Description of Services

Somatic Intuitive Healing (SIH) is an intuitive healing modality that incorporates energetic systems, expanded consciousness meditation, nervous system regulation practices and movements, emotional regulation & release practices and gentle, non-invasive, non-manipulative on & off body touch. This service is designed to facilitate personal insights, awarenesses, and healing and to develop intentions for personal growth and transformation. There is a co-creative process between the practitioner and client to shape how those intentions are explored in session.

 

All sessions are conducted in a professional manner and in a professional healing environment. Sessions may include movement or be facilitated on a massage table. Clients are always fully clothed and all touch is designed for the intent of client’s awareness, education, and healing. Touch is not given to manipulate muscles or body tissues such as in massage and all touch is non-sexual in nature. Touch is used as a tool to help support the unique goals of a client’s session in bringing insight and awareness to their body, emotions, or nervous system. 

 

Somatic Intuitive Healing is not a replacement for medical or mental health treatment. Somatic Intuitive Healing is not considered a practice of medicine. It is a complementary healing modality to allopathic or traditional medicine. Somatic Intuitive Healing does not treat, diagnose, or provide counseling services for mental health. Although some talk is incorporated in sessions, Somatic Intuitive Healing is not psychotherapy but rather includes somatic-focused education dialogue.

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Somatic Intuitive Healing involves working with the body to help support emotional, energetic, spiritual, and nervous system health. Touch is involved with Somatic Intuitive Healing. However, Somatic Intuitive Healing uses a non-invasive, educated, gentle touch to listen to and support the subtle communication of the body. All touch must be consensual and clients are empowered & encouraged to communicate any changes regarding consent of touch. Somatic Intuitive Healing does not involve any of the following: treat, diagnose, or prescribe; manipulate or adjust body tissues; psychotherapy; sex therapy practices; use any medical or invasive touch; or use mechanical devices or chemical interventions. 

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The aim of all sessions is to create greater awareness within the client of their own healing intelligence and the language that their own body uses to communicate, to support nervous system balance and resilience, and to connect with the client's felt sense of their inner resources. 

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Licensure, Exemption, & Legal Information

Somatic Intuitive Healing is not a state licensed modality in the state of Oregon or in any state currently. Should licensure ever become available or required, all service providers will comply with licensing requirements and obtain licensing and/or exemptions. As a therapy that utilizes touch, Somatic Intuitive Healing falls under the regulation of most state boards of massage therapy. Somatic Intuitive Healing practitioners who are actively certified in SIH with Moon Vibe Sanctuary, LLC may meet the requirements for their state massage board for exemption from licensing. It is the individual certified SIH practitioner's responsibility to insure they meet all of the criteria for exemption and practice legally within their state. The following states currently offer exemption for certain touch therapies:  

 

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado – Requires Unlicensed Disclosure, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota – Requires Unlicensed Disclosure, Montana, Nevada – Requires Unlicensed Disclosure, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

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All SIH Practitioner Services fall under the following scope of practice listed for exemption as per ORS 687.031(1)(j)(3) and OAR 334-010-0027: 

(i) Using touch, words and directed movement to deepen awareness of existing patterns

of movement and suggest new possibilities of movement;

(ii) Using minimal touch over specific points on the body to facilitate balance in the

nervous system; and/or

(iii) Using touch to affect the energy systems or channels of energy of the body;

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​Any dialogue had during a SIH session is not "professional counseling" as defined in ORS 675.705 (7)(a) and does not involve the assessment, diagnosis or treatment of mental, emotional or behavioral disorders as defined by the American Psychiatric Association and American Counseling Association. SIH is not to be used as a substitute for counseling, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, or other professional advice by legal, medical, mental health or other qualified professionals. It is the exclusive responsibility of any SIH client to seek such independent professional guidance as needed.

 

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General Principles of Ethics & Standards of Behavior

Any SIH Practitioner agrees to maintain the following ethics and standards of behavior

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• Practitioners hold as the highest priority for their professional activities the health and welfare of their clients, students, and others with whom they become professionally involved. All other statements in this document are elaborations upon this principle.

• Practitioners are committed to a lifelong process of personal development in body, mind, and spirit.

• Practitioners uphold professional standards of conduct and accept appropriate responsibility for their own behavior.

• Practitioners promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in their communications and in the practice, teaching, science, and art of healing.

• Practitioners keep their agreements and avoid unrealistic or unclear commitments.

• Practitioners take reasonable precautions to ensure that their personal biases, the boundaries of their competence, impairments to their health and well-being, and the limitations of their expertise do not negatively impact the services they provide to their clients.

• Practitioners respect the dignity, worth, and uniqueness of all people, and the rights of individuals to privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination.

• Practitioners are committed to give all persons access to and benefit from the contributions of Somatic Intuitive Healing, while retaining the right to maintain their integrity, best judgment, and personal safety at all times.

• Practitioners are aware of, respect, and accommodate individual, cultural, and role differences, including those based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, representational system, element, and socioeconomic status.

• Practitioners contribute a portion of their professional time for little or no compensation.

• Practitioners demonstrate a personal commitment to acting ethically; modeling ethical behavior, encouraging ethical behavior by students, supervisees, employees, and colleagues; and consulting with others concerning ethical problems.

 

Personal Healing & Development

Somatic Intuitive Healing is, by nature, a “holistic” approach to well-being and that it’s work interacts seamlessly with mind, body, and spirit. Practitioners recognize that SIH involves a way of relating to life as well as mastery of a particular set of concepts and techniques. With that consciousness, SIH practitioners are committed to their own ongoing healing and the wholesome development of body, mind, and spirit.

 

The more practitioners have evolved personally through activities that promote awareness, health, and healing, the more proficient they become as healers and the more likely they will be to behave competently, responsibly, and ethically with those entrusted to their care, with their colleagues, and with the wider community. In the same sense that health is more than the absence of illness, self-awareness involves a commitment to discover and go beyond limitations in one’s understanding and perspective, such as those rooted in unprocessed trauma, oppressive systems, biases, or personal and/or professional insecurities that could have a negative impact on professional activities.

 

SIH practitioners are aware that their personal limitations can have a direct impact on the quality of the services they provide to clients and students. They are equally aware that the skills they develop in their own quest for wholeness can contribute not only to their personal development, but also to their professional development as well. The obligation to cultivate personal growth and awareness, because of its impact on the quality of service a practitioner is able to provide, is an essential, ongoing process. Therefore SIH practitioners are committed to the following: 

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• SIH Practitioners are committed to maintaining a personal program of their own design for developing & supporting the wellbeing of body, mind, and spirit.

• SIH Practitioners monitor the effects of their own physical health, mental state, and ego needs on their ability to help those with whom they work and take appropriate steps to maximize their well-being in each area.

• SIH Practitioners have personally experienced the methods they offer others, using their own experiences with SIH as a laboratory for further informing themselves about the value and power of specific techniques. At the same time, they take care not to inaccurately project their experiences with a particular method onto others.

• SIH Practitioners know their limitations as individuals and as practitioners, setting their boundaries accordingly with those they serve, with colleagues, and within the larger community.

• SIH Practitioners open themselves to feedback offered by their students, clients, colleagues, and mentors.

• SIH Practitioners closely monitor their needs to be liked, to be admired, to achieve status, and to exercise power, as well as their sexual and romantic needs, and seek feedback, guidance, consultation, and supervision from friends, colleagues, mentors, supervisors, or other professionals to keep these needs from interfering with their effectiveness in the services they provide.

• SIH Practitioners agree to seek continuing education of a minimum of 10 hours every year and to have ongoing healing sessions at a minimum of 4x per year or no less than once every 3 months.  

 

Competence & Scope of Practice

• Practitioners provide health care, education, supervision, consultation, and mentoring services only in areas where they have received education, training, supervised experience, or other study that qualifies them for providing those services. For instance, while coursework in Somatic Intuitive Healing might give an SIH practitioner tools for teaching some basic techniques for emotional self-management, it does not qualify a practitioner to provide psychotherapy. It is the responsibility of the practitioner to draw those lines professionally and appropriately.

• Practitioners provide information to prospective clients about their background in both SIH and other modalities that may be used. This information should address the limitations of their training regarding issues such as the diagnosis and treatment of illness, possible side effects, and the fact that Somatic Intuitive Healing, Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology are considered unconventional approaches to health care.

• Practitioners stay current in their field of practice and maintain and further develop their competence on an ongoing basis through supervision, consultations, workshops, published works, electronic media, and continuing education courses.

• Practitioners obtain appropriate insurance, permits, and licenses, comply with other sound business practices and are responsible for adhering to the laws of their state with regard to the practice of psychotherapy, medicine, counseling, social work, bodywork, or other regulated profession, including education, licensing, and use of titles.

• Practitioners do not diagnose or treat illness unless they are simultaneously credentialed in a health discipline that allows them to do so.

• The integration of other modalities into an SIH practice is allowed and encouraged, based on the practitioner’s training in these modalities and best professional judgment. However when other modalities are included they must be clearly communicated and understood as part of the services provided and only be in services where they have received education, training, and lawful right to practice. 

 

The Healing Relationship

• SIH practitioners engage each client in identifying goals for the services being sought and mutually creating an appropriate plan of care which may, as appropriate, include engaging other health care professionals.

• SIH clients are encouraged to be proactive about their own health needs and to take responsibility for their health care choices.

• Practitioners may attempt to encourage, but they do not attempt to pressure or coerce a client into any action or belief, even if the practitioner believes such act or belief would serve the best interests of the client.

• While it is appropriate to encourage hope and convey confidence in SIH methods, practitioners do so without overstating the power of the methods or implying that a method which has helped some people with a particular health issue will help all people with that issue. They also proceed with a sensitivity to not foster guilt in clients who are not responding as hoped.

• Practitioners discuss any unrealistic expectations as early in the healing relationship as is reasonable. Expectations are reevaluated throughout the professional relationship at times deemed appropriate by the practitioner or at any time at the client’s request.

• Practitioners recognize the pitfalls of being overly attached to the outcomes of the services they provide. “Trying too hard,” micro-managing a client, or becoming overly invested may have a paradoxical effect. 

• Practitioners exercise the right to refuse to accept into their care any person seeking their services when they judge this to not be in the best interests of the client or a threat to their own personal safety.

• Practitioners consult with, refer to, or cooperate with other professionals and institutions, with their clients’ consent, to the extent needed to serve the best interests of their clients. In particular, they understand the boundaries and limitations of their services and make referrals accordingly. They are clear with clients about whether or not they have personal knowledge of the skills of a particular practitioner and encourage clients to interview prospective practitioners before committing themselves to that practitioner’s care.

• Practitioners provide a safe, clean, welcoming, supportive, appropriate, and comfortable environment for their services that is conducive to healing. They also provide their undivided and uninterrupted attention during the session.

• Practitioners recognize and articulate what is healthy and right in a client as well as identifying areas requiring attention.

• Practitioners may use non-traditional ways of assessing a client system and wellbeing. They understand, however, the limitations of such methods and these methods are not to be used to replace physical diagnostic tests or to confirm or disconfirm beliefs, memories, or anticipated courses of action. 

• SIH shall always be administered in a caring, considerate manner, with respect for the client’s preferences and capacities. Clients shall be informed in advance about the purpose of any modalities and given an explicit choice about whether to proceed or to have alternative methods applied. If the choice is to proceed, agreement is reached in advance about how the client will communicate to the practitioner the desire to stop the session. The practitioner will immediately respect this signal and immediately halt the practice.

• Practitioners are sensitive to a client’s feelings about being touched, discuss those feelings as appropriate, and gain permission before applying any modality that requires touch. Touch is non-invasive, non-manipulative, non-sexual, and clients are always fully clothed. 

• If limitations to services can be anticipated because of financial hardship, the related issues are discussed with the recipient of services as early as is feasible. Practitioners do not maintain a client relationship solely for financial reasons, but they may terminate a relationship if the client is unable or unwilling to pay for services. Prior to any termination of services, the issues involved and possible alternatives are discussed, with the client’s well-being as the highest priority.

• If conflicts occur regarding practitioners’ ethical obligations, practitioners attempt to resolve these conflicts in a responsible fashion that avoids or minimizes harm, seeking consultation or supervision as appropriate.

• Practitioners may recommend other healing aids only when they have adequate and appropriate qualifications to responsibly make such recommendations.

• Practitioners terminate a client relationship when it becomes reasonably clear that the client no longer needs or is benefiting from the continued service.

• Practitioners who reach an interpersonal impasse with a client, or an impasse in the healing services they are providing, consider a range of options, such as enlisting supervision, suggesting bringing a consultant into a session, referring the client to another practitioner, and suggesting terminating their services.

• Practitioners may terminate a client relationship if they feel their physical safety is at risk.

• Practitioners who are in an ongoing relationship providing services make reasonable efforts to facilitate a continuity of services in the event that their services are interrupted by the practitioner.

• Responsibilities of the practitioner following termination of services include continuing to maintain confidentiality and sharing client information with other professionals as requested by the client. If the client requests that such information be forwarded, it may not be withheld for any reason, including non-payment of fees.

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Confidentiality

• The client (or the client’s legal guardian or conservator) is the only person who has the right to determine who has access to information about the SIH services, including the very question of whether a person is receiving such services from the practitioner. Exceptions to this principle are made explicit in the disclosure statements:

• Exception: When disclosure of information is required to prevent clear and imminent danger to the client or to others.

• Exception: When there is a clear legal requirement in the country, region, or area to disclose certain types of information.

• Exception: When records are subpoenaed by a court.

• Exception: If the practitioner is a defendant in a civil, criminal, or disciplinary action arising from the client relationship, information about that relationship may be disclosed as part of the proceeding.

• Exception: practitioners who seek consultation or supervisory services from other practitioners agree that information about their competency may be disclosed to designated professional associations (with client identity concealed) for the purpose of evaluating the practitioner’s readiness to enter advanced training or to be listed for referral.

• Practitioners who work with children or with more than one member of the same family (including “significant others”) establish with the relevant parties at the outset (or when new family members begin to receive services from the practitioner) the kinds of information that may be shared, and with whom, and the kinds of information that may not be shared by the practitioner. Services are provided to more than one member of a family only after weighing potential disadvantages, conflicts, and confidentiality issues.

• When consulting with colleagues, practitioners do not disclose confidential information that reasonably could lead to the identification of a client with whom they have a confidential relationship unless they have obtained the prior consent of the person or the disclosure cannot be avoided. Informed consent forms may include a stipulation that the practitioner can seek supervision or consultation about the client.

• Before recording the voices or images of individuals to whom they provide services, practitioners obtain permission from all such persons or their legal representatives and disclose how the voices or images may be used.

• Practitioners do not disclose in their writings, lectures, or other public media, personally identifiable information concerning their clients, students, research participants, or other recipients of their services that they obtained during the course of their work unless 1) they take reasonable steps to disguise the recipient of service, 2) the recipient has consented in writing or in the recorded session, or 3) there is legal authorization for doing so.

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Any questions or concerns regarding a practitioner or the code of ethics should be directed to info@moonvibesanctuary.com

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Complaints

We take grievances regarding the conduct of our students and certificants very seriously. We can only accept complaints about people who are trained or certified by Moon Vibe Sanctuary for Somatic Intuitive Healing. All complaints we receive are handled according to Somatic Intuitive Healing Procedures Regarding Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice Complaints. This includes disciplinary action that will be taken toward the therapist if a complaint is determined to be valid. Disciplinary action may include, but is not limited to, compulsory counseling, continuing education, suspension, and revocation of certification. If you have any questions about filing a complaint, or wish to determine if an individual is trained or certified in Somatic Intuitive Healing please contact us at info@moonvibesanctuary.com or fill out the form below.