Presenting:
Tameer Pam Barnslee
Here’s a little bit about her:
Tameer backpacked overland through Europe to South East Asia in the early 70′s–at a time when there were no travel books, internet or cell phones–returning home more than 3 years later after an endless parade of (literally) mind-boggling adventures, each one more intense, more insanely and overwhelmingly surreal than the last. Each day was confirmation of the body’s capacity to surrender to what is…and survive the unknown. Then while travelling back from an ashram in India in 1997, Tameer visited southern Thailand, planted her roots and continues her adventures today with Healing Presence.
And here’s how she answered my 6 questions about creativity:
What inspires your creativity?
Well .. everything actually!!!! I have lived in Thailand for almost 12 years and currently reside in the north, in a city called Chiangmai which was an old Lanna kingdom before it became a part of Thailand. The people and culture are unique in Thailand because of this. However, they do share a common belief in Buddhism and traditional therapeutic medicine. Their approach to life is influenced by a historical background that is almost timeless and this is reflected in their “mai pben rai” (never mind) attitude.
As an artist and a healing facilitator I am touched by my environment and the energy of everything held within it, visible and otherwise. Most recently (over the past 8 years or so), as a healing facilitator, I am inspired by and in awe of our collective mind-body-soul connection.
Everyday I share with people something I call Healing Presence Energy Balancing. It is an integration of numerous therapeutic modalities including Biodynamic Cranio Sacral balancing and various Energy Medicines. I am blown away by our body’s capacity to heal itself. This is what is it designed to do and it is absolutely brilliant at it!!! Every time I facilitate a healing session I learn something new from the body I am touching or connecting with about how healing can happen. Each and every one of us are infinitely creative beings .. on every level . How amazing we are!!!
So this is how I mostly spend my days .. sitting in silence/stillness supporting and facilitating bodies to heal themselves. I get to watch bodies do this through very personal and unique processes. The same apparent skeletal misalignments and emotional/energetic issues have an infinite number of ways to be corrected, released and relieved through an innate wisdom.
As my own personal knowledge and interest in everything to do with healing evolved and grew, so did the creativity with which the bodies of my clients heal themselves. I would learn and practice something on myself .. and voila! it would appear in the healing process being observed and supported on the (massage) table almost immediately!
How have you reinvented yourself through your creativity?
I unexpectedly “retired” in 1997, when I was 50 years old and found myself living a very simple life (no phone, no TV, limited electricity, long walks on the beach twice a day, snorkeling on coral reefs in front of our bungalow) on a beach in the south of Thailand on an island called Koh Samui. Sounds idyllic and it was .. for the first 5 years or so. But gradually it was not enough. I set up a studio and began to sculpt again but even that was not satisfying.
In 1999, a Thai friend and I had created a little non-profit company to bring people from the west to meet and spend time with traditional ethnic Hilltribe healers .. spritual shamans, bone blowers, spirit retrievers, herbalists, midwives .. in the north of Thailand. Our collective goal was to try to keep their thousand year old healing techniques and beliefs alive. There were no written records, everything was passed down orally. Their children were leaving the villages and were not interested in learning these traditions. We were a bit ahead of our time and eventually it was too costly for me to continue to support these incredible “meet the healers” adventures!
However, this brought me into the realm of unconventional traditional healing! To my current life passion ..
Life then brought us a new partner and a Rotary Club grant to move our focus into the world of AIDS and supporting traditional healers to provide health care and education to those affected by the AIDS virus. This included individuals, families and whole villages.
In 2004 we expanded our Project to include a very playful student peer AIDS education pilot program within the Thai public school system. A big hit with the kids and the teachers!
All of these projects were created out of thin air. Because we had no previous related experience, we were free to be creative in our response to meeting a need and creating a vision.
Based on response to your creativity, how do you involve others?
Over the years I have been led to offer and include an education component in order to expand the value of my personal interests and the projects in which I am involved.
Recently I have begun to teach and share what I have discovered about our body’s intuitive and innate self-healing knowledge. It is my observation that we are our own perfect physician. And we are capable of learning how to remember/re-experience how we can heal ourselves and even others. This is offered one-on-one in individual sessions and personal healing journey retreats, and to groups through workshops. People are always astounded by the simplicity and ease with which their body responds to and accepts the tools and techniques we explore together.
What is the wildest journey your creativity has taken you on?
I had had the privilege of founding and directing a Fine Arts center for adults with severe disabilities in Vancouver in the early 1990s so I knew that such labels as “disabled” are only opinions and had nothing to do with who these people were. I also had experienced that they taught me everything I needed to know in order to facilitate an art experience for them in our studio.
This was a wonderful and wonderous journey for sure!
A month ago I was invited, as a healing facilitator, to Hong Kong by a group of parents who have children with labels such as autistic, spina bifida, ADDH. These children were 3-9 years old. More than half were non verbal and autistic. I invited them to simply play while I connected with their energy to facilitate whatever it was their bodies wanted to do in the way of healing themselves. This I did from the other side of the room (I routinely work on a distance level with people in other countries) so they feel at ease. They “spoke” to me through their body’s energy and showed me what their physical and emotional life experience was. Their bodies also shared what they needed in the way of support from me and their parents.
THIS was the wildest-ly touching experience so far!
What’s next for you?
More, more, more of the same! My life here in Chiangmai is as mellow and quiet as I choose it to be. The local and ex-patriot social and cultural life is extremely rich and I can drop in and out as I please.
I have been invited to return to Hong Kong to continue working with these families. I have an invitation to perhaps work with race horses in Hong Kong as well in the near future.
I am in the process of setting up a community Healing Center in Chiangmai with 3 other women who are healers.
What is your most memorable moment in the act of being creative?
It is the internal excitement that grows and evolves as I get to experience my passion expressed, revealed .. whether alone in the studio or in the sharing of it with others!
And here’s something that inspires her creativity:
Hmmm .. there is not one single thing! Everything inspires and touches me at some level. I love receiving inspiring utubes from people ..
Thank you Tameer — your healing is inspiring!
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“These gals are shaking the Tree, gathering up around them the fruits of creativity.”
