Introductions – About Jill Cantor Lee
Because I believe health and wholeness expand beyond science and academia, I want to offer you some postings that contain more than just technical information. I want spirituality to be the warp of my blog, neuroscience, psychology, and conflict resolution, the weft. My hope is to share and possibly inspire, while also giving you a chance to know a bit about who I am and how I think. This just seems fair to me, for if I have the honor of working with you, you will undoubtedly experience some exposure and vulnerability.
I am a Jewish woman married to a Christian man from Nebraska who practices Kundalini yoga. My first husband was a catholic cowboy. I grew up loving horses. Riding them, living with them, burrowing into their being to find all the answers of the universe and all the comfort of a second mother. They were my salvation. Throughout my life I have gone to church, synagogue, the barn, woods, and African plains to commune with God. While working as a ranch hand on an outfit in Montana that was so quiet I could, at times, hear the blood pumping in my ears, I studied religions from around the world. When I experienced radiation therapy, Jesus came to my treatments every day to comfort me. I am completely spiritual and completely religious. I believe religion is the unique language created by God and different cultures. My God is nature, my church the lake, sky, and cottonwood tree I see from my kitchen window. My horses, chickens, and dogs are my priests and my barn cat the high priestess. Like the Masai, I believe there is one God with many different names (Christ, Yahweh, Buddha, N’gai, Allah etc.) God is so gracious that we can be heard and in relationship no matter what name we use.
All of this is my way of saying that I offer you these thoughts and reflections with complete respect for your spiritual/religious beliefs. It is never my intention to “preach” in any way, rather to emphasize that healing and spirituality go hand in glove. My clients have taught me that trauma is as much a spiritual wound as it is a mental/neurobiological one. My simple definition of spirituality is knowing (on a cellular, visceral level) that you are a part of something bigger than yourself. Without belonging, without re-member-ing (becoming part of the bigger whole), healing does not occur.
Wishing you blessings, peace, love, and wholeness,
Jill