Detailed Testimonial

Testimonial by a student after a mugging attack, using the Luminous Warrior approach:

“Sara’s professionalism is characterized by a very clear desire to empower and teach people to use tools and skills on their own and to discover the sensitivities and abilities they already possess.  In this sense her boundaries are very clear.  While she imparts much knowledge her approach is very student/client centered where she is guiding and drawing out what the person already has there at their disposal. In this way, the Luminous Warrior system and energy healing work is extremely empowering as delivered by Sara.  She is a conduit and guide and model.  Students in her classes come away feeling like they have tapped into inner strength, determination and intuition that they already possessed.  I felt as if Sara pointed me towards how to access and harness my knowledge, strength and intuition to use for my highest good.

The work with Sara has had many benefits that reverberate beyond self-defense scenarios into the rest of my life.  Most notably, I am more present and conscious of potential ways to react to situations and to see what options for behavioral choices are available to me.  This is possible because of a heightened sense of my own ‘intuition’ or knowledge made available through the energy work done with Sara.  I’m more in tune with what is happening in my physical, emotional and energy body and sense the boundaries of others and what is happening energetically around me.  This is of course useful in dealing with self-defense scenarios because a) it enables me to trust intuitive senses of something not being quite right or safe and b) able to trust my judgment about situations that I would not have earlier been able to deal with without being paralyzed by confusion and shock that this was happening.  Two specific instances testify to the importance of combining this awareness of energy and trusting judgment with the techniques and skills of self-defense. The most obvious instance was my experience in successfully using the techniques and presence of mind that we learn in self-defense while fending off an attacker who was trying to mug me.  Secondly, the training and energy work with Sara helped to mitigate the aftereffects of the attack incident and to renormalize in a relatively short period of time.

The details of the attack are not important except to say that before, during and after the incident I experienced a heightened awareness of what was occurring.  This is not uncommon. I’d experienced this before in trauma situations, however, the difference here was that I was aware of my intuitive sense of danger, and aware of my response options, and in control of my response rather than driven by fear. In this instance, I used the fear to fuel my use of self-defense techniques, and I was confident both in my ability to assess the situation, choose an appropriate response and to react instantaneously. The remarkable difference in this experience and other past experiences was that after having gained a more in-tune and respectful appreciation of my intuition, I was able to trust myself and my judgment while my training gave me the physical and mental confidence to execute a simple immediate response. The success of the incident proved to me that not only were the basic principles of self-defense that I used effective, so were the teaching techniques that brought those principles to a level of instinctual response. I responded immediately as if on instinct, but it wasn’t based on instinct both the physical ability to respond and confidence to chose that option and techniques was based on my training both in the self-defense and the energy work I did with Sara.

Another remarkable aspect of this incident was the rapid shift and release of the negative energy that lingered from the attack.  Using tools that Sara taught me, shortly after the incident I was able to be aware of small panic attacks that would happen during intense drills in the self defense class (where I was being struck or attacked from behind during a simulated attack).  It was rather amazing.  Before this incident when I had experienced similar panic attacks prompted by secondary trauma in a violent attack, prompted by the self-defense drills, I needed to seek out assistance for help with dealing with the stuff that came up.  Now, after working with Sara and identifying some grounding tools to keep me safe, I was able to identify and choose my options for response to the emotional reaction to my ‘fight or flight’ response (the panic attack).  It amazed me that I was able to so quickly and relatively easily metabolize the feelings and stay aware and safe.  In a short time after the mugging incident I was back to ‘normal’ being able to function successfully in simulated scenarios.  Due to the post-incident work that Sara did with me and using the tools she had taught me, I was able to disassociate the flashes of memories from the attack from simulated violent self-defense drills, from walking in the area where I was attacked and was able to allow the flashes of memories to metabolize in a safe emotional space.

Another benefit that stems from the self-defense focus of the Luminous Warrior energy work is my changed relationship to operating in crisis-mode.  When I felt attacked before either emotionally or physically, I naturally would react from a crisis mode in fear.  Coming out of a year of living in crisis mode, I lacked tools to help me decipher and respond with anything other than a reactive self-protective behavior, which ironically could be very self-destructive.  The energy healing tools that Sara introduced me to have given me both an increased ability to recognize ‘attacks’ or hooks and an array of response options that I feel like are in my highest good.  This is exactly the same sense of control of myself and responses that is at play in the self defense scenarios.

Before the Luminous Warrior, I was coming out of a situation where I had been afraid for my safety, was emotional crumbled and at the point of breaking after having lived in crisis mode for a year. I had a lot of healing to do and remembered a time in my life where I had felt whole and connected and yet, at the time I began work with Sara, I felt disconnected between my mind from my body. The one thing I knew was that I had determination to defend myself and fight for my right to be safe and to not have anyone tear me down or hurt me physically. Living in a constant state of crisis had worn down my reserves of patience and perspective and had taken a toll on those around me. I was extremely supersensitive to energies of others and had a difficult time determining boundaries and making judgments between their intentions and my fears. Now, after the Luminous Warrior, I am strong and confident. I have seen instances, mostly on the inside, where my courage and facing my fears has been possible because I am aware that through the energy work and Shamanic healing my thinking and reactions have shifted so dramatically and healing has happened.”

– Elaine C.