Ilana Rubenfeld currently teaches at the Esalen and Omega Institutes and at the New York Open Center. She conducts a four-year professional certification-training program in the Rubenfeld Synergy Method that integrates bodywork, intuition, and psychotherapy. Although she has been teaching since the 1960s, this is the first book outlining her practice and principles.
In the introduction, Joan Borysenko writes: "True healers are maestros, conductors of the symphony in which the body, emotions, mind and spirit are instruments. They bring these four elemental aspects of being into harmony or synergy." This is an appropriate metaphor for Rubenfeld's methodology since this healer was also a conductor early in her life.
"Our bodies and brains house all of life's experiences. We may not be able to remember them, but they are imprinted in our unconscious. They are there, as much a part of us as our bones, heart, and bloodstream," Rubenfeld writes. The author discusses the ways in which the body holds emotion and explains the best methods for releasing it. She examines the art of therapeutic touch and its use with energy fields. Rubenfeld also describes experiments couples can try; a self-care toolbox for healers and helpers; and a "Seven-Day Mind Your Muscles Program" for tension release, body alignment, and enhanced flexibility.
