Change seems to be the word of the year, and Elizabeth Powers wants to help New Mexicans get the change they want.
Powers, a Psych-K facilitator from Boulder, will be in Albuquerque on Friday and Saturday to hold a workshop at the High Desert School for Spiritual Learning.
Psych-K focuses on harnessing the power of the subconscious mind and changing beliefs on a deeper level.
"It stands for psychology and kinesiology," Powers said. "We teach a process of muscle testing, which is kinesiology, and we test to see if someone's beliefs are resonant at a subconscious level."
The processing power of the subconscious mind is 1 million times greater than that of the conscious mind, Powers said.
"We're looking at the driver of what creates our experience in life and that is our belief systems," she said. "So if we look at the driving force of our belief system and we say 'I am confident' and we muscle-test somebody for that. If in fact they don't have that belief their muscle will go weak."
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Then the patient is taught how to integrate their mind and body and create a new brain state, she said.
"Then after they go through the process we ask them to say 'I am confident' and in fact the muscle will be strong," Powers said. "So they have actually shifted that belief to something that may just be on the subconscious level."
Through years of counseling and working with patients - before she began working with Psych-K - Powers said she found many of her patients wanted a quick-fix to their problems.
"Having been a psychotherapist and having worked with a lot of people, the reason I had to leave was because talking about things consciously was not getting results," she said. "It helped people understand themselves, but it didn't actually change the response or reaction to a situation."
Powers found out about Psych-K when she wanted to start her own business.
"I had to start my own coaching practice, and that is really when I realized how strongly my beliefs were limiting me," she said. "I lacked confidence in myself and was feeling insecure. I came across Psych-K and I prayed one day that I would have an answer to these problems I was having, because starting a business was really difficult for me."
Ted Dale is a member of the High Desert School for Spiritual Learning and signed up for the workshop. Dale said a book called The Biology of Belief sparked his interest in the subject of mind-body integration.
"Bruce Hopkins, author of The Biology of Belief, is a cellular biologist and has spent about 25 years studying cells," he said. "He came to the conclusion that cells are not just genes or genetic make-up. Ultimately he said that we are what we believe, that our lives end up being what we think they could be."
Dale said there are about 15 people signed up for the workshop already and he expects it to be a big success.
"I thought it would be something that people in Albuquerque would find very useful," he said. "People will tell you that they will go off and do this with somebody just after a basic workshop. They have people who have gotten over arthritis, dyslexia, phobias and fear of heights. I'm just as anxious to find out if it works as well as everybody says it does."
Powers said she hopes college-age people will sign up for the workshop because it can help with hard decisions students have to make.
"I would love for young people to learn this," Powers said. "I think that if I had had this when I was young I wouldn't have suffered as much as I did. My life would have been entirely different if I had learned that. Look at how many things you limit yourself because you think you can't do something."
Psych-K Workshop
Friday and Saturday
High Desert School for Spiritual Learning
5621 Paradise Blvd. N.W.
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
$400 for adults, $300 for students
