Healers on Healing: In the Spotlight with Andrea Tirone

by Isabel Fiorino-Habib,
Community Engagement Coordinator

Andrea Tirone is a Spiritual Psychotherapist, who incorporates Body Psychotherapy, Intuitive Somatic Inquiry, Chakra Balancing, Emotional Release techniques and Hypnotherapy into her work. She uses several different modalities to connect with and support her clients including: talk therapy, guided imagery, energy work as well as experiential therapy. Andrea’s approach is rooted in intuition and energy and she enjoys the unique experiences that she is able to bring to her clients to help facilitate their healing. She works primarily with individuals and groups who are seeking emotional and psychological support and provides them with a space that is non-judgemental and serves as a sacred container to their story.

I had the opportunity to speak with Andrea and learn a bit more about the multi dimensional approach she uses with her clients. We also spoke about some of the challenges that she, alongside many other healers currently face, as many practitioners adjust to working with clients primarily online. However, despite some of these obstacles, Andrea has still found many ways to support her clients virtually during this time. 

When working with clients in person, Andrea often incorporates Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Inquiry into her therapeutic sessions, which involves observing and attending to our sensory experiences, and helping clients to identify potential energetic blocks that may present themselves as difficult feelings, emotions, pain and other physical challenges held within the body. As she is temporarily only seeing clients online, Andrea now focuses on supporting her clients in similar ways by incorporating guided imagery, dialoguing, emotional release techniques and talk therapy into her practice.

Guided Imagery & Dialoguing

One of Andrea’s favourite ways to connect with clients is by using guided imagery. She enjoys using guided visualizations which she believes serve as an important tool to seek information that is helpful in the healing process. Andrea explained that she blends the use of guided visualizations and hypnotherapy, as they can both create the same brain wave state that occurs during meditation, which is a very useful place to work with clients on their subconscious beliefs and programming. During guided visualizations, the client utilizes these same brain waves to enter a state of relaxation and focus, whereby they have greater access to the inherent knowledge that exists within them.

Andrea also enjoys working with clients to help them dialogue with the different parts of their psyche or personality and helps to facilitate a conversation between these complex parts. She spoke to me about how she incorporates dialoguing when working with clients who experience pain. She may ask her clients questions such as, “Is this pain completely physiological or might there be a psychosomatic component to it?”. This allows the individual to reflect and begin to understand what is really going on for them. Additionally, she helps clients manage their chronic pain by asking them to create a dialogue with the pain itself. 

​“In creating a relationship with the pain, the individual is able to key into some of the feelings which might be associated with it, which then allows them to dissipate, better manage or even move that pain to a different part of the body where it can be dealt with more easily.” (Andrea Tirone)

​“In creating a relationship with the pain, the individual is able to key into some of the feelings which might be associated with it, which then allows them to dissipate, better manage or even move that pain to a different part of the body where it can be dealt with more easily.” Andrea mentioned that the use of dialoguing and guided visualizations may help a client incrementally reduce their pain, starting with something manageable like 5 or even 20%, with the hope that they can move as close to 100% as possible. ​

Emotional Jars Exercise

“We are often told not to listen to our intuition and to shut it down. We are told that we are wrong and we are made to constantly question things. I really encourage individuals in these sessions and within their own lives to rely on these pings of intuition and to trust their gut responses”. (Andrea Tirone)

I asked Andrea if she would lead me through a sample of a short visualization and she suggested that we try what she refers to as the “Emotional Jars Exercise”. This is an exercise that she typically does early on in her relationship with a client that helps both herself and the individual get a sense of the current emotions they are experiencing, as well as the strength of those emotions. Once the exercise is complete, it provides an accurate depiction of the current emotions that are standing out for the individual and allows for a comfortable introduction to dealing with some of the more difficult human emotions, such as shame or anger. 

Prior to beginning the exercise, Andrea asked me to try and rely more so on my immediate gut reactions and intuition, rather than on thinking or second guessing the answers that initially come to mind. I began the exercise by sitting in a comfortable position with my eyes closed and took a few deep breaths to settle into my body. Andrea then asked me to visualize a wall of empty shelves that were about 2-3 feet apart from each other. 

“Soon you’ll start to see some jars occupy those shelves, and these jars are about a foot and a half tall, they are quite large..there may or may not be anything in them right now, they may be empty, they may be completely full..and as we go through, you will start to see the names of the emotions that I begin to say to you, and these emotions will appear as labels on the jar..”.

As we moved through the exercise, Andrea asked me to let her know how full the jar was on a scale of 0-10 or 0-100%. We then began to identify specific emotions and measured their strength by visually seeing how full the jar was of that particular emotion. These emotions included anger, sadness, resentment, shame, and many others. ​

After identifying some of the stronger and potentially more challenging emotions that present themselves, Andrea then helps her client to reframe and re shift these emotions and uses further guided visualizations to help individuals cope with and manage these emotions. She may also ask the individual to identify where the emotion is located within the body and to describe the characteristics it posses, such as colour, texture or shape. In identifying and describing these emotions, Andrea would then invite the client to see if they can change its characteristics. “Can this emotion be exaggerated? Can we change its colour or texture and invite them to see that they have more control over this emotion than perhaps previously imagined?”

Once the individual is able to identify this emotion, Andrea would ask them to see if they can change the emotion, move it through the body and with her guidance, would ask the individual to send love and light to the place where it used to reside. After the exercise is complete, she would check in with her client to see how they feel within their body at the present moment. She explains that if you can take control of the shape or colour of the emotion, exaggerate it, and alter its characteristics, then you might actually be able to shift something that once felt overwhelming to something that is a bit smaller and more manageable. 

I really like how Andrea encourages her clients to get in touch with their intuition and to trust their inner wisdom and guidance by really listening to what comes to mind first, rather than second guessing the emotion and asking oneself if it is in fact correct.

“We are often told not to listen to our intuition and to shut it down. We are told that we are wrong and we are made to constantly question things. I really encourage individuals in these sessions and within their own lives to rely on these pings of intuition and to trust their gut responses”.

Connecting With Andrea

Andrea uses several different unique and creative approaches when working with her clients and really empowers the individuals she works with to take control of their lives through her non judgemental, multifaceted and safe approach. 

If you would like to learn more about Andrea and connect with her to see if she might be the right fit for you, I encourage you to visit the below links:

[email protected]
www.blankcanvastherapy.ca
​
Andrea offers a free 20 minute phone consultation where people can speak about their concerns, explore potential therapeutic goals and ask her more about her approach and practice.

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​​About the author, Isabel Fiorino-Habib

Philosophy graduate and Reiki student, Isabel is fascinated by the human experience and the art of wellness. 

Receiving little relief or guidance for her own mental and emotional challenges, she sought out various alternative and complementary approaches to support her well being. Now she brings nearly a decade of experience exploring dynamic and individualized approaches to healing, which acknowledge the fundamental connection of mind, body, and soul. 

​Through her writing as Community Engagement Coordinator for the Inner Arts Collective, Isabel hopes to share her experiences with the healing process, and exposes the various modalities that are available to support us all. ​