you know,
22:14
Speaker 3: did a lot of introspection. That was that's the part,
22:19
Speaker 3: that's the part that we became more interested in what
22:24
Speaker 3: was happening there, what was unraveling and then emerging, because
22:34
Speaker 3: in our experience of these things, before something authentic or
22:40
Speaker 3: real emerges, something else has to unravel.
22:46
Speaker 1: Is this interest in you know, authenticity? Is this a
22:54
Speaker 1: cultural piece? Here?
22:58
Speaker 2: Is it a cultural piece?
23:00
Speaker 1: Words?
23:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, ask me that in a different way.
23:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, in other words, his culture would would that be
23:10
Speaker 1: something that his culture would not necessarily share. It's not
23:14
Speaker 1: in the equation, it's not in the conversation. And here
23:17
Speaker 1: you are coming from a different culture.
23:22
Speaker 3: This happens a lot in our work, right, It's it's uh, you.
23:26
Speaker 1: Know, and it's even happening in our culture too. It
23:29
Speaker 1: is people will talk about this.
23:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's I think that's what's Look, this
23:35
Speaker 3: is what to me, this is the most beautiful thing
23:38
Speaker 3: about being human, right, is that if we can really
23:42
Speaker 3: show up as who we are.
23:44
Speaker 1: Right.
23:44
Speaker 3: So, I'm a curious Italian American documentary filmmaker, a person
23:51
Speaker 3: who's gone on a journey with trauma, complex trauma. I
23:59
Speaker 3: have been at track did even before I understood what
24:01
Speaker 3: trauma was, was attracted to truth, some kind of thing
24:05
Speaker 3: that I felt vibrationally was truth.
24:08
Speaker 2: And that's what I sought in the films that I.
24:11
Speaker 3: Did and that may not be the kind of documentary
24:18
Speaker 3: that master Lee thought he was going to be making, right,
24:21
Speaker 3: which was more about building stature, because he had stature.
24:25
Speaker 3: He's an impressive, really impressive person who has healed you know,
24:32
Speaker 3: thousands of people with all kinds of illnesses, very strong,
24:37
Speaker 3: strong willed, strong minded, very intelligent, humble even you know,
24:43
Speaker 3: to be able to come in contact with this questioning
24:51
Speaker 3: of we don't know if what you're saying you are
24:54
Speaker 3: is really everything, and we're really interested in this other
24:57
Speaker 3: side of who you are, I mean, could have been
25:00
Speaker 3: the end of the movie, right.
25:02
Speaker 1: Well, and it's not just like you're not like you're
25:04
Speaker 1: just asking him about him being a pro tennis player,
25:09
Speaker 1: which he didn't happen to, So you're asking him about
25:13
Speaker 1: something that's I mean, trauma is something very vulnerable for
25:18
Speaker 1: a lot of people to share, and it shifts the
25:21
Speaker 1: whole dynamic potentially oftentimes How in your eyes, how did
25:27
Speaker 1: you feel or see that that impacted him his sharing
25:34
Speaker 1: of this.
25:34
Speaker 3: Well, I would I want to just before answering that,
25:37
Speaker 3: I just want to say we were ignorant enough to
25:40
Speaker 3: not we did not know that by sending him to China,
25:44
Speaker 3: that that is actually a form of it's like, it's
25:49
Speaker 3: it's a way to heal trauma. So I have a
25:52
Speaker 3: family member who's an amazing trauma therapist and addiction specialist expert.
26:00
Speaker 3: Amanda de Julia is her name, and she works in
26:03
Speaker 3: Los Angeles. She would she's the one who made me recognize, oh,
26:08
Speaker 3: this is actually a form of working through trauma is
26:13
Speaker 3: going back through the experience. We didn't really know that
26:17
Speaker 3: because we're not therapists, but we knew intuitively as storytellers
26:22
Speaker 3: that something like that had to happen because that's where
26:25
Speaker 3: the story was that had to be unearthed. And so
26:29
Speaker 3: by sending him back, that's where the walls started to
26:35
Speaker 3: come down, right, That's when he started walking through the
26:38
Speaker 3: old streets where he had lived with his family, where
26:45
Speaker 3: he had to break free and actually learn how to
26:50
Speaker 3: do Chi gong because something intuitively inside him knew already
26:54
Speaker 3: what it was, and he knew that that was his
26:57
Speaker 3: way out. He knew that that was going to be
26:59
Speaker 3: his way out. He was doing those things all from
27:04
Speaker 3: a place of survival, right. So, but in the sharing
27:10
Speaker 3: of that, he was able to get in touch with
27:13
Speaker 3: actually a different thing that was happening, which is the
27:16
Speaker 3: reliving of that pain and then having the vulnerability and
27:20
Speaker 3: the courage to share that with his son and with
27:24
Speaker 3: his wife because that we didn't know about the results
27:30
Speaker 3: that that would produce. But what ended up happening was
27:33
Speaker 3: that the family went on a really beautiful journey of
27:36
Speaker 3: healing and when they came to at the.
27:39
Speaker 1: Expense of stating an obvious metaphor, it's like the Master
27:42
Speaker 1: Healer healing himself.
27:43
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly exactly.
27:47
Speaker 3: And when they came back, they said, you know, whatever
27:51
Speaker 3: happens with the movie, you know, we've gotten so much
27:54
Speaker 3: from this already.
27:57
Speaker 1: Well, Jesus, just reminder, I'm speaking with Paula Deflorio. We're
28:03
Speaker 1: talking about the book. I'm sorry, we're talking about the
28:06
Speaker 1: film documentary My Father The Healer. She's the founder co
28:11
Speaker 1: founder of Counterpoint Films. Paula, I'm just realizing I want
28:18
Speaker 1: to have you back at a later date. She has
28:20
Speaker 1: so much to talk to you about. I love talking
28:22
Speaker 1: to you. What's next for you?
28:27
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I'm making a film right now that
28:31
Speaker 3: is also in the space of its psychology and spirituality merging.
28:35
Speaker 2: And it's a group called the Diamond Approach.
28:40
Speaker 3: Based out of Berkeley and all over the world, and
28:44
Speaker 3: we're making a really special film where we're working with
28:48
Speaker 3: people from different corners of the world who are.
28:52
Speaker 2: Living life with this teaching.
28:55
Speaker 3: And we've been fortunate enough to work with the founders
28:59
Speaker 3: a Meet Almas and Karen Johnson and to capture the
29:03
Speaker 3: birth of this teaching and how it came about.
29:07
Speaker 1: Now, for these projects, I mean, I guess it varies.
29:10
Speaker 1: But do you go out and seek projects or vice
29:13
Speaker 1: versa people come to you and say, can you make
29:15
Speaker 1: a film about it?
29:17
Speaker 2: Happens both ways.
29:18
Speaker 3: This film came to me, you know, so many times
29:22
Speaker 3: they come to us, and then sometimes there are films
29:25
Speaker 3: that are really bubbling up within us and I do
29:29
Speaker 3: have I do have a couple of those that are
29:31
Speaker 3: burning to have me explore. So I think, you know,
29:36
Speaker 3: perhaps after this film, I may be doing something deeply personal.
29:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome, all right, Paula. How do people learn more
29:44
Speaker 1: about you and your films and your work? What's the
29:46
Speaker 1: best way?
29:47
Speaker 3: Counterpoint Films. Counterpoint Films dot Com is our website. And
29:53
Speaker 3: to learn more about Whole Body Prayer or you know,
29:56
Speaker 3: actually my father the Healer, the brand is h is
30:00
Speaker 3: my Whole Body Meditation, so whole Bodymeditation dot com will
30:06
Speaker 3: tell you everything you want to know about my father
30:08
Speaker 3: the Healer, and UH Counterpoint Films dot com will tell
30:12
Speaker 3: you more about about who we are and the kind
30:15
Speaker 3: of work that we do.
30:17
Speaker 1: Awesome, all right, we'll have that link up here at
30:19
Speaker 1: the show notes page.
30:20
Speaker 2: Thank you guy, Yes, of course, thank you. Thank you, No,
30:24
Speaker 2: thank you for all you're doing.
30:25
Speaker 3: This is so cool what you're doing and how you
30:28
Speaker 3: are bringing together You're you're making this a like a
30:31
Speaker 3: conversation that we can all have.
30:35
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate that. Yes, and I loved meeting you
30:38
Speaker 1: and talking to you, and we'll be in touch.
30:40
Speaker 3: Okay, take care that by