ritual connection
the heart of the village
When we look back at our thriving cultures of the past, we find living rituals at the center of community life.
Rituals that are born out of necessity.
Rituals that facilitate the work of spirit.
Rituals that can hold a village in a good way, and transmute negative energy.
This is what Ritual Connection is all about.
more on process
Most, if not all humans, experience trauma at some point in their lives. Though the word “trauma” is often associated with intense experiences like war, sexual assault or abuse, it can also refer to less obvious experiences, too. These smaller traumas accumulate over the years and get stored in your brain and in the body.
Our organs, tissues, skin, muscles and endocrine glands can all store trauma. These parts have peptide receptors that let them access and retain emotional information.
While this may be hard to believe, you feel positive and negative emotions in your body every day. Here are some common emotions and the places you may feel them:
Anger and pride in the neck, head and shoulders.
Love and happiness fill the entire body.
Anxiety and fear are felt in the chest.
Depression affects most of the body, especially the limbs.
Research also shows us that trauma and deeply stuck emotion is actually stored in parts of the brain not accessed by language.
This means that our traditional forms of therapy, i.e. cognitive and/or talk therapy, can only bring us so far in our healing journeys, and that we need new methods if we are to access the deep-seated emotional trauma stored in our brains and body.
This is what Ritual Connection is all about.
It is a ceremony of catharsis.
A ritual of redemption.
A process of coming home, to ourselves.
Pioneer and Facilitator
Michael Gay is a therapist in private practice, currently paddling alongside whales on the island of Maui.
He earned his M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University with a focus in Transpersonal Psychology. Michael has worked in the field of counseling for the last 14 years as a guide, therapist, and trainer. He was a Wilderness Therapy guide for 6 years, leading and facilitating in deep transformational work with teens, adults, and families in the mountains and high desert. He has also worked extensively in the field of addiction and recovery. He specializes in work with depression, groups, trauma, PTSD, grief, and families. In addition to his M.A., Michael completed a 3-year training at the Gestalt Institute of the Rockies.
Michael uses his extensive training and experience as a therapist and guide to pioneer and facilitate this powerful ceremony we know as Ritual Connection.