With so many new faces joining me here over the last several months, I decided now would be a good time to introduce myself. And what a great way to kick off my blog as well! I've always loved to write and I don't afford myself enough opportunities to pour my thoughts onto the page. I'm not much into journaling because I don't know what to do with them all when they're full, so what better way than to send all my inner most musing out into the etherworld?! So without further ado...
Welcome! My name is Brooke Poletti and I have been practicing massage therapy since 2000. I started on this path with massage at the age of 21, that tender age when we start to really and honestly contemplate "What do I want to be when I grow up?" I wasn't college bound at that moment in life but I knew I wanted to work in holistic health. I was introduced to massage through my mother, who was using massage at the time to overcome a work-related injury and I saw that she was getting some pretty great results, without the use of pharmaceuticals or western medical intervention. I figured massage would be a good stepping stone into the natural health world and I thouht I might like it until something else caught my attention. I had no idea it would turn into a 20+ year career! But what a rewarding career it has been... I've been able to help people heal injuries old and new, recover quicker and more effeciently from surgeries and sometimes even avoid them altogether! I've seen the mask of chronic pain fade from faces over time and watched as people were able to return to the active lives they loved and missed because of pain they thought was "just a part of the aging process." I've made long-term connections with clients who have become like an extension of family over the years as we watched each other grow and evolve as people, watched each other move through marriage, divorce, professional growths and challenges, we've watched our families as they too grew and evolved. I've held space for the deepest grief and the highest joy, and everything in between during my decades of work with therapeutic, healing touch. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of and touch so many lives.
While all of that has definitely played a part in forming who I am today, those things are not "me"... Massage therapist is my job but if I had a different job I would still be me. I am a wife and mother but I was still me before those titles were bestowed upon me. So if the things I do, do not define who I am, what does? How does one really and truly introduce oneself? What makes the "ME" inside all the things that "I" do? Let's explore...
I'll start with my job because I've done that for longer than anything else in my life other than breathe. While "Massage Therapist" is not a defining characteristic, it does speak to some pretty deeply rooted aspects of who I am. Massage is about supporting the body in its innate ability to heal itself. While many have called me a healer, I am not actually the one doing the healing... I am facilitating healing. The joy I feel in my soul when real changes are effected is a common thread throughout my life. When I was a child I loved to play "Mystic" in the two acres of rolling hill (there is only one hill on my parents property, lol) behind our home. I loved to dig up the roots of certain plants, gently harvest the leaves or flowers of other plants, grind them, mix them with water or mud, paint them on my skin or create a poultice with other larger leaves I could wrap around my arm or leg and pretend that I had created some woodland magic that would heal or transform me into something fantastical. I remember laying in the soft spring grass, gently admiring the wildflowers, searching every petal, every stamen and pistil, every little trichome, vein, and stem with such wonder and reverence and respect. I would only pick them after I had seen many others bloom, for fear of picking the only one and then never seeing them again. Little did I know, I was creating a bond with nature, I was learning her language and I swear I could hear her speak to me. Throughout my adult years I have learned about the healing properties of plants (with scientific research to back it up) and often I am transported back to my childhood summers in the grass and the dirt as I realize all my little playmates were actually powerful healers. And I have learned that I was right... my child brain was not fettered by the "rules" of the adult world around me that told me to doubt my intuition and that the magic I created wasn't real. I listened to the plants tell me how to use them and as an adult I find validation for that truth. So to make a short story long... I am an intuitive healer by listening to the natural world around me and sharing its wisdom so others can use that magic too.
I am a wife and mother, but those also do not define me. I became both of these things later in my adulthood in my 30's, but before that I was still me. Throughout my young life, I never wanted to be saddled with either marriage or motherhood. They felt foreign and uncomfortable, like some sort of strange confinement, both boring and defeating at the same time. While the other kids in school were playing "House" or planning out their dream weddings, I was playing "Mystic" and dreaming of traveling the world in a plane piloted by me. Maybe I felt more like a child of the earth itself and so I thought I would always be just that, wild and free. But even wild-hearted children of the earth grow up... and I am not immune to that. It may have taken me longer than most to find a human I loved and trusted enough to "settle down" with but in reality, there was no settling involved! My other half is just as wild-hearted as I am and through that connection I found that I actually wanted to experience motherhood. To leave the role of Child to an actual child while I stepped into the role of Mother was such a new and exciting and also terrifying adventure that I absolutely HAD to do it! This experience has taught me that it's ok to be vulnerable because that is where real growth starts. In the ten years that I have been married, eight years of which include motherhood, I have grown more than all the years leading up to that point. And I wouldn't trade any of it for anyting in the world! So I am a wife and mother and those also lend their flavor to who I am... I am a wild soul, growing and learning every step of the way.
I'm sure there are many more layers of "me" that I could deconstruct further but that would take far longer than I have space or time here to write about. In fact, I'm sure that is a process that I will be working on for the rest of my life, because what are we if not ever changing, growing, evolving beings, constantly refining who we are as we move through this life experience? So for now, I am Brooke, a compassionate, wild-hearted healer! Who are you, really?