June 29, 2021 - EyeClarity Podcast
Today we have a special guest, Emma Destrubé. She is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist and physician of East Asian medicine, as well as a somatic movement therapist and Continuum teacher.
Beginning in her teens, she apprenticed under somatic movement pioneer Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum. Together they researched and developed fluid movement/sounding protocols for neuromuscular compromises and other therapeutic applications of somatic movement and breath work practice.
Emma holds a private holistic health care/healing arts practice in Los Angeles, where she helps to cultivate vitality with patient-empowering, poetic medicine including acupuncture, herbalism, somatics, and energy work. Her patients are a broad mix of creatives, celebrities, athletes, artists, activists, meditators, and even children.
She also teaches weekly online classes called Soma – a Continuum-based subtle movement, breath, and embodied meditation practice that sources somatic inquiry in the wisdom and poetry of Taoist medicine.
You can follow her on Instagram at @emmadestrube or check out her website: https://www.emmadestrube.com/about
My last name is pronounced DES-true-bay. We can practice together!
Credentials: Licensed Acupuncturist, Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nationally-certified Diplomate of East Asian Medicine, Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator.
Enjoy the show! If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
somatic, body, rhythm, people, feel, broaden, world, Emily, create, tissues, question, support, life, slow, head, move, medicine, speak, connected, hierarchical structures
00:05
Hello, everyone, its Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to Hello at Dr. Sam Berne calm. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode. Hey, folks, it’s Dr. Sam and I want to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So today we have a very special guest. She’s a colleague of mine and a friend. And she’s got a lot of great information and wisdom. Her name is Emma, that’s true Bay. And she is a physician of East Asian medicine. She’s also a red registered somatic educator. And she’s also many other things. She’s just an amazing person. Just a little background about her. She’s an herbalist. She also has studied somatic healing and continuum. So she’s a continuum teacher. And we share that in common. We both studied with Emily Conrad, and I’m going to ask her to speak about Emily in a minute. So, Emma, I want to bring you on. And I want to thank you for joining us. And my first question is, how did you get hooked up with Emily and continuum?
01:59
Thank you so much, Sam. It’s great to be here. So I came to continuum as a teenager, I was living in Montreal at the time, and I was really ill, I was struggling with the effects of a genetic condition which Western medicine had pretty much no course of action for. And I was at a place where I was really facing my own mortality. And I had come from a background of gymnastics and acrobatics, and circus art. So I was someone who was very physically oriented and identified, and what that that that part of me my body was sort of disintegrating. And so I was looking for some way to engage my self, my body into move, that would feel good and supportive, as opposed to draining and straining, and painful. And so through that I kind of haphazardly through the recommendation of a choreographer friend, was recommended to continue on. And so I started practicing it there with an amazing teacher, Linda, Raven, and Montreal. And it sort of became my lifeline. It was like the one thing that made sense to me, it was the one thing that felt good in my body that that reduced my pain levels that made me feel a sense of vibrancy or aliveness. And through this amazing series of of synchronicities, I came eventually to meet Emily Conrad, the founder. And she and I immediately connected, she looked at me in the eye and said, This is too much for one small human to carry. And what is your life? You would say that? Yeah, it was, let’s see her saying that. Yeah. And to hear that in that place, when I was sort of so I felt so alone and struggling with and, you know, trying to find support for myself. at that young age, it was just like, the only thing that had felt true and a long time. And so she’s like, what is your life? Like, right now? Is there any way that you can move to Santa Monica and work with me? And so I left everything, and I moved out with how she and I connected? Yeah. And then from there, I was just very close apprentice. I was in the studio all the time and doing everything I could to take care of a temple and exchange for our work together. And it was an incredible education. I really feel so fortunate to have gotten to grow up in the work.
04:33
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can, I can still relate because when I started to study with Emily, it was the best thing going and being able to come to Santa Monica and when I did the wellsprings, and so I got to be there for three weeks. That was really life changing, and then all the different interactions that we had. So it brings me to if we fast forward Word to what we’ve been through these last year, year and a half in the somatic work that you’re, you know, teaching. How can this somatic work support us going back into the world post pandemic? How do you see that?
05:20
Yeah, that’s such a Yeah, it’s such an interesting question. And something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, because, you know, one of the things I love about my one on one private practice work is that I get to hear about the inner world of many people. And so one thing I was hearing a lot of, maybe two or three months ago was, we can’t go back to how things were, we just can’t, I can’t go back to the stress levels I had, I can’t go back to working like I was. And now I’m seeing people just sort of being swept back into the speed of things and back into the routines of, and the demands of their work. And so I feel very fortunate to have the somatic work as a resource because it supports us to soften and settle and slow down. And it allows us to really feel our insights. And I think that when we can feel ourselves and acknowledge our deeper needs, we can start to sense the beginnings of, how, how do we enact ourselves in the world in a way that is connected to how I feel on the inside. So to go back to my early experience, you know, the gift of being so ill at a time when most people are developing their lives and mine was sort of deconstructing was that I was then forced to create a life and a lifestyle that actually supports my biology. But it was only in being able to feel my biology and feel my insights, but I would have a way of knowing what that would need to look like. So I think that in coming to somatic work, it shows us what it is that we need, what it is that we feel. And there’s a liberation in that and that when we can feel ourselves and know what we need, we’re less susceptible to these outside influences
07:09
of the want and need.
07:13
Yeah, yeah. Well, well said, you know, to be able to develop your interiority is really, I think one of the keys in our health quotient moving forward. And being in the semantic field. I think that’s an essential component to it. And I’m glad you’re spotlighting that because, you know, we can get so externalized. And I think then we stop connecting to our, you know, ourselves and then turn away. And that brings me to another question I have I’m really curious about is the indirect approach instead of, you know, being so direct, and I know, both of us talk a lot about context? Could you speak a little bit about being indirect in how you support people? I’d be very curious about your perspective.
08:13
Yeah, I think that we tend to approach the body as an object. And see it’s seen it as a conglomeration of parts, and that those parts might need fixing or healing or changing, but that actually what we call our body doesn’t end at the boundary of our skin. But we can broaden that definition to include our environment and include the worlds the world around us. So there’s that. And then I also think that you know, it’s just like, if we’re if we’re wanting a friend of ours to open up, that we, if we really ask the right questions, and we’re forceful, and we stare them in the eye, and it’s not going to make a person feel comfortable, you know, or you want like a cat to come and be with you, you kind of have to, you know, settle into yourself and slow down. And I think it’s the same when we approach the body that if we approach in a way that is forceful, demanding, targeted, directed, it tends to create tension. And that tension tends to be the opposite of the opening, that is a requirement, a baseline requirement for change and for healing. So I really see that all of our behavior, even our internal behavior, the behavior ourselves, is a is dependent on a contact, if we have the support and the nourishment that we need, our tissues will respond in a healthy way. So I really think that taking some of the personal onus off of you know, doing things differently and widen the lens a little bit stepping back and saying well what here in this context and change in order for health to to grow for vitality to move. Like if you have an aquarium, you know, like you could give the fish some medicine, or you could maybe first change the light, change the water, change the filter. Give them different food. Yeah. And it’s it’s so much more of a compassionate approach, it feels so much better to receive medicine that feels like that.
10:13
So we are here with Emma desk to Bay, she is a physician, East Asian in medicine. And she’s also a registered somatic educator. And we’re having a discussion about a variety of different topics. So I want to move towards this idea of structural versus additive change. This is something that I play with, in my own practice. Can you can you speak about those, those things?
10:44
Yeah. So I think that a lot of the physical approaches, approaches to our bodies that are out there, look, to add something or take something away, in that, like, maybe we’ll add a supplement, or well, especially when it comes to movement, like move this way, stretch that way. And so we’re kind of adding these other patterns or other ways of doing. So think about posture, like Lift your head to the sky, lift your crown, sink your tail, we’re kind of adding these instructions and creating new patterns designed to support us, I firmly believe there’s a time and a place for that. And the work that I’m interested in, is to go beneath that that level and work with a structural shift. So that we’re looking in my work, I’m looking for tissues to actually changed a little bit, you’re again, changing the context, and allowing an environment where a different behavior can emerge. And often, that’s more so a process of softening, inhibition, and softening, of resistance to an innate life process to the movement of life that created us in the first place. And that had the power just like it shaped us to begin with, to continue to reshape us and to guide our, our internal world.
12:02
Well, I remember in, in one of my discussions with Emily, she would say, structure can be an inhibitor. And certainly in my field, what I’m doing all the time is helping people dissolve the structure in their eye tissue. Because you know, that’s kind of how it is. And there isn’t another choice. And of course, that translates to the entire body, looking at the fitness world, for example, and just seeing how, you know, going faster going and doing the Stairmaster, that’s an additive thing. Is that really going to get to my tissue consciousness? Of course, it’s not. Yeah. And, you know, I think we are in agreement about that. And so that brings me to the next thing about broadening as self definition. So speak about that speak about broadening? Well,
13:01
yeah, to add a little bit to what we were saying before is that I think anytime we’re adding too much, we create rigidity in our tissues. And that rigidity creates, then a very narrow band of possibility. we all we all can visualize somebody who’s so they might look very strong, they might have built huge muscles, but then they’re losing some range of motion, for example. So I think that in this structural change, we’re trying to create more space in the body. As things broaden and widen, we, there’s room for more possibilities. So in any context, or any situation, my range of responses is much wider, I have a broader capacity to engage. Also, in softening and widening my tissues, it creates a space where my consciousness is able to enter inwardly, and start to be able to feel my insides and in that I can start to feel that what I call my body isn’t this small, isolated, narrow experience, but it’s actually in resonance with a much broader stream of of life than what my body isn’t separate from the grass outside or the biosphere or even the particles of the cosmos. So there’s a broadness to myself finishing and then my self definition starts to broaden all of my small neuroses all of my little limiting beliefs and structures and you know, all of it it starts to take to have less hold that my identity can also as well as being this narrow can also expand include more and it is such a relief.
14:47
Yeah, yeah, it totally as because you know, we get so identified in our story and our identity. And as we slow down and broaden. Then as you say, we We go into this broadness. And it’s so nourishing to realize, you know, there’s this micro macro. And through our somatic journey and especially continuum, this is such a great way to experience that and get into the field of what you’re speaking about. Yeah, and I’ve attended I’ve attended. Go ahead, God,
15:26
oh, just gonna say that we can see this on every level, like if even on an individual cell, its health is dependent relinquishment in allowing waste products out allowing communication through. So if it’s held and bound, tense for rigid, or to set up, as we so often are, is limiting that capacity to be in concert with life. So as we can, literally brought in our tissues, there’s literally more space for breath for nourishment for movement. Yeah.
15:58
So I am having a great conversation here with Emma deste. That’s true Bay. She’s a physician of East Asian medicine. She’s also somatic, registered somatic educator. And I want to move now and I want to talk about I want to ask you this question. And I asked a lot of somatic somatic folks this. So I want to ask you, what is the body? What is it for? Can you can you elaborate, please? Yeah, I just, it’s just a small question. You know, I
16:34
think when it really comes down to it, we have no idea that what we call our bodies is, is this incredible extension of billions of years old life process that has somehow, in some mysterious way arrived to this moment, we call now, and has shaped me in this sort of particular conglomeration of cells and tissues and energies. And that I think, I think what we call the body also is something that is, is a verb, it’s not a fixed entity, but it’s something that is constantly changing and moving and unbecoming, becoming. And then I think, also, like I said, before, the word body, we tend to think of it as ending at our skin. And that actually, I I, my felt sense is that our body extends beyond the boundaries of our of ourselves, that we we are in deep participation with our environments, with the planet with the world. So when I come to the body, it’s it is a it’s an inquiry, it’s a it’s a portal into a deeper experience of life and an incredible opportunity to participate with fidelity.
17:57
So to follow up on that, then how is this head centric? And a pattern that I see a lot of people in? Where we’re reflecting outwards? How is that you know, playing into the patriarchal? How’s that playing into, you know, the restrictions that we have with our body and movement? Can you speak about that?
18:22
Yes, I think as humans, we have this incredible capacity to go out to imagine and to create, and build and dream. And what’s often lost is that we don’t turn that same capacity in words, that there’s an opportunity to take all the light of that outward consciousness and, as they say, in, in Taoist practices, to reverse the light, to turn that light inwards and participate consciously, with the inner worlds. I think that we are culturally, like you said, we’re so head centric, we, you know, we talk about these hierarchical structures in our world, but we also hold those same hierarchical structures within our own bodies. So of course, we enact them in the world that were so head centric, and we look at our bodies like a little donkey to kind of carry our heads around. Yeah, we think of our thoughts as so Paramount, but we forget that they are emerging out of a brain ahead, that isn’t part of my body and that I didn’t have anything to do with growing, that that was an intelligence much, much wider than my own. So I really believe that when we come home to our bodies, and when we learn to deconstruct some of that internal hierarchy, that it allows us not only to feel ourselves more but to feel each other more and to become more conscious and empathic and kind participants in our in our world.
19:57
Well said, well said Yeah. So we’re coming down to the end of our time. And my last question is, can you talk about the bio rhythms, you know how people listen and listen to them? And what is the value of this deeper bio rhythm that’s within us?
20:20
Yeah, I think that we contain multitudes that we have all of these different bio rhythms happening at the same time, we all are very familiar with the bio rhythm of our nervous system, you know, when your phone is just going a little bit too slow, and you’re having to wait for something to load, that’s that it’s moving a little slower than the speed of your nervous system. So that’s that speed. And it’s a speed that we built a whole world around. And there are many other rhythms happening within us as well. There’s the rhythm of our breath, constant movement, there’s the rhythm of our circulatory system, our heartbeat, these slow tides of our cranial sacral fluids, and these even longer cycles of our of our reproductive development, like the time from puberty to menopause, for example, these long, slow cycles. And so I think that we forget to value many of them were very caught up in this very, very speedy rhythm. And what we pay attention to really grows, there’s a there’s some mysterious process when when we participate with something, it comes alive. And that’s so much of my hands on work and my one on one work with people. So I think there’s a real value to valuing these other deeper rhythms. And you know, the practice of East Asian medicine is completely centered around harmonizing ourselves with these broader rhythms of nature, that our health is dependent on our resonance with, with the natural world and its cyclical nature.
22:01
Absolutely. So how can people get in touch with you? What are the surface services you offer? Let us know how do we connect with you?
22:13
Yeah, so I teach classes and workshops, ongoingly. And I have a private practice here in Los Angeles, where I see people offering both acupuncture and traditional East Asian medicine, as well as hands on energy and somatic work. And then I also work with people online one on one, so nutritional counseling and herbal medicine and somatic work as well. So all of that is on my website, and my desk ebay.com Ma, and then just obey a spelling d, e s, t, r u b e.com.
22:53
Everything’s there.
22:55
So I’m gonna put this on the on the notes so that people can contact you. And I highly endorse him. I’ve taken her classes online, and I still go back and listen to some of them. They’re great. I plug in and it’s it’s like being in class. So thank you for putting those out. Keep doing it. You’re, you’re really on to it. And I love your expression and on so many levels. So I want to thank you so much for your generosity today for sharing with us. And I wish you the very best. Thank you so much for having me, Sam. It’s a pleasure to speak with you always. Thank you for listening. I hope you learn something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. see you here next time.
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