Carlen Rader
view classesAbout My Classes
What led you to become a colonic therapist?
My path to becoming a colon hydrotherapist began with the first colonic I received as a client at LYT (Love Your Transformation was the predecessor to DTX). I was dealing with health issues that left my doctors stumped (along with the various specialists they sent me to). In desperation I started to do my own research. I read a book called, “I Was Poisoned by My Body: The Odyssey of a Doctor Who Reversed Fibromyalgia, Leaky Gut Syndrome & Multiple Chemical Sensitivity – Naturally!” by Dr. Gloria Gilbere. This book introduced me to the idea that a compromised gut can be at the root of disease, and set me on a path to heal my own gut through colonics and diet. I saw immediate results from my efforts to clean up my diet and reduce my toxic load. I wanted to learn more about how to take charge of my own healing and so I became a receptionist at LYT. The colonic hydrotherapists there became my mentors and I spent two years learning and healing myself. I began to appreciate the complexity and logic of the human body and the power of lifestyle choices to promote deep healing. Eventually I wanted to help others as I had been helped and to share what I had learned. So, I decided to become a colon hydrotherapist and completed the training in 2010.
What did you do before you became a colonic therapist?
Besides a colon hydrotherapist, I am also a social worker. I have always been fascinated by the mind and body and the interaction between the two. My interests include areas such as the biology of the stress response and the power of our mind to shift that experience of stress. I am also fascinated by the role of inflammation in the health of the gut-brain axis and the power of food to cool those inflammatory fires. And I am interested in why sometimes we can have the right information, but still feel unable to put that knowledge into practice. We may feel stuck in old habits or overly attached to our sugar, alcohol, or coffee because they temporarily comfort us when life gets tough. Shining the light of awareness on the energy behind those attachments can give us a little more wiggle room, and a little more freedom to make healthier choices. Practices such as mindfulness, mediation, yoga, and breathwork have helped me to find that bit of wiggle room and a greater sense of freedom in my own choices. It is my hope that my past experiences help me to support my clients as they explore their own process of expanding awareness and making healthier choices.
What has been your greatest reward as a colonic therapist?
One of my greatest rewards has been connecting with a community of people who are thinking deeply about health and healing. One strand of this journey has involved learning how we are all so different, in genetics, development, and reactions to different nutritional and lifestyle choices. We each have to find our own path. And yet, even as I have explored these ideas of bio-individuality, I have also come to see the similarities in our journeys to health and wholeness: how we are all cut from similar fabric and how our bodies, minds, and spirits thrive or suffer based on certain universal principles. I am inspired and nourished by my connection with my fellow travelers in this complex human experience that Jon Kabat-Zinn calls “the full catastrophe of living.”
What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned from this work?
One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that symptoms are not our body betraying us but our body trying to communicate its needs to us. If we don’t listen at first, the body may escalate its attempts to communicate with more extreme symptoms. Of course, pain IS unpleasant and our natural reaction to discomfort is to try to silence it. However, sometimes healing starts by learning how to listen and bring awareness to the message within the discomfort. This applies to physical pain, but also to emotional pain. I am often amazed by the similarities in healing body and mind and the complex interconnectedness of the two.
What myth would you like to dispel about colonics?
Some newcomers to colonics are worried that colonics will be habit-forming, like laxatives, and will make the body function less effectively on its own. Actually, I have found the opposite to be true. Gravity colonics work by engaging the colon’s natural muscular action called peristalsis. Toning the muscles of the colon during a colonic will help it work more effectively on its own, not less so. Getting a gravity colonic is like taking your colon to the gym!