Barbara Culbertson

 

 

After graduating from college in Religion and Psychology in 1973, Barbara spent several years studying dance and working with friends teaching and performing liturgical dance with divinity school students.  Barbara received her MA in Economics from North Carolina State University in 1981 and then began working in advertising.  Through her work as a Classifieds Manager she made contact  with people in the healing arts and with her love for healing and spiritual work - bodywork, movement, imagination, play and meditation.    In 1990 she began her profession as a bodyworker.

 

She started her career as a massage therapist pursuing specialization in modalities that treat chronic pain such as neuromuscular therapy. She also spent her first four years working with Triangle Hospice. Her work with those that were dying introduced her to the teachings of Stephen Levine and to a practice of mindfulness meditation. At Hospice she taught touch workshops and meditation instruction for patients, families and staff.  She also provided massage for Hospice patients and caregivers.

 

In her private practice as well as her Hospice work Barbara noticed again and again that physical pain usually had emotional content.  And in search of a way to address emotional and psychological aspects of  physical discomfort she began her studies of energetic medicine through Polarity (an eastern approach to health)  and the Hetaka Tradition (a Peruvian shamanic approach to health).  

 

In the individual Body Mind Therapy session she combines her various skills to provides 1) a time and place for regular life reflection and/or spiritual reflection, 2)a safe place to approach emotional challenges from a body/mind perspective, 3) aid in recovery from surgery or injury, 4) aid in recovery from chemotherapy and radiation and 5) help in working with issues of overeating. She works with people individually (by phone or in person) through bodywork or emotionally clarity work and in groups to help people create emotional physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

 

Since 1994 she has taught mindfulness meditation classes at the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center. In 1998, she began to also provide Polarity sessions to clients there.  At the DFC and in her private practice she has taught workshops and classes including those on, intimacy and acceptance, using meditation skills to treat binge eating, using movement, breath and sound to create health, self-help techniques for emotional clarity, energy healing, Taoist and mindfulness meditation.  Barbara's teaching is eclectic, light, compassionate and funny.

 

Phone: 919-452-8490 

  Email: culb1951@gmail.com

  Websites: www.heartsinbalance.com and www.lymphatichealthnc.com