The focus of a Heart Opening Spinal Flow session is to allow the heart to take the lead, to gently amplify its voice over the mind and body, so that the heart's intelligence can guide the healing. Unlike the deep emotional release sessions, which intentionally target stored trauma in specific spinal gateways, the Heart Opening session encourages the body to open from within, to soften, to expand, and to surrender.
It’s a subtle, but important difference. And it starts with intention.
Before we dove into this day’s Heart-Centred practice, I set my intention with care. I invited in my guides, asked for protection around the space, and called in the support I needed to release what no longer served me, and receive the healing I was ready for. I also invited in the support of my practitioners guides, in accordance with the highest good of all.
Whether I was in the role of client or practitioner, every time I made this intentional connection, the session felt different. Deeper. More embodied. The few times I didn’t? I found myself stuck in my head, unable to drop fully into the experience.
Especially during Heart Openings or deep release sessions, this spiritual groundwork matters. It brings you into a place of presence and trust. So, if you’re someone who resonates with angels, guides, ancestors, or Source, call them in. Let them help you hold and protect the space.
In Spinal Flow, the Centre Gateway (heart) and the Passion Gateway (throat) are intimately connected. The heart governs love, compassion, and emotional truth. The throat governs communication, expression, and authenticity. When these gateways are balanced, they allow your truth to flow clearly from the heart through the voice, a powerful alignment of vulnerability and empowerment.
Typically, Spinal Flow is performed with the client lying face down. But in Heart Opening sessions, after initiating the flow and building its strength, the client may be asked to turn over (if and when the body is ready). This allows the practitioner to access the energetic front body, focusing on the chest, throat, and other access points, while maintaining the energetic flow.
At first, I couldn’t quite understand how this would work. How could the flow be tracked and activated from the front, with the client lying on their back? But again, my body, and this practice, amazed me.
I was the first client of the day in our group. I had set my intention.
I was ready, or so I thought.
As the session began, the practitioner built the flow while I lay face down. Then came the moment to turn over. The second I turned and laid on my back, knees bent, my Power Gateway began to tremble, my pelvis and sacral region shaking uncontrollably, as if I were freezing. I couldn’t stop it.
My practitioner continued to hold the dura access points on my lower body, which helped me feel grounded, even as the trembling continued. Then, she brought focus to the centre of my chest, the Heart, and I was astonished at how strongly I could still feel the Spinal Flow moving, even in this new position.
The energy wanted to rise. I could feel it building, pushing upward. My body tried to bend to make space. My head instinctively tilted back, as if clearing a path. Then she brought her attention to my Passion Gateway, my throat.
And that’s where I met resistance with a force.
As the energy attempted to rise into my throat, I could feel the block resisting. I tried to help it. I opened my mouth to let out a voiced "Ahhh", just a gentle vocal release, but my lips cramped. My mouth tightened involuntarily, like tetany, even though I wasn’t doing hyperventilated breathwork.
I kept trying. Again and again. But every time, my body shut it down. It was like my throat refused to be opened.
I knew I had a strong block here, I’ve been aware of it for a long time and it made itself known multiple times this week already. I just hadn’t realised how forcefully my body was protecting that space. This session brought me face to face with it.
I felt emotions come to the surface and I wanted to cry, tried to cry, and I did my best to just release and let go and just cry. But still, the energy wouldn’t pass, and I couldn't fully cry. And my mouth, my jaws just clamped shut. Eventually, the session came to an end. I felt the practitioner’s gentle presence beside me. She had done everything right. It was a powerful session, and I could feel both her and the Observer in our group holding protected space. It was simply that my body wasn’t ready to fully let go, yet.
The throat is strongly linked to authenticity and self-expression. This block wasn’t about being “fake”, it was about not speaking from my truest self. Not honouring my own voice, my own experiences, not speaking up for myself. The part of me that had long been hidden. The one I had protected.
But it’s shifting. This immersion marked one of the first times I openly spoke with others about my connection to Source, to the Universe, past lives, karmic threads, about light language, galactic awareness… all the things I usually tuck away and experience in my own reality. But not here. Here, I was surrounded by others like me. And in those conversations, I felt safe and I felt seen.
So when I sat up after the session, my body still trembling, throat buzzing, and ears blocked, I wasn’t disappointed. I was simply aware. Aware that this block had layers, deep layers. Aware that it would take time. After this session I even lost my voice for the rest of the day (and even the next), but in a way, it was symbolic. Something was shifting. ANd I continued to trust in the process.
And I still knew, this work was my calling.
This experience reminded me, once again, of the vital importance of integration. Whether in Breathwork, Spinal Flow, or any deep Healing modality, we must have tools and space to support what surfaces.
That’s why I offer integration workbooks for my Breathwork clients, and I’ll do the same with Spinal Flow. I was happy to discover that this modality includes self-healing tools and practices we can recommend to clients. Because it’s not just about the session, it’s about everything that happens after the session.
If I had gone through this immersion even a year or two ago, I don’t think I would’ve been ready. The intensity would have been too much, and I would not have allowed myself to be vulnerable and to feel and heal. Some participants didn’t experience big emotional releases this week, and that’s okay too. We all receive exactly what we’re ready for at the time. There is no right or wrong way to heal and it's important to know that we are all on journey to heal and evolve as humans.
Sometimes, when the body is still stuck in a trauma response, fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.. it’s not ready to receive. Even if your mind says, “I’m okay,” your body might not feel safe yet. And that’s where the real work begins, helping the nervous system shift from survival into safety.
Can Spinal Flow help shift someone out of a trauma response? Absolutely. It’s one of the things it does best. But it may take time. It’s a gentle, yet powerful modality that works with the body’s own intelligence, guiding it out of sympathetic activation (“fight or flight”) and into parasympathetic regulation (“rest and digest”).
That’s where healing begins.
This is why I’m so passionate about creating somatic tools to help people move through trauma, from state to state, from fear to safety, from dissociation to presence. I’m developing somatic practices tailored to the different trauma responses so people can use them daily, or in moments of dysregulation, to ground, reconnect, and process.
It’s not just about getting to the release. It’s about helping the body feel safe enough to let go. And then walking alongside it afterward, offering tools and compassion, so the shift can truly integrate.
That’s the full circle. That’s the path home.
And this, this is why I do the work I do.