ARC Newsletter

As the ARC community continues to expand throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and our numbers grow, having a way to communicate, connect, and share with one another becomes imperative. The ARC Newsletter is where we share the hard-earned wisdom, joys, and struggles on our individual healing paths. It also provides important updates on ARC class policies, licensing, and insurance, and it keeps our community updated on ARC expansion efforts and public relations activities such as wellness fairs and radio interviews. The newsletter also contains regular "how-to" reviews of ARC techniques and helpful tips on improving your sessions. Practitioners, students, and those wishing to learn more about ARC are encouraged to read the ARC Newsletter! It is currently published three times a year in the Spring, Fall and late Winter

With ARC membership you receive 3 newsletters per year, credits on retail products, access to ARC marketing services and career support for Certified ARC Health Practitioners, and discounts from stores affiliated with The ARC Institute.

ARC Newsletter Article Index

Interview with Pietro Abela  by Kristen McHenry

Pietro Abela is the founder of The ARC Institute, dedicated to high-quality education in health-care so that reputable holistic care is made available for personal needs and for the needs of the community. For the past eight years, Pietro has traveled internationally, practicing and co-teaching ARC with his wife Melanie. He recently spoke with Kristen Farrow about his personal journey into healership and the development of ARC. <more>

Bodyspeak^™:  by Pietro Abela

About ten years ago it began to dawn on me that the physical issues I was treating as an energy worker masked a deeper emotional layer. There was always a defensive barrier around the trauma part. The defense parts had two agendas.<more>

Spiritual Direction  by Melanie Abela

Wherever we put our attention, Spirit is. So when we focus on the present moment, cultivating presence, we experience the flow of Spirit. Opening to the flow of life, with an open heart is where humanity meets.<more>

A Work in Progress  by Jo-Ann Svensson

The woman in my care, lying on the table, was crying. What triggered this torment, the unexpected death of her roommate, was the very thing triggering me, and I was none too present. While my hand held her heart imparting what comfort I could, part of me wandered, looking down at the scene with almost detached amusement. I debated leaving - walking out then and there.<more>

On Grounding  by Pietro Abela

Looking into the eyes of a new-born baby there is a profound sense of the child "not-yet-being-here", of having not come into the full realization that they are in a place different from where they have come . <more>

Book Review - Kabir Edmund Helminski: Living Presence. A Sufi Way to Mindfulness and the Essential Self.  by James Clauss

Based, as the subtitle states, on a Sufi way of life - Sufism having developed within "the cultural matrix of Islam" as the author informs us in his final chapter - Living Presence offers not only an important insight into a branch of one of the most vital and currently visible religions of world history, but also another angle from which to view what ARC students, practitioners, and clients know or hopefully come to know as the true, and in Helminski's term "essential," self, the one to which we aspire to return. If you read this book, which I hope you will consider doing, you will find much that is familiar, and moreover expressed with a loving passion that is sure to captivate. <more>

The Fear of Death  a case study by Pietro Abela

The most common issue lying beneath death fear is the fear of being alone or being left alone. Personally I question in my more contemplative moments whether the fear of death actually exists at all. I wonder whether it is a mask for something else and whether any of us actually fear death, and instead fear what we perceive to be the consequences of what we fear death to be. <more>

The Mutuality of Therapy  by Jo-Ann Svensson

The most common issue lying beneath death fear is the fear of being alone or being left alone. Personally I question in my more contemplative moments whether the fear of death actually exists at all. I wonder whether it is a mask for something else and whether any of us actually fear death, and instead fear what we perceive to be the consequences of what we fear death to be. <more>

The Games People Play  by Pietro Abela

So many times in my practitioner life I have witnessed the sadness, tears and frustrations of women telling me their personal stories of how the man in their life does not, has not and shows no signs of ever meeting their emotional needs. <more>

Dr. J. Enters the ARC Zone An Interview with Dr.James
 by Ruth Donald

ARC more than met my expectations, given that I began the series of seminars looking for ways to work with energy and ended up also learning about myself in ways I never counted on. More than satisfied, I was also transformed in the experience. And what is more, I find that I now play a much more active role in continuing the transformation that will be an ongoing process for the rest of my life. <more>

Unconscious Signals  by Pietro Abela

The two inhabitants of the Chevy truck in front of us betray what we both recognize as incongruent behaviour, meaning the perceived normal rhythm of body signals and behaviour has radically changed. We notice the change in their head movements, the sudden rigidity of the inhabitant's bodies, the shallow movement of the shoulders indicating a holding of the breath. Their body expression is telling us there has been a surge of adrenaline into their systems: in other words they have suddenly become intensely fearful. Graham suspects they have something to hide He pulls them over and instructs the driver and passenger to get out of the truck . <more>

Transference  by Jo-Ann Svensson

Transference, as I so blatantly intruded upon Oxford's definition, is not restricted to one's psychoanalyst. We can transfer old issues on to anyone who in someway mirrors the original transgressor. <more>

Is That All There Is  by Anita McHarg

Most of our classes were held outdoors as we sipped tea in the lawn chairs, lazily watching the insects buzzing among the flowers. We took the massage table outside and practiced techniques under the tree. Spirit felt very close outside in that quiet Eleusinian spot. I had two personal breakthroughs during those outside sessions. <more>

Holding the Centre In Morocco  by Pietro Abela

Travel in Morocco is not for the weak or faint-hearted. To be too heartfelt will be to be taken advantage of. To be co-dependent will lose you a lot of money in the markets and soukes. Morocco asks you to be both strong of heart and strong in intention. This is what the Moroccan admires most. You quickly learn the Berber way is to hold your center. Thus Melanie and I learned to survive and revel in Morocco's poverty and spiritual wealth. Yes, we were buffeted and sometimes bruised, but every day we were there we lived life to its fullest. <more>

Beyond Eden  by Dr. James Clauss

One of the many things I have discovered while working with ARC is that aspects of my chosen academic discipline connect with issues central to ARC in fascinating ways. What you will encounter in the following is not only a part of this on-going project, but also a central point I like to make in my introduction to the various myth courses I teach: how folktales work. I shall conclude with what I imagine might be a challenging question to those of us in search of a return to consciousness. <more>

Session Viewing  by Pietro Abela

Continued mentoring is invaluable and essential to the discernment of the personal issues that inevitably arise with client-based session work. Such monitoring also allows the faculty to keep on track with the professional standards ARC espouses, the high quality of services we advertise and to advance practitioner skills which lead to greater effectiveness in performance. <more>