Ruth Shizuka Lyons CC
About Me
Much of what I’ve learned and do and love is not quantifiable. For the quantifiable, I have a BA in Human Services with a Chemical Dependency Emphasis, from Fairhaven College, held a Substance Use Disorder Professional Trainee license for six years (now inactive), am a Whatcom Hospice Volunteer, have trained under numerous teachers through the Foundation For Shamanic Studies, and am a legally ordained minister. I have worked with a variety of populations, including addicted, homeless, incarcerated, foster students and local tribal members.
My therapeutic approach is Humanistic. I believe in our innate strength and the ability, with a little help, to heal and become whole. As a somatic practitioner, I want to hear your story — and then move beyond it, into the body and intuition, to find your way back to yourself.
Mission Statement
In Japanese, shizuka (does not rhyme with bazooka! try shee-zoo-kah, or shee-z’kah) is a word meaning quiet and calm, but it is also a girl’s name.
My noisy Japanese mother gave me, her noisy child, Shizuka as a middle name. I don’t know why. If she told me, I have forgotten. But when I was about twenty, I looked it up in a Japanese-English dictionary and was both inspired and humbled by the definition: still water, serene peace, silent audience. That has never described me, or not the outer me, at least, but it has been my aim for the many ensuing years. Be like that! Most of the time I’m not, but it’s still my goal, and it’s the place I inhabit when I’m working with clients.
In this noisy world, and the noise inside our own heads, finding a space for emptiness and stillness is a challenge; we rush to fill it up, with words and objects. I do this in my own life, but you will see that space in my studio — in its lack of decoration, and clutter, nothing to distract from the work you are here to do, with the Japanese garden on the deck in front of you to visually ground and soothe you.
I could easily write about the practices I use — primarily humanist and somatic — and you would see words like empathy, agency, self-actualization, unconditional positive regard, holistic, somatic movement practitioner, body-mind connection, grounded, etc., but you can just as easily look these up for yourself.
Instead, I offer this: My practice, and my mission statement, are one and the same – to provide a calm and serene place where people can breathe deeply, feel safe, be really listened to, where they can let down their guard and allow the mind chatter to settle and still, so that they can do the important work they came to me to get help with. This does not mean there is not room for humor and even hilarity, because laughter is very much a valuable medicine, but then we come back to that still place, and we begin. Again. I look forward to our work together.
