how to approach Spinal Energetics: a reflection from two years in
It has been almost two years since I became a Spinal Energetics facilitator, and I’d like to share what I’ve learned about how best to approach this modality. This post is shaped by my personal experience of both receiving and facilitating this work, as well as insights from the brilliant book, Why Greatness Can't Be Planned by Kenneth O. Stanley and Joel Lehman.
While Spinal Energetics is undeniably powerful and incredible, its greater potential can only be unlocked when approached with a certain openness and mindset.
Here are a few reflections and suggestions for engaging with this work:
1. Let Go of Objectives and the Need to "Fix" Something
Too much intention creates tension. When we approach a session with a rigid goal, expectation, or solution in mind, we close ourselves off to exploration, curiosity, and discovery. Our intellect has limits, so it's unrealistic to think we already know the answer to a problem we haven’t fully understood and are desperate to get rid of. As Einstein put it, "We cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking that created them."
Therefore, what we often think we need isn't what’s needed. For instance, we might crave intellectual clarity to take action, but what supports us more deeply could be nervous system regulation, shedding an outdated belief, or strengthening our internal sense of safety so we can step into the unknown with more ease.
History reminds us that some of the most remarkable scientific breakthroughs and inventions happened when people weren’t trying to force a specific outcome. Similarly, when you enter a session with an open heart and mind, you begin to rediscover parts of yourself you had hidden or dismissed for survival. This kind of approach removes pressure, helping you get more comfortable with uncertainty and the truth that there's so much we don't even realise we don’t know about ourselves. As the book reminds us, “The positive side of uncertainty is opportunity.”
Remember, every session gives you what you’re ready for in that moment, even if it doesn’t feel that way right away. And not all healing happens during the session itself. Healing, reorganisation, and transformation will continue to unfold in your daily life, in subtle but significant ways: perhaps you’re no longer over-reactive, no longer relying on certain coping tools, or you notice improvement in your digestion, sleep, or menstrual cycle. For all we know, your session may also unlock past-life memories or bring you back to a pivotal moment in your timeline, giving you a new perspective on the present.
So stay open.
2. Treat Each Session as a Stepping Stone
The book offers a line that stayed with me: “Being open and flexible to opportunity is sometimes more important than knowing what you are trying to do.” Another gem: “Focusing too much on your goal can prevent you from making unexpected discoveries.”
When we’re overly fixated on one particular outcome, we tend to dismiss the very experiences or stepping stones that seem irrelevant, which could lead us somewhere far more aligned with our soul’s path. Often, these experiences don’t appear to “make sense” until much later.
Here’s another highlight from the book: “To arrive somewhere remarkable, we must be willing to hold many paths open without knowing where they might lead.” The more we allow ourselves to wander, to trust the stepping stones to appear in front of us one at a time, to resist the need to label any "ordinary" experience as meaningless, we move towards a future that is closer to our soul than to societal, cultural, or familial expectations.
Since we often lack the foresight to grasp what one insight might make possible later, rather than chase the “right” experience, trust that each session is preparing you for the person you’re becoming. In fact, the best thing that could happen may be a deviation from what your limited mind expects.
3. Recognise the Value of Novelty
Once we loosen our grip on fixed outcomes, we allow ourselves to immerse deeper in each session’s uniqueness. And that sense of newness matters more than we often realise.
Novelty isn’t a distraction or trivial. It shifts how we perceive, how we think, and how we live. One small discovery makes other future discoveries possible. Over time, novelty builds upon itself, forming a path of continual evolution. When we stop trying to replicate a past session or force a specific result, we create space for something better than what we could have imagined.
Instead of viewing healing as a destination, begin to see it as an unfolding path filled with potential far greater than what your current mind can envision.
In summary, Spinal Energetics is not a modality that aims to eliminate or fix parts of you. It expands you energetically, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. Becoming your authentic self is not simply about removing what isn’t yours, but about losing the grip on who you think you have to be, exploring and encouraging aspects of you that have been suppressed or repressed out of fear or conditioning to come forward.
By adopting a non-objective perspective, we allow ourselves to discover the different dimensions of ourselves and step onto the path that was uniquely meant for us.
