Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Brianna Anderson is a forerunner in Mind, Body & Spirit healing and specializes in helping people resolve body trauma. As a child, she endured 10 major reconstructive hip surgeries. The trauma from these surgeries stayed alive within her body and subsequently had adverse effects on every aspect of herself. Grappling with the devastation of how different she had become, she became determined to free herself from the trauma symptoms and devoted herself to healing and transformation.
This led her down a path of studying multiple forms of bodywork, spiritual and energetic healing, psychology, art therapy, breathwork and multiple forms of trauma resolution. She has since devoted herself to helping others heal and transform pain and trauma. Brianna is the CEO of Healing with Bri and the founder of Ascend, an online program designed to help people resolve body trauma.
Bri, your journey began over 20 years ago; could you share what led you to healing, and what motivates you to help others through energy work and trauma resolution?
Yes, I’d be happy to. I was born with bilateral hip dysplasia, meaning that both of my hips were dislocated at birth. This went undetected until I was 3 1/2 years old when I had my first major reconstructive hip surgery. I was 11 when I had my 10th surgery. At 23 I had a total hip replacement on my right hip. I have spent almost 6 cumulative years in a full body cast. I grew up as the cripple girl, had insurmountable shame, was drowning in depression, felt like I didn’t fit in, and endured chronic pain.
I sat on the sidelines watching every other ‘normal’ kid get to have the life I never would. My life was painful and miserable. I couldn’t escape the chronic pain or the emotional suffering. I wanted so badly to be and feel normal. The only way to achieve this was to devote myself and my life to healing and transformation. Trauma has a way of utterly changing someone by trapping them into painful emotional states and unpleasant physiological patterns. There are so many people walking the planet who have experienced something tragic who feel ‘different’ after the event. These people are longing for a way back to themselves and feel at a loss for how to get there.
I intimately know what this experience is like and I have successfully made it to the other side. Along my journey, I discovered the right methods and interventions that are effective in resolving body trauma and it has become my passion to help people free themselves from their trauma symptoms so they can feel amazing in their body, find inner peace and finally create the life of their dreams.
How do you blend different healing methods into a treatment plan, and determine which to use for each client?
This is a fabulous question and to be honest the treatment plan is very fluid. In the first session, we go through an in-depth client intake form where I am assessing for different trauma categories that occurred at specific developmental ages, and seeing how they might be compounding each other. This first session highlights their trauma symptoms and energy patterns and gives me an idea of what methods and interventions would be most effective. But truly, my main orientation in working with clients is to meet them right where they are, moment by moment. And in the process of meeting them, there is an intuitive knowing of which direction to go in, or what intervention to use.
For instance, if a client comes in with an extensive history of body trauma, let's say sexual abuse, they are going to have challenges with boundaries because their boundaries were crossed over and over again. So they will say yes when they really mean to say no and no when they want to say yes. So they will require a lot of boundary repair work. There are many different ways you can do boundary repair work, but knowing when and which intervention is the most pertinent always is known in the moment.
Maybe their legs needed to kick something off of them, or their arms needed to push away… it all depends on what happened in the traumatic experiences and what was not able to resolve and is still alive within them. These things will present themself in the sessions and I get to meet them and support them layer by layer resolving the trauma and restoring their mind, body and spirit.
Can you describe the differences between your one-on-one sessions, groups, and classes?
Well, they all are very different. In the one-on-one sessions, I am supporting people through their own specific challenges and of course, this is deep work that is tailored specifically to them. Ascend is the name of the online class or course I have created. It is a 12-week bio-energetic spiritual journey to support people in resolving body trauma so they can feel light and free. This is my signature program that infuses the most potent and powerful interventions and brings profound healing and change. It has everything from specific trauma resolution interventions, breathwork, Yamuna body rolling, meditations, art therapy and journaling exercises. I wish something like this was around when I started my journey, but it's clear that I was supposed to study many methods so they could be created.
I also offer an in-person women’s group called ‘The Gathering’. Its focus is for women to come together in a supportive environment as they deepen their relationship with their bodies while learning ancient feminine practices. Through this process, the women generally emerge to have more self-love by learning to deeply honor themself and become intimately in touch with their own sacredness.
I offer this group because I see so many women wrestling with insecurities, self-doubt and inner conflict. They often feel small or powerless in their life while frequently saying ‘I have to’, forcing themselves to do things to keep themselves and their families afloat. They are living with an imbalance between their own feminine and masculine energies. Unfortunately, this used to be me and I found a way to the other side. It brings me great joy to support women into an inner space of confidence, radiance and the right relationship with their bodies.
Can you briefly explain your 'Soul Alignment Healing' method?
Yes, before I got into trauma resolution work, I was an energy healer and had an extensive background in soul healing and vibrational medicine. Soul Alignment Healing is a method that supports people in resolving the energetic patterns that are inhibiting them from living an aligned life. In this method, I use several different forms of vibrational medicine to resolve the energetic blocks.
As an example, there is a process called ‘field clearing’ where I remove anything within the levels of the soul that is blocking the flow of light. In another session, I would support them in a ‘karmic release’ which is releasing an emotional impact on the soul that is rippling out and affecting them. It is in this method that I use reiki, flower essences, crystal healing, and other forms of vibrational medicine to free them from feeling stuck and blocked within themself and their life.
How has overcoming your personal health challenges shaped your approach to supporting others in their healing?
My personal journey of healing and transformation is foundational to shaping and informing my orientation in guiding others in their own healing. When I first began healing I didn’t realize that medical-surgical trauma was a thing. It feels silly to say that now… but I was so deep in the aftermath of trauma and drowning in trauma symptoms I just started with traditional talk therapy. Then moved on to different forms of vibrational medicine and energy healing and soul healing, to psychology and art therapy, then body work. And so on until I finally concluded with different forms of trauma resolution.
I was seeking and searching and learning. Not just about healing but also about wounding. And I learned a lot of different methods and interventions, but also different ideologies and beliefs about wounding and healing. I have come to realize that healing has its own natural process of ripening and that healing happens in layers or themes. There are many things that support healing as well as many things that can shut it down or block it from happening. The wealth of knowledge I have obtained is directly related to my seeking and searching. If I had started right with trauma resolution work I would have missed out on all of this beautiful wisdom, which has given me an expansive skill set in supporting people.
Could you share how the concept of 'right conditions' for healing plays into your work with clients?
This concept is foundational and required for healing and transformation to occur. Conditions are always present. Like in this moment, as you are reading these words right now, there are conditions around you. Such as the temperature of the air, the position your body is in, the surrounding sounds, or what is going on emotionally and physically within you. And these conditions are affecting and influencing you.
In therapeutic settings ‘conditions’ involve what is happening relationally between the practitioner and the client, and it is the practitioner's job to be aware of what conditions are needed in the moment and to create them because the right conditions allow for healing to happen organically and naturally.
For instance, in most types of trauma, the person generally wanted to escape but wasn’t able to. So the practitioner needs to be able to slow the pace of the session down so the client can feel their own impulse to want to run or escape - and also have the right technique or intervention to support their body in expressing the impulse to escape. When this happens the activation held within the client's body completes and their anxiety or tendency toward dissociation diminishes.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
For the majority of my career, I have worked one-on-one with in-person sessions, and it has been lovely. But I want people to have the transformation that I have had. It pains me to see people stuck in trauma patterns. I want to be able to reach more people. I currently offer one-on-one sessions online and have created a 12-week online course to support people in resolving body trauma. My goal is to continue to create online courses and programs, to offer intensive in-person healing retreats, and to eventually open a school where I teach and train people in the methods I use and have created from my extensive background in studying different healing modalities.
To wrap things up, could you share a proud moment from your career?
There are many proud moments and many accomplishments I have achieved since opening my private practice in 2009. But what first came to mind was a particular client. When she began seeing me she was dissociating so badly. She would drive on the wrong side of the road, had horrible panic attacks, and wouldn’t fill out the intake form because she didn’t want anyone to know her address or where she lived. She was completely disembodied and continued to get herself in situations where she would continually be taken advantage of.
I suspected she endured sexual trauma at a young age, and it wasn’t until a year into working together that she felt safe enough to share the horror of what she went through. Needless to say, it was worse than what I ever imagined. Today she is grounded, stable and present. She is able to put up strong boundaries and make choices that keep herself safe. She has started to feel softer and more at ease and is even dressing more feminine. And she has finally started to perform her music and offer it to the world as she is now creating and living out her dreams.
The transformation that she has traveled through warms my heart and I am so grateful to have been a guide to support her in getting to the other side of her trauma.
Last but not least, if you could share one valuable piece of advice or insight with our readers today, what would it be?
There are many misconceptions and beliefs about healing and the process of healing. A lot of people believe healing is hard and painful, that you have to reopen the wound. This type of thinking only creates resistance and blocks healing from occurring.
And this doesn’t need to be the case.
Healing can feel good and the process can be graceful and full of ease. It can also be gentle and subtle, it can also be deeply profound and spiritual. We all are designed to heal and it is an organic and natural process. All that is really needed is a desire to heal and hope that it can happen. Doubt may still be there, but if you lean into the hope and follow your heart with what direction to go in, healing will happen.
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