Anshu Bahanda: This is Anshu Bahanda on Wellness Curated. Thanks for joining me on this podcast. My mission is to empower you with health and wellness so that you can then go and empower others. [Today] we’ve got Dr. Devanshi Kapadia. I will start with my favorite question that I ask everybody— what is wellness to you?
Dr. Devanshi Kapadia: Anshu, wellness for all of us is an evolving definition. And yet, what universally states as a definition of wellness, through my journey of being healed myself, and through seeing other people going through this process— is about getting the equilibrium back, it’s about getting the balance back. So, wellness means whatever happens through the journey of life— whether it’s about a traumatic situation or it’s about an extremely happy moment. When it’s trauma, unwantedly, we are stuck there. But when it’s happiness, we want to be stuck. And both are not wellness. Because wellness is about living that moment fully and, in that moment, finding your balance to get the best out of that situation, whether it’s joy or learning and then continuing to move ahead. So, then 2020 has really taken us from the belief that with certain dos and don’ts, equilibrium or wellness is maintained. It has told us to explore a new sense of wellness and new sense of equilibrium. If it’s not with a group of people, find that wellness in being with yourself. If it’s not about going out, find that wellness in being in your inner space. So, wellness this year has had new definitions and let’s not start looking at the world as it’s not looking normal to me. Let’s start looking at the world as this still means another form of wellness for us.
AB: That’s really nice. Thank you very much for that. And the other thing I wanted to ask you was how energy healing is used for so many different things. How would you best describe it?
Dr. DK: So first let’s understand what this word energy healing is. And when we start talking about energy healing, generally we start talking about the modalities. But energy healing itself is a whole umbrella and all the different modalities are a part of that energy healing. So, what is simple energy healing? Energy healing means that when I have the software and when I have the hardware, I need the connection which allows the software to run on the hardware. That is energy. So, I have a heart and I have blood in my body, but I need the heart to pump that blood and have enough blood pressure. Similarly, I have thoughts in my mind and I need those thoughts to translate into success or into action. So, energy is that force, energy is that possibility, energy is that momentum which allows the software of any system to run through a hardware. Now, for us it is the human body and it is this brain and this mind. Energy means anything which is going to make this body work better, this brain work better, this mind work better, and to extend it— this consciousness to work better. It is all energy— whether it’s mantras; whether it’s yoga; whether it’s eating healthy food which has the ‘Prana’ or the Qi; whether it’s going for a walk; whether it’s having a pet; whether it’s going to a shrink; whether it’s going and doing Pranayama; whether it’s going and doing a hypnotherapy, regression therapy or reiki session, sitting with a crystal, cleaning your space with salt— all of this comes under the umbrella of energy healing. So what are we healing? That force which still is not enough for my hardware to function the software properly. So, that force getting rectified is called energy healing, for all of us to understand. Now, how does one go about knowing what kind of energy healing is right for me? It’s not a quick fix recipe or it’s not something straightforward to understand, but what is most important is that what is the problem that I’m facing? So, if you know the definition or you can come as close to a precise explanation of your problem, then to get the relevant right modality should not be difficult.
AB: So tell me, of all these different forms of healing that you do, what is your favorite?
Dr. DK: Okay, so let me talk about my favorite in the sense of what I feel has given me a lot of validation in terms of improvement, and in terms of where I have seen lives and systems changing. So, like I was previously saying, that according to the nature of the problem, we have to decide which modality will suit us. So, let me talk about four or five different things in terms of who should choose what. So, let’s suppose I have identified that this is me Devanshi, and I have an issue every time I go driving alone. I learn, I drive for a certain while and then something has to happen and I cannot drive further. Or I have gone through various mediums and wanted to learn swimming, had a coach, had somebody throw me in the water and I’ve still not been able to swim well, or I have this pattern that every 15 to 18 months, for some other reason, I’m told that I’m redundant from my job. So, all these are things which are happening to me. These are patterns, but these are self-patterns, These are patterns of fear, these are patterns of blocks, these are patterns of stoppages. Now, for something like this, a modality like a clinical hypnotherapy would be very beneficial, because clinical hypnotherapy will allow you to slowly train and tune your brainwave such that when you’re doing one particular activity, you become proficient in it, you become efficient in it, and you start doing it better and better. So, clinical hypnotherapy is one of the strongest modalities to access your subconscious mind and use your subconscious mind to its fullest capacity. And to give you a fair ratio, like a very rough ratio, what you consciously try to do is one time and what you subconsciously then do is 6000 times more powerful. This is the benefit of doing something in a clinical hypnotherapy setup. Now vis-à-vis that, if as a child I have been very terrified of my mother; and then I have been very terrified of my teacher; and then I have been very terrified of my husband; and then I have been very terrified of my oldest child— that means there is something in me which has no coping [mechanism] to an authority or an authoritarian figure. Now, in these kinds of cases, just empowering yourself will not help. So, this is a telltale sign for a regression session, wherein I understand that where in the past have I lost the capacity to look at somebody and say you and me are not at lower heads but we are equal. So, regression therapy is telltale signs for people where they cannot understand and explain behavior. But it looks like I never had it, and now I want to go ahead but every time I’m faced with a similar thing. So, regression is generally vis-a-vis you and a person, you and a pattern, and you and a repeated situation.
AB: You’re saying that clinical hypnotherapy was all about you, while regression is you and something external, is that right?
Dr. DK: Yeah, I’m trying to make us aware that of course everything has shades and everything has each of all, but broadly for us to understand, if a person comes to me and tells me that I have done two decades of self-work on myself, I am fine. But how do I explain this to my wife? She doesn’t come for sessions, she doesn’t go for her healing, and she doesn’t want to change. Now, when a person is in a process of awareness and when we want the system to heal, it’s very classic of constellation work, because now we know that we want the system like the wife, the children, the parents, where the ancestors are stuck, all this to heal. So, when a system is involved, like somebody comes and tells me oh, I always have a fantastic team and then my department gets changed or I have a fantastic team but two of these do not want to comply no matter how much I have tried, or how many techniques of soft skills I have used. Now, this is about a system which is my system, but it’s not functioning to my best favor. So, when you have to bring about energy changes in a system, that’s when constellations are indicated. And just to add another thing, like a 15-year-old or a 12-year-old comes and says that okay, I’m not doing so well in academics or I’m not doing this sport very well, then we use something very simple like looking at the handwriting of the person. And I know we don’t write these days, everything is virtually written. Yet the brain and hand have coordination and even gentle strokes or even strokes with a pen on paper can talk about the whole personality of the person. And somebody who doesn’t want to call themselves into healing but is okay with talking themselves into mentoring or guiding or being just helped in a certain aspect, even something like telling them their best numbers for numerology, or telling them how to make little more changes in their signature or handwriting, will bring about a whole personality shift because at the end of the day, it’s energy, so it can differ in form but it will have the same end result.
AB: Okay, thank you. That’s beautifully explained. Thank you. I wanted to ask you…so I know that we’ve talked about lots of different forms of healing. So will you go into clinical hypnotherapy a little bit and explain how it works?
Dr. DK: Sure. So, clinical hypnotherapy basically is about addressing your subconscious mind. So, your subconscious mind is everything that has been stored as data. Now, this is that part of your mind wherein some data you have analyzed and stored and some data you have just not analyzed and not stored. Like when I was born in the hospital, what was the scenario like? Was my doctor happy, was my mother happy? What was happening around? What did the nurse do? Did she hold me with one leg or did she leave me on a cold tray? Now, these are all the things that are already registered by the subconscious mind right now. What happens is some of the events of the unknown is where we have got stuck. So, clinical hypnotherapy is a modality of using scripts. These are healing scripts and these scripts will step-by-step take you into various forms of brain waves and ultimately you reach a form of brainwave where you access your stored data or you can feed in fresh data. So, it is one of the very well-known modalities on the whole realm right now of energy healing, and it’s very safe and it’s for everyone. Because it is based on very simple script work, wherein your mind slowly undergoes relaxation, goes from one brain wave to another, and as the brain wave starts changing, you reach that brainwave where you start becoming 6000 times more receptive to a positive change. So, that is the whole basis of hypnotherapy— to take you from a conscious mind to a subconscious mind. Now, where is hypnotherapy already working for all of us? Half an hour before when we are just falling asleep and half an hour before when we are just going to wake up. Those are the times we say oh, put positive affirmations for the children; do sleep talk to them. So, we are already in a hypnotic stage, clinically two times a day, irrespective of whatever.
AB: I wanted to ask you about family constellation healing.
Dr. DK: Okay, family constellation basically addresses family dynamics. And by family dynamics I mean— we have parents, we have grandparents, we have great grandparents. And so much that happens to us, 99% is from the DNA, and 99% of that DNA is from our ancestors. So, family constellation is a process in which we try and understand these patterns that are running in the family, whether it’s an individual, whether it’s in many individuals, and whether it is coming from something which was unaddressed or which went faulty or which went as a functional error for somebody in the past. And it’s not about blaming, it’s not about saying, oh, you did this, so I’m suffering today. But it’s about accepting that in their limited consciousness, whatever our forefathers knew, they took their choices accordingly. And today, it’s not necessary that choice will work for us. So it’s the time to actually revisit our choices, revive our new choices, and also hold on to certain resources that we get; so some of our ancestors had some amazing fundamental courage, some risk-taking capacities, some amazing culture-building, and religion-building capacities. So, we use family constellations to bring back strength and also to address what hasn’t been addressed for generations. So, in that format, family constellations bring about the well-being of the whole group or whole set of people. And in recent times, we are even extrapolating it to organizations or to offices or to small and big multinationals, wherein they come to us for understanding the need of the business, understanding what is the tone of the business? What are each one expecting? And what are the benefits that each one can be given as an individual, for the whole organization to grow? So, there is a very beautiful branch of family constellations which is only and only focusing on areas of work, areas of business, areas of the profession, and we call it the organizational systemic constellations. Even that is a very beautiful extension to the work. Now, at a third-dimensional level or at a routine life level, or it’s office-going, coming back, recruiting some people, having them perform, if they don’t perform, let them go; if they perform well, promote them well, all looks wonderful, here also there is an unknown wave of energy moving. And if that wave is entangled somewhere, there are going to be compromises on human resources. So, that’s about family constellations, also about organization constellations.
AB: Wow! So, will you now explain regression therapy? Because that’s something a lot of people are scared of for some reason.
Dr. DK: So, regression therapy is basically a moment in the past where either we are knowingly stuck or we are frozen. Means that, at the age of 14, if I had gone to school and somebody made a comment and I moved on and today I feel very successful and I’m very good, but when it comes to a party, then, oh, I’m checking, can I go? Can I not go? And I’ll get a stomach ache and I’ll miss the party. So, regression therapy is a choice of modality where knowingly or unknowingly, we know that a situation in the past has never completely been digested by us. So, regression therapy is not just past life therapy. Regression therapy is also about going to the traumatic moments within this lifetime. Like suddenly the nanny decides to leave, or I have this guardian or a parent figure in the house, and my mom decides that I don’t need her anymore, but I need her. And now she’s gone and I feel abandoned and I feel alone. And then further on in life, I have friends whom I’ll make a very important part of my life and very close to me. And one fine day, they will just leave…so, abandonment. So, regression therapy is used, when a part of us is lost, a part of us is frozen, a part of us is missing in the time lap and to collect that part, to collect that bit of you— is regression therapy. Now, a very small part of regression therapy is also past life therapy. And across various ethnicities in the world, some believe in it and some do not believe in it, and it’s not completely my first choice of therapy because generally, a person will go to a past life therapist saying let me see if I go to my past life or not. So, if that is a premise, then definitely it’s not a healing space, it’s something which you want to test yourself and in the other individual. So, we allow that to pass. But if there are visions, if there are dreams, if there are certain severe identification of places, then definitely it is an indication that there is a story that is very different from your current story and which needs to be addressed. And the very renowned Carl Jung said that whether you believe in regression or not, whatever is there is an archetype. So, all of us have been a soldier, have been a warrior, have been a king, have been a slave, have been a lover, have been a joker. So, all these archetypes are present in our mind, in our primitive mind. So, regression therapy can allow you to access these archetypes which are there within us.
AB: And that’s also very humbling, isn’t it? That all of us have been through all these archetypes?
Dr. DK: Absolutely. And if anybody says I can never be that, I can never do that, I’m always this, I am always that… That means there is a voice inside you that is saying the exact opposite story. So, when a therapist listens to these eternity’s words, that’s the time for inquiry.
AB: Wow. So basically, no judgment. It also teaches us we should not be judgmental at all.
Dr. DK: No, no judgment. It is the premise for any energy work because energy has no judgment. It will pass through a light pole, it will pass through a rich person, it will pass through a beggar. So, there is really no judgment. So, energy has no judgment and no definition. So, thank you, for bringing that word.
AB: Thank you. So, tell me, Devanshi, if someone comes to you and sometimes they don’t even know what their issue is, maybe they’re not feeling right, they don’t know what is bothering them, how do you go about identifying what they need?
Dr. DK: So how does one decide what is the right modality for them? Most of the time when you go as a client to an energy healer, your only fundamental job is to just say what’s happening to you, in all authenticity. Like even to the extent that yes, I feel everyday morning I wake up and I want to strangulate this one human being in my life. Or going and saying that I see myself there in that cabin as the MD of this company, but I’m still a junior analyst. Or going and saying that how many years have I tried? And I’m doing everything right by the book just to become a mother or a father and it just doesn’t come across well. So, you as a client have to just go to a therapist and say what’s happening to you, to a healer and say what’s happening to you? More or less they will have modalities to deal with these. Yet, from my experience and from my perspective, I have these broad divisions in my mind that if somebody is coming for some kind of enhancement and empowerment, I would focus on clinical hypnotherapy. If somebody is talking very vividly about a life situation or trauma that they have gone through, then I would kind of start my footsteps toward regression. And if somebody classically comes and says that my father went through this, or I am going through this, my brother is going through this, I don’t know when will this curse end in my family— this is a telltale sign for a constellation. So, we can also identify ourselves where we are in life by making three simple columns— what do I face as a person? What do I face vis-à-vis, the situations of my life and the trauma that I’ve gone through and what do we face vis-a-vis a family? And when you make these broad classifications for what you’re going through, generally one or two of them will call you very strongly that this has to be cured for myself. So, after doing a general analysis, you can also go to that relevant therapist and heal yourself. Of course, there’s a lot of merit to meditation, affirmations, to positive thinking, yoga, and living a healthy life. So even with all the other energy healing that we do, our basic level of energy on a day-to-day basis is also our responsibility. So, we are all energy healers ourselves. When we eat right, we are doing energy healing; when we think right, we are doing energy healing; when we are doing meditation, we are doing energy healing. So, there is an aspect of that within us as well.
AB: Okay, so do you have any advice for the people listening, who very patiently waited for us?
Dr. DK: I’m taking back from this group what I wanted to probably say as a suggestion, as a very powerful tool of where we are— is grounding. I give a lot of importance to grounding and all my clients, my friends, and my family, take that from me for sure, because I feel that cliche line. But I want to repeat that we are not here for a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings who are here for a spiritual experience, for a physical experience. So, at any point of time, please don’t lose the connection to your health, to your job, to your family and anywhere. If you feel that you’re losing connection, you’re losing sight, practice very simple grounding, like walking barefoot on the earth or walking on the grass, going and hugging a tree, lighting a candle and just looking at the flame in complete surrender and in complete gratitude. Or going to a beach and walking and standing with your feet till your ankles are into the sand and just on a daily basis while you go to sleep in the night, imagining that you are connected to the core of Mother Earth and everything that is not good for your highest growth, you’re surrendering it to Mother Earth, grounding yourself with the route, going to Mother Earth, and going off to sleep. So, grounding is something that can be done in phenomenally different ways, but each of us should have some daily grounding practice. And that’s my suggestion to everyone. This keeps the energy clean, it keeps the energy moving, and it keeps the vital energy in our cells.
AB: Okay, thank you. If there’s a chronic illness or an autoimmune disease, would this be an indication of past life issues?
Dr. DK: Chronic issues or autoimmune disease… if you have more than one case in your family in any form, like one has rheumatoid arthritis and one has lupus and one has psoriasis, it doesn’t matter. So, if there are more than one cases of autoimmune in the family, 100%, it’s an indication for family constellations. Yet, if it is a standalone illness, it will definitely be an indication for regression therapy. First, [will be] going to certain traumatic events for the first few sessions, and then the subconscious mind slowly takes the root of the past life. In quite a few cases, the first session itself can be a past life therapy. And, well, that’s where it is. That’s where the answer is. So, when it is standalone, regression therapy is more indicated.
AB: And you’ve seen that these therapies have helped sort out an illness?
Dr. DK: So, I’ve seen people who said that I want to do the triathlon and swim, but I have this strange fear of sharks. And in one session, about the whole encounter with the shark in another life came out, and how at the end of the life there was death because of a shark. So, the person was stuck there. They can swim amazingly in a swimming pool, but can’t swim in oceans— whether there is a shark or not, they cannot swim in an ocean. Such examples… Say that there is some knowledge and there is some validation to it. And certain children in their early ages encounter some subjects that have been reprimanded very strangely. And at 16 or at 26 or at 36, they make some blunders and have a big lesson to learn from that…When we clear off what happened in our childhood, they can make better decisions today. So, we are also aiming at making the adults of today very strong. And we are trying to make the adults of today more empowered.
AB: Does a repetitive recurrent dream indicate constellation or regression?
Dr. DK: It indicates regression because that is the situation that is printed like a movie scene. Now, I don’t remember the movie, and I don’t remember the story, but I remember the scene. And it’s about going back to your internal Netflix and searching where it is happening.
AB: That’s what’s so amazing about you. You can relate things the way we understand them. Thank you so much for being on this call.
Dr. DK: Thank you. Thank you for this platform once again.
AB: Thanks for joining us. Hope you enjoyed the Wellness Curated podcast. Please subscribe and tell your friends and family about it. And here’s to you leading your best life.