Almost all indigenous cultures have direct, hands-on methods of healing.  Popular today include Hawai’ian lomilomi, Zuni high-velocity adjustment, Thai massage, and more.  The American osteopathy of Andrew Taylor Still owes its origins to the Indigenous people of Missouri — the Cherokee, Shawnee, Pawnee, and the Pottawatomi, among whom Dr. Still practiced for years.  We have reviewed the evidence for Indigenous influences on Still and have shown how similar the Indigenous practices of Missouri are to osteopathic methods. In Oklahoma, we learned that this approach to healing is called “reading the body.” In this workshop, we will introduce participants to this form of Indigenous touch therapy or “reading the body,” as Lewis learned it from traditional practitioners of this craft.  We will review the various strategies for touching, including deep pressure, rocking, shaking, running energy meridians, mobilization, and breathwork.  We will cover the body from head to toe.  We will review what is similar and different about the Indigenous bodywork practices of Missouri to other systems of osteopathic or “manipulative” therapy.  We will consider how techniques resonate with the cultures that produce them.  We will consider especially the Indigenous emphasis on the breath as a means to restore spirit to all parts of the body, and its consistency with many aboriginal languages in which the words for spirit and breath are the same. We will also explore similarities with tuinan from Chinese medicine and speculate about knowledge exchange with Chinese practitioners working on the railroad in the mid-19^th century.

            The workshop will include

• Supervised practice with the methods of the Indigenous bodywork of Missouri
• Practice with Indigenous breathwork
• Examples of incorporating imagery and dialogue with bodywork.
• Consideration of the importance of ceremony and ritual and intent in bodywork.
• Manipulative medicine as a means of dialogue with the body.
• Indigenous use of acupuncture and its energy meridians and energy medicine.

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We will begin and end songs and prayers to ask for a blessing on the work we will and have.

Web Bio

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, DFAPA, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed his training in family medicine and psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He also holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is board certified in geriatric medicine. He currently works with Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness in Maine, which serves the needs of its five Indigenous Nations. He is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native culture has to offer the modern world. He is of Cherokee, Lakota, Greek, and Swedish heritage.

Barbara Mainguy, MA, LCSW, graduated from the University of Toronto in psychology and philosophy, from Concordia University with a Master’s in Creative Arts Therapies, and from the University of Maine with a Master of Social Work. She works as a psychotherapist and supervises crisis services with Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, which serves the five Indigenous Nations of Maine. Barbara has worked with Lewis in Indigenous bodywork and other body therapies and narrative practices for years.  She is the co-author with Lewis of Remapping your Mind, 2015, and is the author of scientific papers on healing circles/talking circles, culture as medicine, and narrative practices. 

My book I have been working on for so long has been published and is available on Amazon.
It has taken a very long time, almost nine years, due to the personal nature of part of it. As I have been previewing it, I realized it helped me so much with my grief process. It also helped me grow as a professional and seriously increased my empathy for all people’s grief.

I believe the book is timely, both in mental health and the world right now. We must do a better job of caring for those people in our society with serious issues. From the mentally ill to the elderly and the disabled. America has always been a country of caring people; we need to step up now and make a difference in our world.
The pleasure of writing the book is it helped me review an important part of my son’s life and remember how special he was. It called on me as a professional, now doing alternative medicine, to more clearly focus on my work with everyone.

I am so happy it has been published and hope you will enjoy reading it.
Feel free to let me know what you think.

~ Doris

Almost nine years ago I started writing a book. It has been an adventure and a long learning experience.

The book is now finished and is ready to be published in the next two weeks. Many of you have known I was working on this and been very supportive of the effort. I am very appreciative of all the support and comments. Writing it has honed my writing skill and increased my knowledge in several areas and it helped me with my own grief. It has also given me an opportunity to express my thoughts about our mental health system. After almost fifty years of working in some form of our behavioral health system in America, I am concerned we have not done more for the mentally ill population in our country. There are some suggestions offered in the book.

For the next few weeks, I will provide some excerpts from the book here and the book will be available on this website. I am looking forward to starting a second book soon. This one will not be as emotionally difficult to write so should not take so long.

Thank you for your interest in this website and in the new book. The title is “House of Healing. “

December 20, 2019 marked my last day providing Addiction, Domestic Violence, and all other forms of mental health therapy.  We marked this event with a Lakota Give Away at the Franktown office.  This was a way of celebrating and remembering forty-five years as a therapist.  During that forty-five years I worked at the Women’s Prison, two hospitals, owned a Counseling Service (Running Creek) and was in private practice.  I also taught for the Office of Behavioral Health in Colorado and several other states for thirty of those years.  My time as a therapist involved working in many locations including Native American reservations. That experience has fueled my desire and interest in Native healing techniques. I taught Native American Studies for years and the more I taught the more I learned.  This proved my theory “we teach best what we most need to learn” and has been encouragement to practice Alternative Health care which includes Cherokee Body Work.  During my years as a therapist I have seen thousands of clients, taught many classes, sat on many boards and won some awards. The one I am most fond of is the Forquer Award for outstanding contributions in Substance Abuse prevention, treatment, intervention and education.  I also trained and mentored many counselors, wrote and implemented many programs and enjoyed working with many diverse populations.  It has been a wonderful career. It has also allowed me to give back a lot for my own healing.  My lively style has earned me many nicknames including OG which I was told meant “Original Gangster” for my pushiness about therapists maintaining an ethical practice. It has been so fun and special I could write for hours about it when I just wanted to let everyone know I have stopped doing therapy. I am very grateful for every client I have seen and have learned so much from clients and students.  Therapy requires great courage and I have been blessed to see the wonderful effects of people diligently seeking to change in positive ways with therapy.

For the past thirty years I have been learning Alternative models of healthcare including Reiki, Cherokee Body Work, acupressure, reflexology.  I have become qualified to teach these practices.  I provide these services now at my home office in Elizabeth, Colorado. I am also making another dream come true.  I am writing a book I wanted to write for many years and have worked on for many years.  It looks like it will get finished and published this year with some help from some very dedicated people. Watch for more information about the book on this website.  Look at our Events page if you are interested in learning any of the Alternative Health Care Practices I teach.

I have been extremely blessed and hope I have paid that forward. Doris

For many years I have taught Native American Studies and Cherokee Body Work.  I have often taught the Cherokee Body Work as three levels over six days.   The Intensive creates that material in a condensed and higher intensity format as a three-day learning experience.

 it will include the material from all three levels as well as experiential practice using the techniques and information from the class.

We will spend time learning storytelling, sound, vibration, herbal treatments, ceremony, Cherokee osteopathy, as well as many other experiences.

The class includes a book, written by Doris Kruse, so you can continue to practice and use the tools you learn after the class is over.  For more information look at the three levels described on the blog pages of my website topsient.com.

Hope to see you at the Cherokee Body Work Intensive.

Doris

The history of the use of drumming in energy work is ancient.  Drumming was often used in some of the Native American Tribes to reset heart rates or to restart the heart.  Drumming is so effective in any type of body work.  Drumming reminds our body of its ideal vibration rate which is in harmony with the pulse of the earth.  Reiki combined with the rhythm of the drum helps identify and remove energy blockages. Reduces stress and can improve focus, clarity memory and encourage creativity. 

Reiki drumming is a purifying process.  Many research projects have been dedicated to learning the effects if sound and drumming on the human body, mind and spirit.  Drumming has been shown to generate dynamic neural connections in the brain.

See Reiki drumming on U Tube for a demonstration.

The class covers both Reiki and CBW drumming and the use of sound in treatment.  We will learn to use the drum and will practice together.  There will be time to use Reiki and CBW with the drumming and to evaluate its effectiveness.

We will attempt to reach harmonic resonance which happens when all drummers in a group synchronize the sound.

This is a fun class and a great opportunity to expand your energy work skill.

December 13, 2016, I retired after thirty years of teaching the Certified  Addiction Counselor Classes.

During those thirty years, I taught at many places, Addiction Schools, colleges, Native American reservations, hospitals, Training programs, prisons, community corrections programs, mental health centers and seventeen years at Odyssey Training Program. It was a wonderful thirty years that flew by quickly.  During those years I taught thousands of students, mentored many counselors, traveled many miles and created several lifetimes of memories.   I became an addiction counselor as a way of giving back for my own healing.  I have received much more than I gave.

CAC training is managed and approved by the Office of Behavioral Health in Colorado.  During my thirty years, I served on the Colorado Addiction Professionals board as well as the Colorado Counselor Training Committee.

People often ask me which of the fifteen classes I taught I enjoyed the most and there are two.  The pleasure of preparing to and teaching the Native American Substance Abuse Issues class gave me an opportunity to meet and work with many Native American people from several tribes and to do some consulting for some of those tribes.  For sure that is a favorite.  The other is Clinical Supervision.  The current knowledge about good supervision improving and industry caused me to strive to teach models of supervision that work in the everyday world.  Good supervision improves care for clients.

I feel very good about the contribution I made to the Addiction Industry and the many people who achieved their certification as a result of my teaching

I have moved into alternative health care as a Reiki Master Teacher and Cherokee Body Work Teacher.

I have wonderful memories of my days as an instructor for the Colorado Addiction counselor Program.

Over the past thirty years I have studied and worked with Cherokee Body Work. I have a deep respect for the Cherokee Nation and their knowledge of health and healing. I have felt privileged to learn some of these tools. It is also my great privilege to teach some of them. Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madronna and others have been great teachers and role models for me. Having had great teachers and role models, it is my desire to pass on what I have learned.

Cherokee Body Work is learned experientially. There is not a lot written about it. It is traditionally passed on in oral tradition. The material for this class is a combination of Doris Kruse, Dr. Mehl-Madronna, the Garretts and many others from thirty years of interactions.

The philosophy of Cherokee Body Work includes storytelling, herbal medicine, and hands on healing using breathing techniques, sounds and vision. This workshop is for all healers, both western medicine and alternative. It is a set of skills that have stood the test of time. The Cherokee nation is one of the oldest in North America.

The material for this class, written by Doris Kruse comes from thirty years of working with Native American people and being a therapist for over forty years. The Cherokee Body Work method takes time to learn and requires a great deal of practice. It is also very effective and often works when other methods do not.

Doris is a practitioner of Cherokee Body Work and it is used daily in her practice in Franktown. In daily practice we learn the ins and outs of a method.

This workshop will address the vision piece of Cherokee Body Work and incorporating all the CBW tools we have learned so far together.

We will spend one day learning and working with quantum touch from the work of Richard Gordon. The breath work in CBW and QT are the same. We will look at how the body heals itself and how the healing tools ignite the body’s healing process.

We will learn and work with how prayers and good thoughts affect the healing process.

There will be time for experiential, supervised practice of all we learn.

This is a powerful two day process and I am excited to teach the material.