A Swift and Elegant Protocol: Four Fulcrums to Relieve Stress and Enhance Inner Peace
by Sherrie Black, Zero Balancer, RN, L.Ac., with Elliot Abhau, Zero Balancing Faculty, LMT
At last year’s annual Zero Balancing Awareness Week Celebration in Maryland, Elliot Abhau introduced a seated ZB protocol. She told us she had been thinking about situations she’d been in where she would love to have offered something short and sweet, just a touch of ZB ... someone wants to know what ZB feels like, someone is in distress, someone needs a break but only has a few minutes, someone wants support, someone needs to integrate an experience ... but what could she do without time and a table? Elliot demonstrated on the ZB teachers, they did the protocol on us and then we traded with each other. We were all pleasantly surprised.
This quick, simple, and profoundly effective tool can create calm and relaxation in the recipient, while energizing them and giving them immediate relief from stress induced symptoms such as headache and neck tension. I have repeatedly used the seated ZB in conjunction with community auricular acupuncture, to settle an anxious patient, and when introducing ZB to a group to give them personal experience of what a full ZB session might feel like. This might also be used with community acupuncture, in disaster relief, or to support families of hospice patients. I recently introduced this protocol to a group of acupuncture students who asked to have it written down. That request was the fulcrum prompting this joint article.
As with any ZB, it is important to remember fundamental ZB principles. Here’s a simple refresher list to apply with each Position:
Be at Interface with an awareness of where your body ends and the recipient’s body begins so that the recipient is aware where their body ends and yours begins.
Establish a Donkey/Donkey connection so that the quality of your touch is engaging and pleasant; engage both energy and structure to promote trust and support on an instinctual level.
Nestle: settle in snuggly and comfortably, removing your looseness and that of the recipient at the point of contact/interface.
Create a specific point of Balance or support around which the recipient’s body can change, i.e., release compensation, excess tension; integrate.
Disconnect cleanly, without any lingering touch.
The following Seated ZB protocol, swift and elegant, should take no more than 5 minutes. Have the recipient seated on a chair that gives you easy access to head, shoulders, legs and feet. Ensure there is enough space that you can comfortably stand behind the chair and kneel in front of the chair. Ask the recipient to put down anything they may be holding, to sit up with feet flat on floor (shoes can remain on) and hands in lap. Advise there is no need to talk and that they may want to close their eyes. Pay attention to their working signs as you go.
Position 1: Stand perpendicular to the side of the recipient. Your fingers will point away from you. Let your non-dominant hand nestle in on the recipient’s forehead just above the brow line; then your dominant hand can nestle in so you cradle the occipital ridge in your palm, your ring and little fingers below the ridge. Take it to the Blue Line. Pause. From the Blue Line with both hands, begin a gentle traction superior and add a bit of flexion anterior. Hold this for about 6 seconds. Gently release the flexion; then release the traction. Pause. Come off.
Position 2: Stand behind the recipient and place both hands on the recipient’s shoulders. Let the heels of your hands nestle into their scapular spines and your finger tips nestle into their clavicles. Take it to the Blue Line. Pause. As you begin a gentle downward compression, add a bit of lateral traction. Hold this for about 6 seconds. Gently release the lateral traction; then the compression. Pause. Come off.
Positions 3: Kneel in front of the recipient, approximating a 70/30 stance. Nestle your hands posto-lateral (similar to the way you position your hands for the closing half moon on the ribcage) on their lower thighs (you may feel more stable if your little fingers are near the crease of the knee). Take it to the Blue Line. Pause. As you begin traction toward yourself, add inward rotation. Hold this for about 6 seconds. Gently release the rotation; then the traction. Pause. Come off.
Position 4: Kneeling in front of the recipient (you’ll probably feel more stable if you sit on your heels for this one), let your carpals nestle into their tarsals (your thumbs are to the inside and your fingers are to the outside of their feet). Take it to the Blue Line. Pause. Begin compression toward the floor and add traction toward you. Hold this for about 6 seconds. Gently release the traction; then the compression. Pause. Come off. Hold the space.
Allow the recipient to sit a minute or two to integrate any shift in structure and/or energy, then walk around to be sure they are integrated before they leave. A little bit goes a long way.
We encourage you to practice this protocol with each other to get it into your hands. Then, we hope that the Seated ZB will enhance and help build your ZB practice.