January 12, 2025 • 46 mins
This episode explores the integration of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy & Reiki, highlighting how these modalities can foster profound self-healing. Olivia Testa (Human Design 1/3 emotional Manifesting Generator) shares her journey as an IFS therapist, illuminating how we can connect with our internal parts and recognize the innate resources within us.
In this episode, we explore :
• Olivia's background and her approach to therapy
• Explanation of Internal Family Systems and its significance
• Differences between IFS and traditional psychotherapy
• The benefits of incorporating Reiki into therapy
• Understanding Reiki and its practices
• The intersection of Western and Eastern healing approaches
• Emphasizing self-reliance and inner resources in healing
• Connection between human design and personal journeys
• Information on Olivia's upcoming retreat in Mexico
Connect with Olivia! @olivia_testa_lcsw
Let's connect on social media! You can find me @ _journeytowell
Be sure to reach out and say hello 🤍
Book your Intro to Human Design Chart Reading here!
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Craving guidance, expansion or growth? Let's connect.
https://journeytowell.net
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be well, my friend
xx Hannah
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, welcome back to the podcast.
So today, honestly, we have areally good one.
If y'all listened, a long timeago I don't even know when it
was I had Tammy Sullenberger onthis podcast and she is the
founder of the One Inside.
She wrote a book.
(00:23):
She has her own podcast.
She's her own podcast.
She's also an IFS therapist.
That was probably one of myhighest actually listened to
podcasts.
So today we have Olivia Testa.
She is also an IFS therapist,but she has such a beautiful
perspective.
She's also Reiki certified, soshe does this kind of
(00:43):
combination of bringing energywork and somatics into
traditional psychotherapy, whichmaybe we'll get to this.
But IFS kind of takes a morebottom up approach in general,
as traditional IFS therapy or astraditional therapy, ifs has a
bottom up.
But anyway, I'm super excitedfor this conversation.
(01:05):
Olivia, thank you so much forcoming on.
One of my favorite things whenI have guests on is just
allowing them to introducethemselves, because who better
to introduce you than you?
So who is Olivia?
And share whatever you want.
No, there's no like right orwrong or long or short.
Intro, however you want tointroduce yourself, is welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Cool.
Thank you and thanks for havingme.
I'm really excited to be herewith you.
Super fun just getting to chatwith you a little bit before we
started.
Yeah, I'm Olivia.
I have my practice in Belmont,maine, and I do mostly IFS work
and, like you said, incorporateenergy work into those practices
(01:52):
Sometimes.
Um, I'm a big believer in asomatic approach and really love
to incorporate the body in allaspects of healing.
Um, incorporate the body in allaspects of healing yeah, that's
always been really important tome.
I found yoga when I was in gradschool and realized, like how
(02:17):
disconnected I was from my bodyand from myself and didn't
really didn't know any betteruntil that time.
So that kind of led me on thislike exploratory path of wanting
to work with people,understanding that therapy is
like that traditional route, butnever quite feeling like that
was right for me or 100% for me.
(02:39):
So I just sort of started likebranching out.
I did my yoga teacher training,reiki certifications, um, and
then also reconnected withhorses Uh, I grew up riding
horses and reconnected to themthrough like a therapeutic
(03:00):
perspective.
Yeah, and that was like superbody based.
You know what's happening rightnow.
What are you noticingphysically in your being Like,
can we just be with that andreally like present moment based
in order to be in connectionwith the horses?
So, yeah, I'm a I'm a horsegirl at heart.
I love that.
(03:22):
I think that's me.
I just I really love people, Ilove humanity.
I love that.
I think that's me.
I just I really love people.
I love humanity, I love natureand I love that I get to work
with people in this way and inthis capacity.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I was telling you earlier.
I feel like not again.
Not that I've looked super hard, but I've never met an a
therapist that's especiallytrained in IFS, that does like
Reiki and practices that way.
Typically, what I've seen ismaybe like a previous therapist
in a previous life of theirswhere they did maybe the
(03:57):
traditional therapy and thenthey found yoga or Reiki or
whatever and then they decidedto become more of like a
holistic practitioner wheremaybe they got certified in
massage or body work or just didReiki and they kind of left
their therapy practice.
I have another really greatfriend who's also been on the
podcast I guess everyone's beenon the podcast but she was a
(04:21):
therapist and then found humandesign and now she's a human
design coach.
So not that we ever leave fullywhat we're doing, Like it's
just she's not seeingtraditional therapy clients
anymore, but she brings a reallybeautiful perspective having
therapy as a background.
But anyway, before I forget,because I feel like I always do,
(04:44):
Olivia is a 1-3 emotionalauthority manifesting generator,
which we an emotional place and, like I'm a pretty emotional
person, which I love, I lovesharing human design with people
(05:11):
, because it truly is never,never should be something that
you feel is super out ofalignment.
It should be something thatsolidifies.
Oh, this is how my energy mostwants to flow.
This is like how I've alwayskind of done things or wanted to
do things, but somebody madefun of me for it or somebody
(05:32):
told me it was the wrong way.
So it really should besomething that helps build the
confidence.
So I love that you already dothe, do the decisions based off
of your emotions and kind ofride that which we would call
like riding the emotional waveriding your emotional wave when
you're making a decision.
I want to talk about IFS first.
(05:53):
So because I've only had Ibelieve I hope I'm not
forgetting, but I believe I'veonly had one IFS conversation
before on my podcast.
So can you just briefly explainwhat is IFS?
How is it different fromtraditional psychotherapy?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes, with the disclaimer that the woman you
had on your podcast before didan excellent job describing it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
She did.
Yes, Go back and listen to thatepisode.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Go back, go back.
She absolutely crushed it.
So IFS looks at each person asbeing its own, like internal
family system.
So it started because DickShorts, who created the model,
worked with actual familysystems and realized that, like
in each of us, there is our owninternal family system.
(06:46):
So that's how we get parts andparts.
Each have like their ownemotional experiences, needs,
wants, desires, beliefs um,they're like little
personalities inside each of usand ifs just really gives us the
lens to be able to work withthose parts instead of against
(07:07):
them.
I think a lot of times we arelearning to cope with anxiety or
try to get rid of anxiety.
This is just an example.
But instead of trying to get ridof or push it aside, we're kind
of just diving right righttoward it from a really like
non-pathologizing perspective.
(07:27):
There's no bad parts, they'reall welcome and it just gives us
a way to be able to, like, sitwith ourselves, validate
ourselves, attune to ourselvesand kind of be the parent that
those parts maybe needed anddidn't have.
So we do that through what iscalled self-energy, and the
(07:52):
understanding is that everyperson embodies self-energy.
Sometimes we're able to accessthat more than others because
parts can make that a little bitcloudy, but the goal is to be
able to develop a relationshipbetween yourself and your parts
so that there's harmony andbalance and wholeness, instead
(08:14):
of having to reject any aspectof what makes you you.
I love that have you ever read?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
the book the untethered soul?
I haven't, but it's on my list,okay, do you know what it's
about though?
Yes, so I read it shortly after, like not purposefully, but
shortly after I originallylearned about IFS, and I feel
like in the untethered soul itgives the most beautiful
(08:45):
description of self energy.
So, anyway, I would list, Iwould read the book.
It's a really beautiful book,but just it always reminds me,
like maybe it was because Ilearned about them at the same
time, like IFS.
And then I read the book but Iwas like, wow, this is a really
great example of self energy andlike it, just how to access
(09:09):
self energy too, which is kindof fun.
So, anyway, thank you for that.
Thank you for that intro.
I'm very curious.
I don't even think I asked youthis before we started recording
, but what made you interestedin IFS?
Like you learned about itbefore it became, I don't know,
popular, I don't know Before itbecame like super mainstream.
(09:31):
Not that it even is mainstreamyet, but you got trained and
certified very early on in theprocess.
So what made you interestedabout it when you probably
didn't even have that muchinformation about it?
Yeah, I didn't even have thatmuch information about it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I had a professor in grad school um 2017
I think that was talking about.
I don't even know that.
She said they werenon-traditional approaches, but
like it was very clear like hey,these are kind of new, upcoming
approaches to treating trauma.
Like it's important to look to,like, look into this and keep
going this and IFS was one ofthose um, and then I started
(10:11):
working with an IFS therapistmyself personally, so I had this
experience of like hearingabout it at school and then also
my own personal experience withit and really resonated with
the model.
And then I was like, okay, thisis it, I really want to do this
and did the training in 2019.
(10:32):
And here, we are.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Here we are.
How was your experience, Do youmind?
Not that you have to share anypersonal examples unless you
feel called, but how was yourexperience working with an IFS
therapist versus a traditionalpsychotherapist?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I think at that time it was really really what
I needed.
I had worked with othertherapists before and I was like
never consistent.
I didn't really feel like itwas doing much.
I didn't really feel alignedand that's no shade for those
therapists like they were doinga great.
(11:13):
I just didn't understand myselfenough to like utilize that
experience in the way that Icould have.
So being in a session with atherapist who's trained in IFS
like just really helped meuncover my own parts that I mean
I was like 22 at the time.
I really just didn't.
(11:34):
I didn't know what, I didn'tknow about who, what was
happening in here, and so tohave somebody saying like that
sounds like a part like could webe a little curious about
what's going on?
For that one Was like whoa,okay, hold on.
Okay, I can do that.
I can be curious about thatexperience.
(11:57):
And it's also really helpfulfor me and for, I think, a lot
of my clients that you get toclose your eyes, you get to be
in this internal space.
There's not like any pressureof having to make eye contact
with someone sitting across fromyou or worrying about what you
look like or what you know.
It's like a very internalconnective experience which I
(12:18):
love and I think resonates witha lot of people yeah who I work
with yeah, I think it would too.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I agree, I like that a lot, uh.
So let's talk about the otheraspect of Reiki.
So what drew you to Reiki?
I know you said you kind ofstarted with yoga, then then got
into Reiki, but what drew youto Reiki?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I'm trying to think back.
I think I've always kind offelt a pull to that.
When I was younger, I was likethis is so weird, like I want to
be magic, like I want to be awitch, like I believe I love
that and I started seeing aReiki practitioner, like, I
think, as soon as I turned 18,and I could do it by myself,
like in small town Guilford, newHampshire.
I'm going to be a Reikipractitioner, Wild and then when
(13:17):
I did my yoga teacher training,the Reiki one certification was
a part of that training, sothat just felt really natural
was a part of that training.
So that just felt reallynatural.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And in that training obviously I realized like oh,
it's not real magic Like thisalready exists.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But I had this respect that like, oh, those
people have like figuredsomething out Like they have
some like healing magic.
And then it was like, oh,everybody can access this.
Like how amazing is thatanybody be attuned to reiki.
Anybody can, um, be the channelfor reiki energy, and I really
loved that, um that it wasn'tlike I needed to reach for
(14:03):
something outside of me.
It was like no, this is justhere, this is innate.
Like why don't we just channelthat for good?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, so I just continued.
I did level two and level threeand I love that practice yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
So how do you?
How?
How does working with you looklike?
Is it?
Because whenever, most of thetime, whenever I've gotten reiki
, it's like laying down on amassage table and then just you
just kind of like zone out um,so how does that work?
Do you do reiki and therapy atthe same time?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
yeah, it depends.
So sometimes sessions will looklike doing a little bit of ifs
work and then moving to themassage table and sort of
integrating with reiki, andsometimes we do ifs work while
we're on the table doing energywork.
So I think it really depends onthe person and where they're at
(15:07):
, and I always try to meetpeople where they're at and
what's feeling right for themreceive Reiki.
You're kind of like flowingthrough different states.
You're not super present and Ithink that is really helpful for
some of the integration.
So if that's what you'reseeking, then receive the Reiki
(15:33):
after having done some of theinternal work can be like really
soothing and balancing for yournervous system and just like
taking a pause with the workthat you just did.
Yeah, and, on the other hand,doing ifs work while you're in
the energy of receiving and justgenerally like more grounded
and connected to yourself, opensup space to do the work in a
deeper way.
(15:54):
Sometimes it helps peopleaccess different parts, because
hands-on work is always going toelicit a different experience.
Yeah, so it really.
It really depends.
I'm pretty fluid in how I yeah,hey.
(16:14):
I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I think you need to be.
I mean especially with there.
I mean both modalities.
I think they really just kindof go with the flow of meeting
people where they're at.
I realized I don't even knowthat I've talked about Reiki on
my podcast.
I probably have, but can wedefine Reiki for those of us
that are listening that are likewhat the fuck is Reiki?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, it's a Japanese tradition meant to bring
healing, meant to bring balance,meant to bring harmony to mind,
body and spirit.
So Reiki defined is universallife force, energy, and it's
believed that that energy justalready exists.
(16:58):
You know, we are all energy,everything is made up of energy
and that life force, energy,flows through the practitioner
to the person and it's believedand trusted that that energy
just flows where it needs to goareas in the body that may be
depleted or lacking energy,spiritual needs as well, and I
(17:26):
think, mental and emotional.
It's not common-on modalitywhere the practitioner is
(17:47):
essentially just a channel forthe energy.
Practitioners get attuned tothe energy of reiki, meaning
like they can not give butpractice energy work.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Thank you.
Yeah, there's some things Ialways.
One of the goals on my podcastis to make everything that I
talk about very easilydigestible and very beginner
friendly, and you don't.
I sometimes forget what I knowthat other people might not know
, although I think that a lot ofpeople have heard of Reiki.
(18:24):
In my experience, probablyeight or nine out of 10 people
have heard of Reiki, but maybethey don't know necessarily what
that means.
They've just maybe heard theword or they know.
You know you can go to like amassage place and get Reiki done
.
I've definitely never, neverheard of it in terms of therapy.
(18:48):
So here's my question when we'retalking about therapy, that to
me is very Western medicine,very masculine, like left, left
brain I don't know if left brainis even the right way, but like
they're very, like all in yourhead.
(19:10):
It's very scientific base anddata driven and all of these
things.
Reiki very much the opposite oflike Eastern medicine.
I mean it obviously comes fromlike traditional.
It's aligned with liketraditional Chinese medicine,
(19:31):
maybe a little bit more ethereal.
Maybe some people would call itwoo-woo witchy.
I mean whatever you want tocall it, which you and I were
talking beforehand that I grewup with Reiki.
My mom was Reiki certified.
I think she was a Reiki masterbefore I was even born.
She went to massage school.
(19:52):
She's done energy work.
So I grew up and this was verynormal for me.
But I also consider myself veryscientific and data-driven.
Actually, we're going to talkabout this at the end, but our
one line in human design iscalled the researcher, and so I
(20:13):
really love to researchinformation and get the facts.
So if you tell me something, Ireally appreciate knowing like
okay, where did you get thatinformation?
Are you making that up?
Did you get it from ascientific journal?
Reading like scientific studiesis actually kind of a weird
(20:33):
hobby of mine, like I like doingthat.
Oh gosh, sorry, I hit that micif it was loud for you.
So I've always I've always seenthe connection of like right
brain, left brain and how theyjust kind of interweave, or
Eastern medicine and Westernmedicine actually can be very
complimentary to each other.
(20:53):
They don't have to be black andwhite where we cannot mesh
anything.
It can be actually like thisgray area, like the combination
of the black and the white.
But I also understand that noteveryone has that perspective
People maybe not a lot of peoplehave grown up with more Eastern
philosophies, so now I lost myquestion because I was
(21:19):
explaining so much.
So my question is well, one ofthem is do you find a lot of
pushback in your field of whatyou specifically do, or maybe in
pushback in your clientsperspective on that, because
(21:41):
obviously you see some sort ofconnection?
But what's your perspective onthe combination and meshing of
these two seemingly verydifferent approaches to medicine
or healing?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, well, I think there's a reason I ended up with
IFS, because I don't feel likeI fit as well with that.
More like left brain does foryours, or, yeah, left brain
right.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I'm calling it left brain, I don't know if that's
the right thing.
You know what I'm thinkingabout too.
In human design we have arrowsand, like the left, left facing
arrows are very like masculine,very structured, very, very
data-driven.
So that's why I'm calling itleft brain, but it might be
right brain.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Okay, well, that energy, whatever it is yeah, not
feeling as connected to thatdefinitely led me to IFS,
because I think that IFS isactually a fairly spiritual
model.
So for me, there was no otheroption.
(22:45):
For me, like I was always goingto do a more holistic based
practice.
I wouldn't be able to do thiswork if I wasn't operating this
way, because it wouldn't feelright.
True, yeah, and you know what?
Surprisingly, I don't feel likeI get very much pushback at all
(23:06):
from other professionals.
When I talk about what I do,people are usually fairly
interested and I've had a lot ofpeople say like, oh, I've had
ideas about that too, but I justwasn't really sure if people
would respond to it Like are you, are you able to have clients
respond to that?
And yes, like, yes, I am.
Because I think people alsofeel that pull, like maybe they
(23:32):
don't necessarily, they can'tdescribe that, but I think we
are all like deeply yearning fora deeper connection and a
deeper connection to ourselvesand those around us and the
earth, you know, etc.
Um, so when I when I likepre-screen clients, I always do
(23:53):
a consultation call.
I tell them up front like, hey,this is how I practice, is this
something that you'd be open to.
You don't have to be, but Ijust want to let you know like
this is the framework and theperspective that I come from,
and most of the time people arereally intrigued and really
interested in that, especiallyas they know that I do IFS, so
(24:13):
they're already willing to likestep outside of the box a little
bit.
So I'm not really, I'm notencouraging them to go that much
further little bit.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So I'm not really I'm not encouraging them to go that
much further.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That totally makes sense, I Iwould assume.
I would assume that most of thepeople, if they're coming to
you or you, that's a good point,like if you're coming to IFS,
and also if you feel like you'vetried traditional therapy and
it just didn't work for you,like you said, then that's
typically when we feel a littlebit more open to trying other
(24:44):
modalities and maybe IFS issomething that would interest
you.
It's very body based.
To me, it's very somatic, which, if you're listening, you might
or might not know that I'm asomatic breathwork practitioner,
so I got trained in a specificform of breathwork called
(25:06):
somatic breathwork and so theco-founders of somatic
breathwork they pull a lot oftheir training from, like trauma
training and also just somaticbodywork.
Actually, the founder, stevenJaggers, um, he started off as a
body worker for years, so hepulls a lot of his training from
(25:28):
there.
But as I've learned about IFSand experienced IFS, there's a
lot of connections to likereally tapping in and tuning
into our body, which is a lot ofthe work that I do too.
Actually, just even from ahuman design perspective, that's
something that I say all thetime.
(25:48):
Like we only have two energycenters which you can think of.
Our energy centers very similarto our chakra system.
There's nine human designcenters, seven chakras, but
roughly they're based off of thechakra system.
So there's only two centers inour head and everything else
there's seven centers in ourbody.
So, just like the statistics ofthat alone is indicative of an
(26:14):
invitation to like, get into ourbody and feel.
Feel our emotions, feel ourinstinct, feel our, our gut
response, feel like how ourheart feels and what wants to
come out of our throat.
Or, in terms of communication,feel your root center, feel
grounded.
Um, so, so like anything to.
(26:34):
To me that's always, that'salways a huge information.
Uh, invitation is anythingsomatic based.
Check it out.
Um but I'm curious have you doneany other somatic training I
know you and I talked about.
Actually there's a woman, uh, aleader I guess in IFS called,
(26:55):
uh, her name's Susan McConnelland she wrote a book called
Somatic IFS and it's reallybringing even more like.
So.
Ifs is somatic based.
I like that you said.
It's kind of more spirituallybased too, but then she brings
even a little bit deeper intolike tuning into the body and
(27:15):
the somatics behind it.
But is there any other insightthat you have on somatic work or
is is it just kind of your,your reiki and feeling, feeling
people's energy?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
well, I think what you're saying is totally spot on
.
Like, when I start IFS sessions, it always start with the body
and seeing if we can notice apart as a physical sensation to
begin with, or see if we canfind a part in the body first.
Um, and I did Susan McConnell'slike IFS circle uh, somatic
(27:53):
training.
So I'm certainly not certified.
That's a very long trainingthat I would love to do someday
with her, but I have like alittle glimpse of that and I
think that IFS opens the door tolike more of the breath work
and the nervous system work,which is obviously all
body-based as well, and reallyhelping people drop down.
(28:17):
And before I start an IFSsession, I typically do like a
little bit of grounding, alittle bit of meditation, just
to try to set the stage and getpeople into that space.
And I do that before Reikisessions.
I do that almost always becausewe're we're, we're busy in our
bodies and we don't often slowdown and soften.
(28:40):
So so, yeah, yeah, it'sdefinitely a somatic approach.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, I, I know I spend so much time in my head,
so anytime I can slow down andlike root down whether it's
through breath, work ormeditation or Reiki you can do
Reiki on yourself.
You could do self Reiki.
I always say, like you can doReiki, whether you're certified
(29:08):
or not.
Like the level of it is goingto be different, but this is
what my mom always said.
She said you have holy hands,so place your holy hands on your
body and that's Reikiultimately, and you're just
sending.
Like if you have I don't know,let's say like you have a
bellyache placing your hands onyour abdomen and sending healing
(29:29):
energy and just kind ofimagining that healing energy.
I always imagine a light Idon't know if you do, but like
always like a white light that'scoming in either from the crown
of my head down into my belly,for this example, or just kind
of coming down onto my belly ifI'm laying horizontal, and just
imagine this like healing whitelight's just kind of coming.
(29:51):
That's Reiki.
That's ultimately what it isand there's kind of maybe
different levels of it.
But you could do it on yourselftoo.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I love that your mom said that I was just saying
talking about this the other day, because what really matters
there is the intention, and aslong as you have this intention
of sending love and energy andconnection, I mean that's also
parts work, like it's all sointerconnected.
And if you're, if that is thespace that you're in, you're
(30:21):
doing it.
You are, you are supportingyourself, you are taking care of
yourself, you're nourishingwhatever it is that's going on
for you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, I love that, I love that.
So we I want to talk about twothings, um, before we close, but
the first question is more ofan open ended question.
It's what?
What do you wish that like youhaving a platform right here,
right now?
What do you wish that everyperson knew?
(30:50):
What message do you wish thatyou could like share with the
world?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I think it would be that you have all of the
resources that you already needwithin you.
It's all.
It's all already in there.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
That's such a beautiful reminder, I know, for
me man I still struggle withthis all the time of looking
outward, like looking even evenfor my mom.
We were talking about my mombefore we started recording, so
that's how, talking about her somuch, um, but I love my mom,
(31:40):
she's the one of the mostincredible human beings I've
ever met, um, and even my momI'm like she can, can heal me,
she can fix me, or you know,doctors, right, we give away.
We give away so much of ourenergy of to doctors or to other
people or in our relationships.
Like he made me upset or he didthis to me or he's not.
(32:03):
I'm thinking partners, obviously, like he's not.
I'm thinking partners,obviously like he's not
fulfilling my need or my desire,or even siblings I mean friends
anytime.
Like we put so much into otherpeople that we seldom and I'm
including myself, because I dothis all the time too, too of
(32:25):
looking into other people too,for happiness, for joy, for
power, for empowerment, for um,accountability, for healing, for
help, and not that all of thatis bad, none of it is bad,
because we need people.
But to remember that, toremember our power and to
(32:47):
remember everything that we wealready possess, yeah, we need
someone alongside us, we needguidance and direction, but we
have.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
We have it already in here, and that's definitely my
intention as a practitioner.
I certainly don't have theanswers and do not feel as
though I'm the authority on thatin any way, but I do trust that
the people who come into myoffice can connect with the
(33:20):
resources that they have withinthem and have that power
internally for sure would youfind that ifs is helpful in that
aspect of like reclaiming whatis that?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
like your autonomy?
Speaker 2 (33:38):
yeah, because essentially you are.
You are the one who's meetingthose wounded, tender or
burdened parts.
They don't have to look outsidebecause they have you, the self
right.
So it's.
It's that relationship betweenparts himself.
So they don't need someone elseto come and rescue them,
(33:59):
because you're there, you're,you're jumping in and holding
their hand or hugging them,reassuring them.
I think the whole basis of itthere's.
You know, it's already in you,yeah.
I'm obsessed with IFS now I'mlike now I need to get an.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
IFS therapist, because I really, I really am,
I'm obsessed with it.
All right, let's chat a littlehuman human design, which I
introduced, but so I'm going togive maybe a little bit of a
deeper description, just becauseI know that you are not super
familiar with it.
So for anyone listening that isalso not super familiar with it
(34:38):
maybe this is the first podcastyou're listening to Human
design we have multiple aspectsof human design.
I'm talking about one aspectthat's called our profile, and
our profile is like ourpersonality, so it might be like
certain characteristics that wehave, maybe ways that we move
(34:59):
through the world, like our kindof like our energy, although
it's not our energy type, whichwould be like manifesting
generator, but it would be likeour personality traits.
So every profile has twonumbers.
The first number is what wecall our conscious line, so it
might be something that you feela little bit more aware of in
(35:22):
yourself.
It might also be something thatyou, kind of like, see yourself
as more easily than the secondline is our unconscious line,
which sometimes we say otherpeople can see a lot more of
this second number in us than wecan see in ourselves.
Another way that it's describedis we have to kind of master
(35:45):
and not like overcome, but wekind of have to master our
conscious line, our first number, before we then master our
second number.
I'm sure there's a better wordthan master, but that's what
we're going to go with.
So you and I both are what'scalled a one three, the one I
already shared a little bitabout.
(36:05):
The one line is also called theresearcher or the investigator.
So the one line is really allabout it.
It's very data driven and andand likes to research things.
So my mom also has a one lineand like I love using like she's
constantly just like going downthese deep dives of of like who
(36:29):
knows what, but whatever, it islike with with my back stuff.
Right Last night I called herand, um, somebody else mentioned
to me like oh, you should trymagnets on your back.
Which, lord, I've triedeverything.
So I'm like, why not trymagnets?
Okay, and so then like she getson, you know, and she's doing
like so much research and she'slike all right, here's what you
have to do, this is, this iswhat's going to help, and blah,
(36:52):
blah, blah.
But she's always constantlyresearching stuff, whether it's
like food that's good for you,or energy, medicine or whatever.
So that's really the one line.
I see that coming in with me,like I've kind of already shared
, like I just love I loveknowing where people get
information from.
So if you're going to likeespecially argue something with
(37:14):
me, have some facts that likeback up your argument, because I
don't want just your opinion, Iwant to know where you've
gotten that information.
That's really the one line.
Three line is the experimenter.
So the three line learnsthrough trial and error.
So it's very much like I alwaysuse the example of my sister
(37:38):
has a three line and so growingup, you know I would do
something and then she'd be likedon't.
Then I would be like don't dothat Faith, like this is a bad
idea, it's a mistake, and she'dbe like, no, I just I have to do
it for myself to make sure that, make sure that it's a mistake,
like I have to experience itand we learn through.
(38:00):
We really learn through thatexperimentation and that like
trial and error and just liketrying things.
A big part of my three line thatcomes out that I said when I
started my YouTube channel wasyou have to start before you're
ready.
That's a big like motto of threelines is start before you're
(38:21):
ready because you don't know.
Same also a little bit of thisis manifesting generator energy
of like we don't really know ifit's fully the right decision
for us until we're in it andthen we're like, yeah, no,
that's not it, or that'sdefinitely the right decision.
(38:42):
Me, like learning, my threeline has really been opening
myself up to sharing my failures, quote on on social media.
Um, because, like, that's a bigpart of my business, is my
platform.
So, um, sharing my failures onsocial media and sharing like
(39:04):
here's what I learned from it,and not like a huge, like kind
of shadow side of the three lineis fear of failure.
So, not not so much beingafraid of failure and really
recognizing that you don't fail,you just learn and then sharing
those again learn, I guess,learning opportunities with
(39:25):
other people and not beingafraid of of sharing those
learning opportunities withother people and not being
afraid of of sharing thoselearning opportunities or those
growth moments, because that'struly how, how we were created.
So that's a one three.
That's how I see it in my lifeat least.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
That makes so much sense.
I like everything that you justsaid.
I, um, I had a horse for awhile.
He passed in April but prior tohis passing, uh, all I did was
research the best liketreatments for him, the best
interventions for him.
Like he had a lot of chronichealth issues and I spent so
(40:04):
much time doing deep dives and Iwas like why?
Like I didn't.
I didn't really understand that.
I knew why I was doing it, butyou know, people can have
animals and not do deep divesand take care of them.
So I totally relate to that andthe the three as well.
Like my partner and I alwaysjoke because like I'll have an
(40:27):
idea and then, like the next day.
I always joke because like I'llhave an idea and then, like the
next day, I'm like doing it andhe's like what you didn't even
like, you didn't even plan, youdidn't.
Yeah, sit down and like thinkthis from like I know, but I
have an idea and like it's justhappening and just need to do it
just dive right in yeah, iteither comes together or it
doesn't.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Just dive right in.
Yeah, it either comes togetheror it doesn't.
And if it doesn't, then youlearn what didn't work.
Or you always learn along theway, like this would be a better
way to approach this idea andthen you try the better approach
.
But you wouldn't have learnedthat unless you tried it, in my
opinion.
I'm sure other professors woulddisagree.
They'd be like no, there'sbetter ways that you can do this
(41:09):
, but but that's the three.
That's just like zoning into it.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah Well, thank you for sharing your example too,
because that was that was a spoton, spot on example of a three
line.
Okay, so where can people findyou?
Where do you hang out the most?
Um, and also not that wetypically plug a lot of things,
but I know that you have aretreat.
I don't know if it's coming up,but I think that you also do
(41:38):
retreat.
So feel free to share a littlebit of, maybe where people could
find more information on thattoo, if you're, if you want to
share, you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, uh, I'm on Instagram.
I'm not I'm like still figuringout how to be an Instagram
business owner, but I am onInstagram.
Um, it's just my name with LCSWOlivia Testa, lcsw.
Um, and yeah, the retreat theretreat is March 2025.
I'm leading that with my goodfriend, kathy.
She's done these retreats foryears and years and actually I
(42:14):
attended her retreat three yearsago and this year I get to be
hosting with her, which feelsreally, really cool.
That's going to be in Mexico,at Prana Del Mar, on um, the
Baja Peninsula, and that's goingto be a whole week of yoga,
(42:36):
meditation, um, embodimentpractices, kind of everything
that we just talked about.
Kathy is super aligned withenergy and IFs and she's
wonderful, so yeah, love it.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yay, thank you for sharing.
And also, your link um to yourinstagram channel will be in the
description below, so you couldalways click the link for those
of us that have bad memoriesand wouldn't remember how to
type your name, thank.
Thank you so much for coming,olivia.
(43:12):
This was such a funconversation.
Thank you.
Hello, welcome back to the podcast.
So today, honestly, we have areally good one.
If y'all listened, a long timeago I don't even know when it
was I had Tammy Sullenberger onthis podcast and she is the
founder of the One Inside.
She wrote a book.
(00:23):
She has her own podcast.
She's her own podcast.
She's also an IFS therapist.
That was probably one of myhighest actually listened to
podcasts.
So today we have Olivia Testa.
She is also an IFS therapist,but she has such a beautiful
perspective.
She's also Reiki certified, soshe does this kind of
(00:43):
combination of bringing energywork and somatics into
traditional psychotherapy, whichmaybe we'll get to this.
But IFS kind of takes a morebottom up approach in general,
as traditional IFS therapy or astraditional therapy, ifs has a
bottom up.
But anyway, I'm super excitedfor this conversation.
(01:05):
Olivia, thank you so much forcoming on.
One of my favorite things whenI have guests on is just
allowing them to introducethemselves, because who better
to introduce you than you?
So who is Olivia?
And share whatever you want.
No, there's no like right orwrong or long or short.
Intro, however you want tointroduce yourself, is welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Cool.
Thank you and thanks for havingme.
I'm really excited to be herewith you.
Super fun just getting to chatwith you a little bit before we
started.
Yeah, I'm Olivia.
I have my practice in Belmont,maine, and I do mostly IFS work
and, like you said, incorporateenergy work into those practices
(01:52):
Sometimes.
Um, I'm a big believer in asomatic approach and really love
to incorporate the body in allaspects of healing.
Um, incorporate the body in allaspects of healing yeah, that's
always been really important tome.
I found yoga when I was in gradschool and realized, like how
(02:17):
disconnected I was from my bodyand from myself and didn't
really didn't know any betteruntil that time.
So that kind of led me on thislike exploratory path of wanting
to work with people,understanding that therapy is
like that traditional route, butnever quite feeling like that
was right for me or 100% for me.
(02:39):
So I just sort of started likebranching out.
I did my yoga teacher training,reiki certifications, um, and
then also reconnected withhorses Uh, I grew up riding
horses and reconnected to themthrough like a therapeutic
(03:00):
perspective.
Yeah, and that was like superbody based.
You know what's happening rightnow.
What are you noticingphysically in your being Like,
can we just be with that andreally like present moment based
in order to be in connectionwith the horses?
So, yeah, I'm a I'm a horsegirl at heart.
I love that.
(03:22):
I think that's me.
I just I really love people, Ilove humanity.
I love that.
I think that's me.
I just I really love people.
I love humanity, I love natureand I love that I get to work
with people in this way and inthis capacity.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I was telling you earlier.
I feel like not again.
Not that I've looked super hard, but I've never met an a
therapist that's especiallytrained in IFS, that does like
Reiki and practices that way.
Typically, what I've seen ismaybe like a previous therapist
in a previous life of theirswhere they did maybe the
(03:57):
traditional therapy and thenthey found yoga or Reiki or
whatever and then they decidedto become more of like a
holistic practitioner wheremaybe they got certified in
massage or body work or just didReiki and they kind of left
their therapy practice.
I have another really greatfriend who's also been on the
podcast I guess everyone's beenon the podcast but she was a
(04:21):
therapist and then found humandesign and now she's a human
design coach.
So not that we ever leave fullywhat we're doing, Like it's
just she's not seeingtraditional therapy clients
anymore, but she brings a reallybeautiful perspective having
therapy as a background.
But anyway, before I forget,because I feel like I always do,
(04:44):
Olivia is a 1-3 emotionalauthority manifesting generator,
which we an emotional place and, like I'm a pretty emotional
person, which I love, I lovesharing human design with people
(05:11):
, because it truly is never,never should be something that
you feel is super out ofalignment.
It should be something thatsolidifies.
Oh, this is how my energy mostwants to flow.
This is like how I've alwayskind of done things or wanted to
do things, but somebody madefun of me for it or somebody
(05:32):
told me it was the wrong way.
So it really should besomething that helps build the
confidence.
So I love that you already dothe, do the decisions based off
of your emotions and kind ofride that which we would call
like riding the emotional waveriding your emotional wave when
you're making a decision.
I want to talk about IFS first.
(05:53):
So because I've only had Ibelieve I hope I'm not
forgetting, but I believe I'veonly had one IFS conversation
before on my podcast.
So can you just briefly explainwhat is IFS?
How is it different fromtraditional psychotherapy?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yes, with the disclaimer that the woman you
had on your podcast before didan excellent job describing it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
She did.
Yes, Go back and listen to thatepisode.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Go back, go back.
She absolutely crushed it.
So IFS looks at each person asbeing its own, like internal
family system.
So it started because DickShorts, who created the model,
worked with actual familysystems and realized that, like
in each of us, there is our owninternal family system.
(06:46):
So that's how we get parts andparts.
Each have like their ownemotional experiences, needs,
wants, desires, beliefs um,they're like little
personalities inside each of usand ifs just really gives us the
lens to be able to work withthose parts instead of against
(07:07):
them.
I think a lot of times we arelearning to cope with anxiety or
try to get rid of anxiety.
This is just an example.
But instead of trying to get ridof or push it aside, we're kind
of just diving right righttoward it from a really like
non-pathologizing perspective.
(07:27):
There's no bad parts, they'reall welcome and it just gives us
a way to be able to, like, sitwith ourselves, validate
ourselves, attune to ourselvesand kind of be the parent that
those parts maybe needed anddidn't have.
So we do that through what iscalled self-energy, and the
(07:52):
understanding is that everyperson embodies self-energy.
Sometimes we're able to accessthat more than others because
parts can make that a little bitcloudy, but the goal is to be
able to develop a relationshipbetween yourself and your parts
so that there's harmony andbalance and wholeness, instead
(08:14):
of having to reject any aspectof what makes you you.
I love that have you ever read?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
the book the untethered soul?
I haven't, but it's on my list,okay, do you know what it's
about though?
Yes, so I read it shortly after, like not purposefully, but
shortly after I originallylearned about IFS, and I feel
like in the untethered soul itgives the most beautiful
(08:45):
description of self energy.
So, anyway, I would list, Iwould read the book.
It's a really beautiful book,but just it always reminds me,
like maybe it was because Ilearned about them at the same
time, like IFS.
And then I read the book but Iwas like, wow, this is a really
great example of self energy andlike it, just how to access
(09:09):
self energy too, which is kindof fun.
So, anyway, thank you for that.
Thank you for that intro.
I'm very curious.
I don't even think I asked youthis before we started recording
, but what made you interestedin IFS?
Like you learned about itbefore it became, I don't know,
popular, I don't know Before itbecame like super mainstream.
(09:31):
Not that it even is mainstreamyet, but you got trained and
certified very early on in theprocess.
So what made you interestedabout it when you probably
didn't even have that muchinformation about it?
Yeah, I didn't even have thatmuch information about it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I had a professor in grad school um 2017
I think that was talking about.
I don't even know that.
She said they werenon-traditional approaches, but
like it was very clear like hey,these are kind of new, upcoming
approaches to treating trauma.
Like it's important to look to,like, look into this and keep
going this and IFS was one ofthose um, and then I started
(10:11):
working with an IFS therapistmyself personally, so I had this
experience of like hearingabout it at school and then also
my own personal experience withit and really resonated with
the model.
And then I was like, okay, thisis it, I really want to do this
and did the training in 2019.
(10:32):
And here, we are.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Here we are.
How was your experience, Do youmind?
Not that you have to share anypersonal examples unless you
feel called, but how was yourexperience working with an IFS
therapist versus a traditionalpsychotherapist?
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I think at that time it was really really what
I needed.
I had worked with othertherapists before and I was like
never consistent.
I didn't really feel like itwas doing much.
I didn't really feel alignedand that's no shade for those
therapists like they were doinga great.
(11:13):
I just didn't understand myselfenough to like utilize that
experience in the way that Icould have.
So being in a session with atherapist who's trained in IFS
like just really helped meuncover my own parts that I mean
I was like 22 at the time.
I really just didn't.
(11:34):
I didn't know what, I didn'tknow about who, what was
happening in here, and so tohave somebody saying like that
sounds like a part like could webe a little curious about
what's going on?
For that one Was like whoa,okay, hold on.
Okay, I can do that.
I can be curious about thatexperience.
(11:57):
And it's also really helpfulfor me and for, I think, a lot
of my clients that you get toclose your eyes, you get to be
in this internal space.
There's not like any pressureof having to make eye contact
with someone sitting across fromyou or worrying about what you
look like or what you know.
It's like a very internalconnective experience which I
(12:18):
love and I think resonates witha lot of people yeah who I work
with yeah, I think it would too.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I agree, I like that a lot, uh.
So let's talk about the otheraspect of Reiki.
So what drew you to Reiki?
I know you said you kind ofstarted with yoga, then then got
into Reiki, but what drew youto Reiki?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I'm trying to think back.
I think I've always kind offelt a pull to that.
When I was younger, I was likethis is so weird, like I want to
be magic, like I want to be awitch, like I believe I love
that and I started seeing aReiki practitioner, like, I
think, as soon as I turned 18,and I could do it by myself,
like in small town Guilford, newHampshire.
I'm going to be a Reikipractitioner, Wild and then when
(13:17):
I did my yoga teacher training,the Reiki one certification was
a part of that training, sothat just felt really natural
was a part of that training.
So that just felt reallynatural.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And in that training obviously I realized like oh,
it's not real magic Like thisalready exists.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But I had this respect that like, oh, those
people have like figuredsomething out Like they have
some like healing magic.
And then it was like, oh,everybody can access this.
Like how amazing is thatanybody be attuned to reiki.
Anybody can, um, be the channelfor reiki energy, and I really
loved that, um that it wasn'tlike I needed to reach for
(14:03):
something outside of me.
It was like no, this is justhere, this is innate.
Like why don't we just channelthat for good?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, so I just continued.
I did level two and level threeand I love that practice yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
So how do you?
How?
How does working with you looklike?
Is it?
Because whenever, most of thetime, whenever I've gotten reiki
, it's like laying down on amassage table and then just you
just kind of like zone out um,so how does that work?
Do you do reiki and therapy atthe same time?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
yeah, it depends.
So sometimes sessions will looklike doing a little bit of ifs
work and then moving to themassage table and sort of
integrating with reiki, andsometimes we do ifs work while
we're on the table doing energywork.
So I think it really depends onthe person and where they're at
(15:07):
, and I always try to meetpeople where they're at and
what's feeling right for themreceive Reiki.
You're kind of like flowingthrough different states.
You're not super present and Ithink that is really helpful for
some of the integration.
So if that's what you'reseeking, then receive the Reiki
(15:33):
after having done some of theinternal work can be like really
soothing and balancing for yournervous system and just like
taking a pause with the workthat you just did.
Yeah, and, on the other hand,doing ifs work while you're in
the energy of receiving and justgenerally like more grounded
and connected to yourself, opensup space to do the work in a
deeper way.
(15:54):
Sometimes it helps peopleaccess different parts, because
hands-on work is always going toelicit a different experience.
Yeah, so it really.
It really depends.
I'm pretty fluid in how I yeah,hey.
(16:14):
I think that's good.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, I think you need to be.
I mean especially with there.
I mean both modalities.
I think they really just kindof go with the flow of meeting
people where they're at.
I realized I don't even knowthat I've talked about Reiki on
my podcast.
I probably have, but can wedefine Reiki for those of us
that are listening that are likewhat the fuck is Reiki?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah, it's a Japanese tradition meant to bring
healing, meant to bring balance,meant to bring harmony to mind,
body and spirit.
So Reiki defined is universallife force, energy, and it's
believed that that energy justalready exists.
(16:58):
You know, we are all energy,everything is made up of energy
and that life force, energy,flows through the practitioner
to the person and it's believedand trusted that that energy
just flows where it needs to goareas in the body that may be
depleted or lacking energy,spiritual needs as well, and I
(17:26):
think, mental and emotional.
It's not common-on modalitywhere the practitioner is
(17:47):
essentially just a channel forthe energy.
Practitioners get attuned tothe energy of reiki, meaning
like they can not give butpractice energy work.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Thank you.
Yeah, there's some things Ialways.
One of the goals on my podcastis to make everything that I
talk about very easilydigestible and very beginner
friendly, and you don't.
I sometimes forget what I knowthat other people might not know
, although I think that a lot ofpeople have heard of Reiki.
(18:24):
In my experience, probablyeight or nine out of 10 people
have heard of Reiki, but maybethey don't know necessarily what
that means.
They've just maybe heard theword or they know.
You know you can go to like amassage place and get Reiki done
.
I've definitely never, neverheard of it in terms of therapy.
(18:48):
So here's my question when we'retalking about therapy, that to
me is very Western medicine,very masculine, like left, left
brain I don't know if left brainis even the right way, but like
they're very, like all in yourhead.
(19:10):
It's very scientific base anddata driven and all of these
things.
Reiki very much the opposite oflike Eastern medicine.
I mean it obviously comes fromlike traditional.
It's aligned with liketraditional Chinese medicine,
(19:31):
maybe a little bit more ethereal.
Maybe some people would call itwoo-woo witchy.
I mean whatever you want tocall it, which you and I were
talking beforehand that I grewup with Reiki.
My mom was Reiki certified.
I think she was a Reiki masterbefore I was even born.
She went to massage school.
(19:52):
She's done energy work.
So I grew up and this was verynormal for me.
But I also consider myself veryscientific and data-driven.
Actually, we're going to talkabout this at the end, but our
one line in human design iscalled the researcher, and so I
(20:13):
really love to researchinformation and get the facts.
So if you tell me something, Ireally appreciate knowing like
okay, where did you get thatinformation?
Are you making that up?
Did you get it from ascientific journal?
Reading like scientific studiesis actually kind of a weird
(20:33):
hobby of mine, like I like doingthat.
Oh gosh, sorry, I hit that micif it was loud for you.
So I've always I've always seenthe connection of like right
brain, left brain and how theyjust kind of interweave, or
Eastern medicine and Westernmedicine actually can be very
complimentary to each other.
(20:53):
They don't have to be black andwhite where we cannot mesh
anything.
It can be actually like thisgray area, like the combination
of the black and the white.
But I also understand that noteveryone has that perspective
People maybe not a lot of peoplehave grown up with more Eastern
philosophies, so now I lost myquestion because I was
(21:19):
explaining so much.
So my question is well, one ofthem is do you find a lot of
pushback in your field of whatyou specifically do, or maybe in
pushback in your clientsperspective on that, because
(21:41):
obviously you see some sort ofconnection?
But what's your perspective onthe combination and meshing of
these two seemingly verydifferent approaches to medicine
or healing?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, well, I think there's a reason I ended up with
IFS, because I don't feel likeI fit as well with that.
More like left brain does foryours, or, yeah, left brain
right.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
I'm calling it left brain, I don't know if that's
the right thing.
You know what I'm thinkingabout too.
In human design we have arrowsand, like the left, left facing
arrows are very like masculine,very structured, very, very
data-driven.
So that's why I'm calling itleft brain, but it might be
right brain.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Okay, well, that energy, whatever it is yeah, not
feeling as connected to thatdefinitely led me to IFS,
because I think that IFS isactually a fairly spiritual
model.
So for me, there was no otheroption.
(22:45):
For me, like I was always goingto do a more holistic based
practice.
I wouldn't be able to do thiswork if I wasn't operating this
way, because it wouldn't feelright.
True, yeah, and you know what?
Surprisingly, I don't feel likeI get very much pushback at all
(23:06):
from other professionals.
When I talk about what I do,people are usually fairly
interested and I've had a lot ofpeople say like, oh, I've had
ideas about that too, but I justwasn't really sure if people
would respond to it Like are you, are you able to have clients
respond to that?
And yes, like, yes, I am.
Because I think people alsofeel that pull, like maybe they
(23:32):
don't necessarily, they can'tdescribe that, but I think we
are all like deeply yearning fora deeper connection and a
deeper connection to ourselvesand those around us and the
earth, you know, etc.
Um, so when I when I likepre-screen clients, I always do
(23:53):
a consultation call.
I tell them up front like, hey,this is how I practice, is this
something that you'd be open to.
You don't have to be, but Ijust want to let you know like
this is the framework and theperspective that I come from,
and most of the time people arereally intrigued and really
interested in that, especiallyas they know that I do IFS, so
(24:13):
they're already willing to likestep outside of the box a little
bit.
So I'm not really, I'm notencouraging them to go that much
further little bit.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So I'm not really I'm not encouraging them to go that
much further.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That totally makes sense, I Iwould assume.
I would assume that most of thepeople, if they're coming to
you or you, that's a good point,like if you're coming to IFS,
and also if you feel like you'vetried traditional therapy and
it just didn't work for you,like you said, then that's
typically when we feel a littlebit more open to trying other
(24:44):
modalities and maybe IFS issomething that would interest
you.
It's very body based.
To me, it's very somatic, which, if you're listening, you might
or might not know that I'm asomatic breathwork practitioner,
so I got trained in a specificform of breathwork called
(25:06):
somatic breathwork and so theco-founders of somatic
breathwork they pull a lot oftheir training from, like trauma
training and also just somaticbodywork.
Actually, the founder, stevenJaggers, um, he started off as a
body worker for years, so hepulls a lot of his training from
(25:28):
there.
But as I've learned about IFSand experienced IFS, there's a
lot of connections to likereally tapping in and tuning
into our body, which is a lot ofthe work that I do too.
Actually, just even from ahuman design perspective, that's
something that I say all thetime.
(25:48):
Like we only have two energycenters which you can think of.
Our energy centers very similarto our chakra system.
There's nine human designcenters, seven chakras, but
roughly they're based off of thechakra system.
So there's only two centers inour head and everything else
there's seven centers in ourbody.
So, just like the statistics ofthat alone is indicative of an
(26:14):
invitation to like, get into ourbody and feel.
Feel our emotions, feel ourinstinct, feel our, our gut
response, feel like how ourheart feels and what wants to
come out of our throat.
Or, in terms of communication,feel your root center, feel
grounded.
Um, so, so like anything to.
(26:34):
To me that's always, that'salways a huge information.
Uh, invitation is anythingsomatic based.
Check it out.
Um but I'm curious have you doneany other somatic training I
know you and I talked about.
Actually there's a woman, uh, aleader I guess in IFS called,
(26:55):
uh, her name's Susan McConnelland she wrote a book called
Somatic IFS and it's reallybringing even more like.
So.
Ifs is somatic based.
I like that you said.
It's kind of more spirituallybased too, but then she brings
even a little bit deeper intolike tuning into the body and
(27:15):
the somatics behind it.
But is there any other insightthat you have on somatic work or
is is it just kind of your,your reiki and feeling, feeling
people's energy?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
well, I think what you're saying is totally spot on
.
Like, when I start IFS sessions, it always start with the body
and seeing if we can notice apart as a physical sensation to
begin with, or see if we canfind a part in the body first.
Um, and I did Susan McConnell'slike IFS circle uh, somatic
(27:53):
training.
So I'm certainly not certified.
That's a very long trainingthat I would love to do someday
with her, but I have like alittle glimpse of that and I
think that IFS opens the door tolike more of the breath work
and the nervous system work,which is obviously all
body-based as well, and reallyhelping people drop down.
(28:17):
And before I start an IFSsession, I typically do like a
little bit of grounding, alittle bit of meditation, just
to try to set the stage and getpeople into that space.
And I do that before Reikisessions.
I do that almost always becausewe're we're, we're busy in our
bodies and we don't often slowdown and soften.
(28:40):
So so, yeah, yeah, it'sdefinitely a somatic approach.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, I, I know I spend so much time in my head,
so anytime I can slow down andlike root down whether it's
through breath, work ormeditation or Reiki you can do
Reiki on yourself.
You could do self Reiki.
I always say, like you can doReiki, whether you're certified
(29:08):
or not.
Like the level of it is goingto be different, but this is
what my mom always said.
She said you have holy hands,so place your holy hands on your
body and that's Reikiultimately, and you're just
sending.
Like if you have I don't know,let's say like you have a
bellyache placing your hands onyour abdomen and sending healing
(29:29):
energy and just kind ofimagining that healing energy.
I always imagine a light Idon't know if you do, but like
always like a white light that'scoming in either from the crown
of my head down into my belly,for this example, or just kind
of coming down onto my belly ifI'm laying horizontal, and just
imagine this like healing whitelight's just kind of coming.
(29:51):
That's Reiki.
That's ultimately what it isand there's kind of maybe
different levels of it.
But you could do it on yourselftoo.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
I love that your mom said that I was just saying
talking about this the other day, because what really matters
there is the intention, and aslong as you have this intention
of sending love and energy andconnection, I mean that's also
parts work, like it's all sointerconnected.
And if you're, if that is thespace that you're in, you're
(30:21):
doing it.
You are, you are supportingyourself, you are taking care of
yourself, you're nourishingwhatever it is that's going on
for you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, I love that, I love that.
So we I want to talk about twothings, um, before we close, but
the first question is more ofan open ended question.
It's what?
What do you wish that like youhaving a platform right here,
right now?
What do you wish that everyperson knew?
(30:50):
What message do you wish thatyou could like share with the
world?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I think it would be that you have all of the
resources that you already needwithin you.
It's all.
It's all already in there.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
That's such a beautiful reminder, I know, for
me man I still struggle withthis all the time of looking
outward, like looking even evenfor my mom.
We were talking about my mombefore we started recording, so
that's how, talking about her somuch, um, but I love my mom,
(31:40):
she's the one of the mostincredible human beings I've
ever met, um, and even my momI'm like she can, can heal me,
she can fix me, or you know,doctors, right, we give away.
We give away so much of ourenergy of to doctors or to other
people or in our relationships.
Like he made me upset or he didthis to me or he's not.
(32:03):
I'm thinking partners, obviously, like he's not.
I'm thinking partners,obviously like he's not
fulfilling my need or my desire,or even siblings I mean friends
anytime.
Like we put so much into otherpeople that we seldom and I'm
including myself, because I dothis all the time too, too of
(32:25):
looking into other people too,for happiness, for joy, for
power, for empowerment, for um,accountability, for healing, for
help, and not that all of thatis bad, none of it is bad,
because we need people.
But to remember that, toremember our power and to
(32:47):
remember everything that we wealready possess, yeah, we need
someone alongside us, we needguidance and direction, but we
have.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
We have it already in here, and that's definitely my
intention as a practitioner.
I certainly don't have theanswers and do not feel as
though I'm the authority on thatin any way, but I do trust that
the people who come into myoffice can connect with the
(33:20):
resources that they have withinthem and have that power
internally for sure would youfind that ifs is helpful in that
aspect of like reclaiming whatis that?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
like your autonomy?
Speaker 2 (33:38):
yeah, because essentially you are.
You are the one who's meetingthose wounded, tender or
burdened parts.
They don't have to look outsidebecause they have you, the self
right.
So it's.
It's that relationship betweenparts himself.
So they don't need someone elseto come and rescue them,
(33:59):
because you're there, you're,you're jumping in and holding
their hand or hugging them,reassuring them.
I think the whole basis of itthere's.
You know, it's already in you,yeah.
I'm obsessed with IFS now I'mlike now I need to get an.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
IFS therapist, because I really, I really am,
I'm obsessed with it.
All right, let's chat a littlehuman human design, which I
introduced, but so I'm going togive maybe a little bit of a
deeper description, just becauseI know that you are not super
familiar with it.
So for anyone listening that isalso not super familiar with it
(34:38):
maybe this is the first podcastyou're listening to Human
design we have multiple aspectsof human design.
I'm talking about one aspectthat's called our profile, and
our profile is like ourpersonality, so it might be like
certain characteristics that wehave, maybe ways that we move
(34:59):
through the world, like our kindof like our energy, although
it's not our energy type, whichwould be like manifesting
generator, but it would be likeour personality traits.
So every profile has twonumbers.
The first number is what wecall our conscious line, so it
might be something that you feela little bit more aware of in
(35:22):
yourself.
It might also be something thatyou, kind of like, see yourself
as more easily than the secondline is our unconscious line,
which sometimes we say otherpeople can see a lot more of
this second number in us than wecan see in ourselves.
Another way that it's describedis we have to kind of master
(35:45):
and not like overcome, but wekind of have to master our
conscious line, our first number, before we then master our
second number.
I'm sure there's a better wordthan master, but that's what
we're going to go with.
So you and I both are what'scalled a one three, the one I
already shared a little bitabout.
(36:05):
The one line is also called theresearcher or the investigator.
So the one line is really allabout it.
It's very data driven and andand likes to research things.
So my mom also has a one lineand like I love using like she's
constantly just like going downthese deep dives of of like who
(36:29):
knows what, but whatever, it islike with with my back stuff.
Right Last night I called herand, um, somebody else mentioned
to me like oh, you should trymagnets on your back.
Which, lord, I've triedeverything.
So I'm like, why not trymagnets?
Okay, and so then like she getson, you know, and she's doing
like so much research and she'slike all right, here's what you
have to do, this is, this iswhat's going to help, and blah,
(36:52):
blah, blah.
But she's always constantlyresearching stuff, whether it's
like food that's good for you,or energy, medicine or whatever.
So that's really the one line.
I see that coming in with me,like I've kind of already shared
, like I just love I loveknowing where people get
information from.
So if you're going to likeespecially argue something with
(37:14):
me, have some facts that likeback up your argument, because I
don't want just your opinion, Iwant to know where you've
gotten that information.
That's really the one line.
Three line is the experimenter.
So the three line learnsthrough trial and error.
So it's very much like I alwaysuse the example of my sister
(37:38):
has a three line and so growingup, you know I would do
something and then she'd be likedon't.
Then I would be like don't dothat Faith, like this is a bad
idea, it's a mistake, and she'dbe like, no, I just I have to do
it for myself to make sure that, make sure that it's a mistake,
like I have to experience itand we learn through.
(38:00):
We really learn through thatexperimentation and that like
trial and error and just liketrying things.
A big part of my three line thatcomes out that I said when I
started my YouTube channel wasyou have to start before you're
ready.
That's a big like motto of threelines is start before you're
(38:21):
ready because you don't know.
Same also a little bit of thisis manifesting generator energy
of like we don't really know ifit's fully the right decision
for us until we're in it andthen we're like, yeah, no,
that's not it, or that'sdefinitely the right decision.
(38:42):
Me, like learning, my threeline has really been opening
myself up to sharing my failures, quote on on social media.
Um, because, like, that's a bigpart of my business, is my
platform.
So, um, sharing my failures onsocial media and sharing like
(39:04):
here's what I learned from it,and not like a huge, like kind
of shadow side of the three lineis fear of failure.
So, not not so much beingafraid of failure and really
recognizing that you don't fail,you just learn and then sharing
those again learn, I guess,learning opportunities with
(39:25):
other people and not beingafraid of of sharing those
learning opportunities withother people and not being
afraid of of sharing thoselearning opportunities or those
growth moments, because that'struly how, how we were created.
So that's a one three.
That's how I see it in my lifeat least.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
That makes so much sense.
I like everything that you justsaid.
I, um, I had a horse for awhile.
He passed in April but prior tohis passing, uh, all I did was
research the best liketreatments for him, the best
interventions for him.
Like he had a lot of chronichealth issues and I spent so
(40:04):
much time doing deep dives and Iwas like why?
Like I didn't.
I didn't really understand that.
I knew why I was doing it, butyou know, people can have
animals and not do deep divesand take care of them.
So I totally relate to that andthe the three as well.
Like my partner and I alwaysjoke because like I'll have an
(40:27):
idea and then, like the next day.
I always joke because like I'llhave an idea and then, like the
next day, I'm like doing it andhe's like what you didn't even
like, you didn't even plan, youdidn't.
Yeah, sit down and like thinkthis from like I know, but I
have an idea and like it's justhappening and just need to do it
just dive right in yeah, iteither comes together or it
doesn't.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Just dive right in.
Yeah, it either comes togetheror it doesn't.
And if it doesn't, then youlearn what didn't work.
Or you always learn along theway, like this would be a better
way to approach this idea andthen you try the better approach
.
But you wouldn't have learnedthat unless you tried it, in my
opinion.
I'm sure other professors woulddisagree.
They'd be like no, there'sbetter ways that you can do this
(41:09):
, but but that's the three.
That's just like zoning into it.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah Well, thank you for sharing your example too,
because that was that was a spoton, spot on example of a three
line.
Okay, so where can people findyou?
Where do you hang out the most?
Um, and also not that wetypically plug a lot of things,
but I know that you have aretreat.
I don't know if it's coming up,but I think that you also do
(41:38):
retreat.
So feel free to share a littlebit of, maybe where people could
find more information on thattoo, if you're, if you want to
share, you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, uh, I'm on Instagram.
I'm not I'm like still figuringout how to be an Instagram
business owner, but I am onInstagram.
Um, it's just my name with LCSWOlivia Testa, lcsw.
Um, and yeah, the retreat theretreat is March 2025.
I'm leading that with my goodfriend, kathy.
She's done these retreats foryears and years and actually I
(42:14):
attended her retreat three yearsago and this year I get to be
hosting with her, which feelsreally, really cool.
That's going to be in Mexico,at Prana Del Mar, on um, the
Baja Peninsula, and that's goingto be a whole week of yoga,
(42:36):
meditation, um, embodimentpractices, kind of everything
that we just talked about.
Kathy is super aligned withenergy and IFs and she's
wonderful, so yeah, love it.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yay, thank you for sharing.
And also, your link um to yourinstagram channel will be in the
description below, so you couldalways click the link for those
of us that have bad memoriesand wouldn't remember how to
type your name, thank.
Thank you so much for coming,olivia.
(43:12):
This was such a funconversation.
Thank you.
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