Pamela Hale graduated from the well-respected Body Therapy Institute in Silk Hope, NC in 2003. Over the years of her career, Pam has completed many additional classes, well above the minimum required continuing education to maintain her bodywork license. She incorporates all of this training for a customized approach to each and every session.
Several of these classes with gifted teachers include: Hot Stones with Eric Stevenson; Reflexology with Claire Marie Miller; Fascia work with Dhiresha Marshall; Medical Massage for the core and abdomen with Ralph Stephens; Mirror Image Acupressure with Malik Lawrence; CranioSacral Therapy through the Upledger Institute and Tad Wanveer; Advanced Myofascial Therapy with John McKelvey at Body Therapy Institute.
How did I become a body worker?
In the summer of 1991, I received my Reiki I attunement in Raleigh, NC with Veronica Vela. She said to me at the time, “In about 10 years, this will become your life’s work.” I had no idea what she meant, but it certainly sounded interesting.
A couple of years later when I received my first bodywork session, I knew this was what I wanted to do. It was the Thursday before I got married, so the timing is memorable. My new husband dismissed the idea as ridiculous. Being too young to know better, I proceeded with life in other directions, including wife, restaurant manager then real estate agent and property manager. Successful in my work but deeply unsatisfied, I got a divorce and soon left any and all career paths to find my true passion – what I would love to do and also be great at doing. Through soul searching, counseling & test taking as a volunteer at NC State’s Guidance Counselor training program, I unearthed my original passion for bodywork.
Body Therapy Institute (http://www.bti.edu) provided world-class training just 50 miles away from my home in Durham. I completed their yearlong program in August 2003. My NCBTMB license is dated 10 years and three days from that first hour of prenuptial bodywork.
I am grateful to Duke Clinical Research Institute for their support in my eventual success. Working there as an administrative assistant enabled me to support myself while I went on my inward quest. My supervisors supported and encouraged me for five years while I wandered, searched, found my calling, received education, and started a business of my own.
While at BTI, my instructors raved about “hot stones”, and I decided to get that training as soon as possible. Now hot stones are central to all bodywork that I do, unless requested otherwise. Providing deep heat into the body, the stones accomplish more with less friction to already challenged muscle and connective tissues. Something about the ancient, smooth basalt seems to distort time into a relaxing whirl of peace and pleasure where old patterns of thought and worry can release into the ethers.
My first professional bodywork position was at The Duke Diet and Fitness Center under the direction of Dr. Howard Eisenson. A world-renowned weight loss clinic that emphasizes healthy eating and lifestyle change, The DFC enabled me to work in conjunction with physicians, physical therapists, psychotherapists, nutritionists, physical trainers and more. In my five years there (2004-09), I witnessed profound returns to health from illness through healthy eating, movement, and body therapies. The healing power of kindness and compassion in bodywork made a lasting impression on me here, and I am grateful for this learning experience.
Fascia work was introduced to me by a close friend and colleague who thought it was deeply therapeutic, but had to be done “just right” to be effective. Intrigued by the challenge of “just right”, I learned from one of the best people in the area, Dhiresha Marshall. I continue to learn about this amazing body structure through the study of Craniosacral Therapy, and I became certified in Advanced Myofascial Therapy through the Body Therapy Institute in 2014.
The threads of continuity running through all my life and career are my intense interest in people and anything that might be considered “ancient wisdom”. I have studied astrology as an amateur since I was 12 years old, and my bachelor’s degree in English Literature is yet more of the same — people and their stories. Both astrology and the life story of the person inform my approach to each bodywork session.
My most recent study in ancient knowledge is shamanism. My first journeys were with Jennifer Moore at Duke’s Rhine Center, and I am currently learning with Michael Harner’s Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I am enrolled in their three year training program that should complete in 2018.