Colleen Benade — Entrepreneur, Healer, Body Talk, Reiki

And once more, it is what's involved. It's so good to have you along with us. You know, I gotta be honest over the last while, those of you who follow me or don't follow me, hashtag follow me, may or may not know, but I mean, since last year, right up until, well, now really, we've been through some fairly hectic things and amongst those things, something that we've all shared being the COVID crisis, but also a lot of personal stuff and all sorts of things I get. And I thought, you know, I came across somebody who is a very good friend of mine and we got to talking and I thought she needs to be on the radio because she's helped me immensely. And I'm fairly certain she can help you too. Who am I talking about? I am talking about Colleen Bernardi from Satori Healing. Hello, Colleen. - Hello, David. - So good of you to join us. And we're gonna dive into all of the things that you do and how you help people and specifically how you've helped us, namely me and the light of my life, my fiance, Elena, because I promise you it's truly been something that's life-changing for me. And there was a time when, well, Colleen, you saw it, when I kind of hit the wall at speed. And Colleen certainly helped me through that and to deal with that.

So before we get into that though, tell us a little bit about Colleen. Sort of where do you come from, you know, those kinds of things. Firstly, thank you so much, David. I really appreciate that I can be here. So I'm a Joburg girl born and bred. I spent some of my childhood in the Eastern Cape in a farming community. In primary school, I came back to Joburg and I'm an Edenvale girl. So I spent most of my life in Edenvale. - Yeah, and then just in terms of work, because you're now into, and maybe I was a bit vague, but what you do now is what a lot of people would call holistic healing. But you weren't always a holistic healer, were you? So talk to me a bit about your background there. - Right, so when I left school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. So I did a secretarial course because, you know, it was something to do. And I ended up becoming a secretary and I landed up in the bank for many, many years. And that for me wasn't particularly fulfilling. I was looking for something more. I started, I did a psychology course. I started studying psychology through UNISA. And then I stopped it at a point, but I am now finishing it. But I was looking for more. I also hit a stage where I had some health challenges myself and I went from doctor to doctor and conventional medicine just wasn't helping me.

I also had some emotional things that I needed to work through. And I went to a psychologist. And while it was really, really life-changing for me, it was amazing, it didn't quite do it for me. I needed something more. So I was out there searching for whatever this thing was. And one day I went to a holistic fear or actually just a wellness fear. It was at the dome at the time. It was around 2013. And my dad's girlfriend at the time told me about this amazing thing that someone had done for her. And they said, "Why don't you go and try it?" So I went, and I didn't expect anything because I'm quite a, I need to see proof before I actually believe something. But I went to this woman and she had so much insight into me and it ended up being body talk. So I went to her for my own healing and I loved the results that it had because it actually took away the thing that I'd spent years going to doctors to try and solve, which hadn't been solved. So that's how I ended up doing body talk. And I went for my own healing for a number of years. And then in around 2015, the lady who was doing the healing for me, she said, "Why don't you do this thing?" And I was like, "I don't know if I can." But I eventually got my qualification and I've loved doing this web because I see the difference that it can make.

- But the point I like is, and I mean, you and I are quite similar there, is there's a lot of fufu stuff out there and depending on your beliefs, it may work for you, it may not work for you, but you need to see proof. - Exactly. - I recall when you and I were talking, you said, "David, you need to do some body talk sessions." And I was like, "What? What do you wanna do? Why do you wanna do it?" I was like a little skeptical at first, but I gotta tell you, and this is one of the questions I want to get into in just a bit in terms of the body talk. For me, physically, at the time that we were doing the session, it was incredibly calming and relaxing on the one hand. And on the other hand, it was very, very emotional for me. And I mean, I try and portray myself as six foot four full of rough, tough, take-no-nonsense kind of things. And for me, that emotion thing was quite a surprise and it was quite hectic. But afterwards, the feeling afterwards and the shifting in myself and of some of the issues I had was quite phenomenal. Are you of the opinion that most of our dis-ease comes from an emotional, does it start at an emotional place? - To a large degree. There are a lot of influences, a lot of things that influence wellness.

So there are environmental factors, there are physical factors. And yes, there are emotional factors. And what body talk does is we don't look at just the symptom. We look at where did this thing come from? And often it is a trapped emotion. If we don't fully integrate or deal with a trauma at a certain point, we can press those emotions down. And what we end up, and it ends up causing dis-ease in the body. And if we don't deal with those over time, then ultimately it can lead to disease. It's not the only influence. As I said, there are other influences, but certainly yes, it does have an impact. I mean, you can tell that a person who's like a type A personality, that could end up with hypertension because there's this constant focus to succeed and succeed and succeed. And in society today, we are taught that you have to succeed. You may not express emotions to a large degree. It is changing. But we are taught that emotions are wrong, especially the negative ones, anger, sadness, resentment, all of those things, you are not allowed to in inverted commas feel those things. So what body talk does is it actually identifies, it helps us to identify where that stuck emotion is. And then we clear it from the body, which then allows the body to naturally heal itself.

The body has an inherent ability to heal itself, but through stress, through suppression of emotions, through environmental factors, all of that kind of thing, it actually loses communication with itself. You know, breathing is important. When we are stressed, we tend to be shallowly and the brain uses the breath to actually find and identify imbalances in the body. So body talk helps us to identify those things that I've said before and clear it and allows the organs and the cells to communicate with each other so that the body can actually heal itself. Which is the thing I like because it's very much a non-invasive thing. One of the things that had concerned me when we talked about this is, you know, from our dark and dim past. I was like, you know, if I've got any of these emotions and these things or whatever the case may be, traumas, whatever you want to call it, stashed away somewhere, they stashed away for a reason. I don't necessarily want to have to go in there and face all of that stuff again. And yet body talk is not like that. It's not a case of going in and having to, for want of a better word, spill your guts to your body talk practitioner because with the way you do it, it's actually an incredibly gentle releasing process.

When we come back though, what I'd like to chat to you a bit more about is what exactly body talk is and how it works. So we can talk about that in just a bit. This is what's involved and my special guest is Colleen Bernardi from Satori Healing. We'll be back with Colleen in just a bit. And we're back. What's involved it is with my special guest, Colleen Bernardi from Satori Healing. Just before the break, Colleen, I mentioned to you, I'd like you to go into what body talk is because, you know, initially when you said to me, you're going to do somebody talk, I'm like, you talk to me, my body's part of me. But it's not like that. So can you give me like a layman's idea of what body talk is? - Certainly. So it is a healthcare system that supports and promotes wellness. So what we do is we use muscle testing. So it's basically like applied kinesiology. We ask your body, yes, no questions about your wellness because your subconscious mind has an inherent knowledge of everything that's going on in your body and in your mind and in your emotions. You know, the daily life that we live in, the emotions that we see are really just the tip of the iceberg. There's, you know, a large portion of our emotions and of our belief systems that we might not be aware of.

So what we use, what we do is we use these yes, no responses that we actually get from your body. And we use a protocol chart. We always ask permission. And that is the first question that we ask. So we do not go somewhere that you don't want to go. We then use this protocol chart to identify whether it's an environmental or an emotional or a physical issue that is affecting your wellness. And then we ask, do I need to go further into this issue, this whatever it may be? And if your body or you do not want to go further, we get a no and we honor that. So we only get as much information as your body and your mind and your spirit ultimately are prepared to share at that moment. Because it's like layers. You know, we deal with trauma as and when we are able to do it. Sometimes when a traumatic event happens, we shut down and we are not able to deal with that until the later stage where things are a little bit more settled and then we are able to deal with that trauma. So we identify when that, you know, when you are able to actually deal with that. And sometimes we do need to talk about an issue. Because it actually helps it to bring it to awareness and to clear it from the body. - And as I said before, the thing that amazed me about this is that process of bringing it to awareness and clearing is actually an incredibly gentle process.

It's not traumatic. You don't have to live that trauma over again. You don't have to, you know, like there's some modalities where you're required to sort of regress to that time and live through it and with body talk, it's not like that. The thing that amazed me the most is just by doing the body talk session on me and using that muscle testing, you identified things that I was sitting there going, have you been reading my mail? Because it's stuff that, you know, you didn't know beforehand. And yet my body responded and went, yeah, okay. The one springs to mind is, you know, be aware of allergies. And I'm like, okay, I know I have allergies. And you then went and said, if you go and look out and we live on a plot in Pretoria East, if you go and look outside there, you're going to find certain types of grasses that you're allergic to. And I thought this woman is really nuts. But anyway, let's play along and do it. And it's true as nuts. That's what I found. And, you know, with the allergy testing and everything, that's what I'm allergic to. So it works. And, you know, it might seem to be, to some people, a little esoteric and a little out there, but the results are absolutely phenomenal.

Colleen, when we talk about this, you said you've got your qualification. This is not something that you send off at sort of $20 to some weird website in, you know, the backend of the world. And, you know, you get sent back a diploma and you go, yay, I'm now a body talk practitioner. This is quite a thing to go through. How long does it take to become a practitioner? Well, it took me two years. How long it takes you is entirely up to you. There are certain courses that you need to attend. You have to complete 50 documented case studies, which are then marked. There's a written exam with a 90% pass rate, and there is a practical exam. So, and you, as I said, you have to fulfill a number of requirements. So it's not an easy thing to pass. And as I said, it took me two years because you have to make sure that you are doing the right thing for the client. So yes. And then there is an International Body Talk Association. There's a South African Body Talk Association. And to belong to the International Body Talk Association, you have to complete a certain number of courses a year to remain relevant. It is in all of the countries and it's in many different languages. So Body Talk is well established.

It was founded by Dr. John Veltheim and he's based in Florida. So yes, for me, it was important to have something with a good structure. - You know, the good structure probably comes from, you know, like you'll need to know how things work and why things work. And I get that. Now, so you now qualified, you're a body talk practitioner. I'm a walking success story at this stage. The only thing I feel is I wish that I could, we could get together more often. I could do more of these because as you said, the way I see it, it's like an onion and there's these various layers. My quality of life and the way I look at life now has changed quite dramatically. And I certainly, you know, if people listen to me on the radio, they're probably going nah. But I literally, as I said earlier, I'd hit a wall last year and I was an absolute wreck. I mean, I could hardly even string a sentence together. And for somebody who makes their living by talking, that was a problem for me. Come this year and we've made it through the worst, fingers crossed, of the pandemic. And I'm feeling a whole lot better. When somebody wants to sort of go for a body talk, what do you call it? A session, a treatment, a body talk session.

What do they need to be aware of? And do they need to prepare in any specific way? - So the way a session works is that we talk about any health issues that you might have and any emotional or other concerns that you might want to work on. Then you would lie on a treatment bed, fully clothed. I would then use your arm to get the yes, no responses. And we would work through the protocol chart and asking what the priority is in your body. What do we need to look at first to promote the best healing? We would then get all of the information that we would need and then we would tap it out. Really, body talk works with breathing and various tapping techniques. It's based on Chinese medicine to a large degree. There are very many different ways of addressing the body. But one of the ways body talk does look at it is in terms of this Chinese medicine and bioenergetic psychology. Now bioenergetic psychology is understanding the relationship between psychology and the body and wellness. So using all of this kind of information that I would work with, you don't need to worry about it. The client just lies there. And we have a chat, I would guide you through it. A session would take between 15 and 45 minutes.

We would tap it out or there's certain recommendations. One thing, body talk is never diagnosis. We cannot diagnose, we cannot prescribe medicines, anything like that. Just to promote wellness and to identify any sort of imbalances in the body. And the session would then end with the tapping out or whatever technique we are guided to use. We would then have a chat afterwards and that would be the session. We can do in-person sessions or it can be done online. Online sessions are just as effective. Studies have been done and it's actually been, a peer review study has been done on the effectiveness of distance sessions. And they are actually, they've been found to be very effective. - Stands to reason that they would be effective as well. Because I mean, technically you're still seeing the person and you're working with the body there. But in these times, I mean, for people who are a bit nervous about going out and getting into close proximity, a distance session would be great. I mean, you would do it like over Zoom or something like that, I'm assuming. - Yes, Zoom or WhatsApp video. - Okay, all right, cool. So about 45 minutes, you talk about tapping it out. Now, when you say tapping it out, when we first got onto this, I'm like, what has tapping got to do with it?

Tapping is part of, it's a more common word for what they call EFT or the emotional freedom technique. And basically it works on, and this is where the Chinese medicine side of it comes in. It works on pressure points in the body. So traditional tapping, there's a lot of it. There's a lot of those pressure points around your, your sort of your eyes, your chin, under your nose. There's a couple of those that you work on. And it's also, it's one of those things when you kind of poo poo just the tapping part of it until you use it and try it. And it's absolutely brilliant. I just, and I go back to this because I've been to some places before where, you know, you have to literally go back and regress and sit there and scream and yell and have snot and throner. And that just, that's not for me. It's very inelegant. Although this technique is incredibly powerful. When we come back, I'd like to talk a little bit more about the techniques and about what sort of other complimentary bits and pieces that we have in terms of what you do and what you do at Satori Healing. This is what's involved, we'll be back in just a bit. And we're back with my special guest, Colleen Bernardi from Satori Healing.

So now we've got the body talk sorted out. The one thing, and you know, I'm typical of society there. I was like, okay, well, we're gonna do this. I'm gonna try it and it's gonna be a one and done. Sometimes it can be a one and done, but other times you're gonna need sort of several treatments. How do you work around that? - So the body tells us what's needed. It depends on what the client wants to work on. Sometimes a single session can be quite profound. Sometimes it's cumulative if we're working on a deeper pattern that needs to be cleared. So really, ultimately the body tells us, and I ask the body, what does this person need? Do they need Reiki, for example, which is a technique which allows you just to calm down. It clears and balances from the body as well. - But let's get on to the Reiki part of it. - I'm fascinated by that. In fact, so fascinated. And bottom of my background is in the martial arts and the Japanese martial arts and some of the others. And in there, there's this concept of chi. Some people call it chi, but it's this energy concept. And in terms of the martial arts out of it, they identify these pressure points on the bodies which can be used for striking. And in the olden days, in years gone by, there was actually, I don't know how much it gets studied anymore, something called dim muck, which was basically they called it the death touch.

And that was literally where striking on pressure points could disrupt the body so much that that person would get ill and could even die. One of the popular folklore stories is that that's what happened to Bruce Lee. - I can't say on that, David. - Pardon? - I said, I'll try and stay away from that. - From the really really weird side. No, no, I get it. But part of that is, and where I'm gonna tie this all in, is the concept of Reiki. And because of my martial arts background, it led me to Reiki because there's another side of dim muck, which is very much acupressure, acupuncture, which is the healing side of what you're able to do. And the movement of chi or your internal energy, which leads us onto Reiki. So I've studied Reiki, again, very skeptical in the beginning, yet I've seen the results. And I've seen for myself firsthand what that energy can do. And the nice part about Reiki for me, and maybe you could jump in and let me know, but it's very, it's gentle, it's non-invasive, it goes where it needs to go. And all you're basically doing is just facilitating and encouraging this unblocking of the energy meridians and encouraging an energy flow. Am I correct in my understanding?

- 100% correct. And that energy flow then allows the body to do self-feeling, it allows us to breathe more deeply. It allows actually the mind to settle as well. You know, if the body and the energy is out of alignment, we tend to have chaotic thoughts and feelings. And Reiki really helps the body and the mind to settle. - Once again, Reiki is something that used to be very much something that was secret and sacred. Things have changed. There's different forms of Reiki now. Everybody's got the whole intention. But the original, in my mind, to my mind, the purest form is the Asuri system of Reiki. That's not that weird, but also you do need to study it. Again, you know, it's best to make sure what the person's lineage is, et cetera, et cetera, just to make sure that they're using those techniques. But you mentioned that you can use it in conjunction with Body Talk. - Yes, so first let me tell you that it is the Asuri Reiki that I've studied. I did a six months course on it. And yes, I can do it in conjunction with Body Talk. Body Talk is used in conjunction with traditional medicine as well. You don't stop seeing your doctor ever. You know, you go to your doctor for diagnosis. You go to your doctor for treatment.

And Body Talk and Reiki, all of those things are in addition to help the body, to promote wellness, to promote flow in the body. You know, the thing with traditional medicine is often they only focus on the mechanistic aspect. So you might have a knee replacement if there's an issue with your knee. And Body Talk could actually help with the flow of that operation, you know, to help the healing afterwards. And it's also a preventative method, you know, but certainly the two would need to work together. So it works with very many different modalities. - Okay, so, but essentially now with you being qualified as a Reiki healer as well, somebody could come to you and go, or they could mail you, whatever the case may be and go, listen, I've heard about Reiki, I know it works. I'd like to have a Reiki session. Do you do just Reiki sessions as well? - Absolutely, yes, I do. - Okay, and then how does a Reiki session work? - Well, very similar to the Body Talk session, where you come and we talk about, you know, what you would like to address. You would then lie on the therapy bed and I would use, look, you can use hands on or hands off. Currently I prefer to use hands off. And I would guide you through the session, but it's really just to find imbalances in the body and then send the healing energy to the body and allow it to heal itself, ultimately.

- Okay, and once again, Reiki is used and can be used very effectively for distance healing. So again, you wouldn't necessarily have to have somebody come to you, you could do it via Zoom or you said WhatsApp video that you use. So to me, that's fantastic. But what else that, well, something else that I wanna just touch on with you as well. So your company is called Satori Healing and you've got, is all of this on your website? Is there any sort of documentation? Have you covered anything on there so that people that want more information, is that a good place to go? - Absolutely, so all the services that I offer are on my website. There is information on distance healing sessions and how effective they are. They are, so yes, whatever I offer is on there, pricing is on there, you can also email me. So yes. - Okay, can we, can we, when we come back, can we wrap up with you and then I'd like to give out that information as well. And maybe I can twist your arm and find out if somebody says they heard this either via the podcast or on MixFM, maybe we can give them a bit of a special discount. Do you think you can think about that? - Awesome, all right, this is what's involved. My special guest is Colleen Bernardi.

We'll be back, she's from Satori Healing and when we come back, we'll wrap it up with Colleen. And we're back, what's involved with my guest Colleen Bernardi from Satori Healing. So we were talking about this. So would you be prepared if somebody says to you, listen, I really, I need this. I've heard it on the radio, I've heard the podcast. I'm very keen. Would you be prepared to give them somewhat of a discount off your normal prices? - Absolutely, I would be giving them a 20% discount. - 20%? - Yes, 20%, only if they mentioned David Watts. - Oh, okay, use my name, use my name gratuitously and you can get a 20% discount. Listen, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's worked, I was a bit skeptical in the beginning. Just the changes that I've seen in myself and my health and my general outlook have been absolutely amazing. It is a complimentary medicine. I have diabetes and we've done treatments in conjunction with my diabetes medication. Colleen, where does somebody go if they wanna get hold of you? - Right, so they can go to my website. It is satorihealing.co.za or they can email me at info@satorihealing.co.za. - Fantastic stuff, now how do you spell that? 'Cause I call it satori, you call it satori.

Same thing though, hey? - Same thing, it's a Japanese word that actually means understanding. So that's what's actually what my work is about is understanding ourselves and our healing. But yes, it's spelled S-A-T-O-R-I. So, and satorihealing is one word. S-A-T-O-R-I healing.co.za for the website. - Fantastic, or info@satorihealing.co.za. Now, Colleen, you've had a long journey in getting this process and in getting to a place where this is your passion, this is your life, this is what you do full time. - It's been a long road. I think you've achieved some amazing things. But let's ask, what is next for Colleen, Bernardi and Satorihealing? - For me, it's about healing of people. It's about understanding of people. So I would like to get my voice out there more. I would like to work more with people and help them to heal those core issues that make life difficult. I would like life to be easier for people. And that is my intent. - Well, that is most certainly a fantastic intent and a very, very noble one as well. Colleen, we wish you all the best. May your business go from strength to strength. Just the fact that you are there, you can offer these treatments and bring a little bit of lightness into this world, I think is a fantastic thing.

So thank you very much. May you go from strength to strength. - Thank you so much, David. I really appreciate your time. - There we go, wrapping it up with my guest, Colleen Bernardi. And once again, that website address is satorihealing.co.za. S-A-T-O-R-I healing.co.za. Wraps it up for this edition of "What's Involved" to each and every one of you out there. Take care, look after yourselves and thank you for listening.