Episode 27 Integrating Muscle Response Testing into Practice, with Angela Santiago

Sep 8, 2021

Have you heard of muscle response testing? How can you use muscle response testing to do deep trauma healing work with your clients? What are some self-care tips that you can utilize at work?

MEET ANGELA SANTIAGO

Growing up in Germany, Angela lived on the outer skirts of a small town in Bavaria, where using holistic remedies was just a daily way of living.

After moving to the US at age 24, she slow and steadily pursued her passion to learn more about herbal tinctures and holistic remedies, mainly for her own family.

In the mid-nineties, the path to her healing practice expanded while studying the gentle art of Healing Touch, EFT, Touch for Health, and eventually Emotion Code.

In addition, Angela’s deep-rooted love for herbal medicine has also lead her to become a certified Aromatherapist, which she specializes in for over a decade, to support and balance client’s emotional ups and downs, safe and naturally.

Angela is the mother of 3 children and 7 grandchildren, that continued on the same Holistic Path that she instilled in them.

Visit her website. Connect on Facebook and Instagram.

Download the free e-book: How to Move Forward with Ease

IN THIS PODCAST:

  • What is muscle response testing?
  • Conscious and subconscious mind
  • Angela’s self-care tips for therapists

WHAT IS MUSCLE RESPONSE TESTING

Muscle response testing is an energetic modality where I can check on myself … it’s called a ring-in-ring method. (Angela Santiago)

I take the tip of my pointer finger and the tip of my thumb, and I put it together as a ring on both hands. I open the ring on my right hand and lock it into my left-hand ring.

The ring in ring method is when you:

  • Connect the tip of your pointer finger with the tip of your thumb, creating a ring.
  • Create a ring on both hands.
  • Open a pointer finger and interlock it with its thumb through the other ring, so that your rings on both hands are interlocked with one another on each side.
  • If you ask a question and the ring breaks, the answer is no.
  • If you ask a question and the ring remains in place, the answer is yes.

You can use the ring method to find if there is still trauma in the body from past experiences that have not been resolved.

CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

I have to say with some clients you achieve results quicker [than] with others, and it has to do with … are they receptive? Do they want to release their stuff? (Angela Santiago)

Some people may have suppressed their feelings and thoughts so deep that their conscious mind and their subconscious minds are not able to hear one another.

In this case, using muscle response testing can help you to get your clients to find the place in their memory or trauma that they have missed that is still being triggered, and work through it.

SELF-CARE ADVICE FOR THERAPISTS

  • Breathing deeply with your hand on your forehead,
  • Sitting quietly with your hand on your heart and taking intentional deep breaths,
  • Take a walk around the block on your break to calm your mind from work and to revitalize your energy,
  • Place a diffuser in your office for using essential oils.

[Self-care] is imperative, to keep our mind clear, calm, and collected, because it’s very easy to get overwhelmed and go down the rail with a client sometimes. (Angela Santiago)

Connect With Me

Resources Mentioned And Useful Links:

Transcript

[CHRIS McDONALD]

The Holistic Counseling Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Behind the Bite, Full of Shift and Impact Driven Leader, go to www.practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast, where you discover diverse wellness modalities, advice on growing your integrative practice, and grow confidence in being your unique self. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. I'm so glad you're here for the journey.

Welcome to today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. I'm your host, once again, Chris MacDonald. I hope your week is going well. You are going to love today's guest. She's someone I met through my holistic happy hour. Her name is Angela Santiago. She grew up in Germany and lived on the outskirts of a small town in Bavaria, where she used holistic remedies and they were just a part of daily living. She moved to the US at age 24, and she slowly and steadily pursued her passion to learn more about herbal tinctures and herbal remedies mainly for her own family. In the mid nineties, the pasture of her healing practice expanded while studying the gentle art of healing, touch, EFT, touch for health and eventually emotion code. In addition, Angela's deep rooted love for herbal medicine has also led her to become a certified aromatherapist, which she has specialized in for over a decade to support and balance client's emotional ups and downs safe, and naturally. Welcome to the podcast. Angela.

[ANGELA SANTIAGO]

Welcome. Welcome. So happy to be here.

[CHRIS]

Yes. If I'm so excited that we've connected.

[ANGELA]

Oh, me too. It was such a blessing to find you on your holistic self-care group. So excited.

[CHRIS]

Yes. So the holistic counseling and self-care group, I'm glad that you're able to reach out with that and come to the happy hour too.

[ANGELA]

I know. That was my first time. When I saw about the happy hour, I thought this pandemic, what is better than a happy hour with other like-minded people?

[CHRIS]

Absolutely. I couldn't have said it better. So can you share more about your work with my listeners who may not be aware of what's going on with you?

[ANGELA]

So my modalities and what I basically do is I am a holistic practitioner and I started out way back when, in fact, like you already mentioned, I grew up in Germany. We used a lot of holistic remedies. So this is like part of my DNA. When I came to the states, I remember almost four decades ago. I shared some of those holistic remedies and modalities with some people and people looked at me funny. So at this point, I was a little bit intimidated to share more. However, I have to say the last 15, 20 years, the area of holistic and natural remedies has really exploded and it has expanded if you will. I am so glad because now I am able to actually share without feeling a little odd.

[CHRIS]

That's all alone, right?

[ANGELA]

Right. I'm not the lone ranger anymore, because again, we used to use so many different modalities over there that were not very well known here in the states. But again, I started going back to school over the last two decades, and then I started, I really specialized. I went from studying and learning about iridology, which is the study of the eye and also learning about herbal remedies, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and all of those remedies. I learned about the body. I learned about energy work and I have studied a whole variety of them. Well, now for the past, I want to say about six plus years, I have been using all of those modalities and I make them my own. I go, most of the time with my intuition and then I also use a technique called muscle response testing that I use with each and every single client. And they can either be in front of me or we can be on the phone with each other. So they do not have to be in my physical presence.

That's interesting. You can be on the phone.

[CHRIS]

Yes. Or they don't even have to be on the phone or in my presence. I can just do remote sessions and connect literally energetically with my clients and release the emotions and all kinds of stuff that shows up.

[CHRIS]

So can you more, what is the muscle response testing? What does that look like when you're working with a client?

[ANGELA]

Muscle response testing is an energetic modality where I can check on myself. It's called a ring and ring method. I basically take the tip of my pointer finger and the tip of my thumb and I put it together as a ring on both hands. Right. But then I open my ring on the right hand and I lock it in with my left hand. So I have basically both hands, both of the four fingers, my thumb and my pointer finger on each side is now locked into each other. Does that make sense?

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[ANGELA]

And when I ask a question and the ring breaks at, it means it's a no. If the ring does not break, it is a yes. So for instance, if I say, "Hey, Chris, do you have any trapped emotions," and ring breaks, that means, no, you do not. If the rings stay together, then yes it is.

[ANGELA]

And then I go further and then I check, well, when was there a trap? When was there a trauma? When was there an unpleasant event? Let's just say, a client is age 54. I say was there trauma before the age of 54 and then I go all the way down. And sometimes we and I keep testing and testing and testing until I hit a number, it tests very strong. And I have had clients where I went all the way down to age 34, too, and they had a really traumatic event. One of my clients, her father had a car accident and she was in, she was with a mom in front of the father. She was driving in mom's car. Well, she used to always drive with her father and that day she drove with a mother and the father got hit right behind them and he passed away instantly.

She was telling me that she has been angry for so many of years and she does not understand why she is angry. Well, we figured part of that out. There was this emotion, this negative emotion, this upset, this disappointment, this grief. All of these emotions, they were stuck at age four and we started to release them and she started feeling better and better after each session. And even physically, she felt less confined and she felt that her muscles were relaxing a lot more than they had before. So this is basically what I do in a nutshell.

[CHRIS]

That's amazing. I didn't know that you can see those kind of results.

[ANGELA]

Yes. The results, they have been amazing to say the least. Now I have to say with some clients, you achieve results quicker than others. And it has to do with are they receptive? Do they really want to release this stuff? And again, that goes back to the subconscious mind. Sometimes people say, oh, I really want to lose weight. When I test them, there is a no, you don't want to lose weight. In their subconscious mind it is a resounding, no even though they insist they want to lose weight. But then you have to ask a question, are you sabotaging yourself? And that's more than likely a yes. Why are you sabotaging yourself? Then keep on going and then I ask a question do you feel, perhaps you want to leave your husband when you get thinner or do you think men find you more attractive and therefore, maybe you are more tempted of leaving the marriage. So these are all the self-sabotaging thoughts that can go on in a person's mind and hence they do not want to lose weight and they want to stay the way they are.

[CHRIS]

Well, I never thought of weight loss that way, too, that there could be some deeper processes going on.

[ANGELA]

Yes, definitely. It is amazing, the thoughts that can occur, especially in our subconscious mind. I was actually telling someone earlier today that our conscious mind is about three to 5%. Our subconscious mind about somewhere around 95%. So just imagine all of the thoughts that are gathered in our subconscious mind and the things that we suppress, don't want to think about it, don't want to talk about it. We saw it in our conscious mind. We already have them figured out and everything is already taken care of, but very often it is not. I can actually give you a really quick example. I had a client and she came to me and she said she had very little appetite, didn't like to work with meat products and did not want to cook anymore and just did not feel any happiness around food, period.

For some reason or another, we started to work and age 22 showed up. I asked her, "Do you remember anything that happened around that age?" She says, "Oh yes, my husband cheated on me." It was interesting because that was not on her list of things that she wanted to work on or work around. She says, "Well, I thought I already had taken care of this." Well, apparently she had not and we worked around there for a while, amongst some other issues, trapped emotions, limited beliefs or negative beliefs, and after a while she got happier, she started cooking again. And I remember she was like, "Angela, I feel so happy. I can cook again. I can actually cook meat again, which I wasn't even, I didn't even want to touch that." And it was just amazing to me. Her whole life got turned back to the positive, after several sessions. So these are the types of things that I see and experience with clients a lot.

[CHRIS]

That's got to be so motivating and just satisfying for you to know that you're really helping them move on from whatever is trapped in their bodies, whatever emotions.

[ANGELA]

Yes, it definitely is because I think a huge reason is I have gone through a lot of trauma and shocks and a lot of grief myself over many, many years. And because of that, I feel in my heart, I can really relate to my clients. I can really feel what they are feeling. So I'm also very empathetic as you can probably tell. And I can really hone into people in certain areas of their life when they're feeling either sad or when there is a lot of anxiousness or if there is a lot of overwhelm. And then we just figure out where is this coming from? When did that start? What was the origin of those feelings? And not only do people have these emotional ups and downs. Very often, they can later on have, or start with physical challenges or discomfort in their body, which very often can stem from an emotional shock or a trauma. And very often people do not take that in consideration, but then once we start releasing things, it makes total sense.

[CHRIS]

Well, I'm sure it makes you a better healer too, that you've experienced a lot of trauma and overcome a lot of things.

[ANGELA]

Well, I have to say it does help. It does help. It's again, as an, especially energy medicine practitioner, I also had to learn to be disconnected after each client. So I don't take all of these emotions on myself. So that again goes into my own self care because I have to maintain that I cannot not take care of me and take care of other people. So it's very, very important that I take care of my mental being and emotional health just as much.

[CHRIS]

How do you release that after you see a client?

[ANGELA]

Well, so for instance, again, I can use the muscle response testing on myself and sometimes I just check in with myself and I ask Angela, do you have any trapped emotions? And yes, sometimes I do. Do you have any negative beliefs? Yes, sometimes I do. So one of the energy healing techniques that I absolutely love and it is so simple. If any of your listeners would like to try that out, it is super simple. So the first one is to turn a negative thought into a positive belief. So let's just say, for instance, if we keep saying to ourselves like, geez, I'm all over the place. I don't have my thoughts together, I'm overwhelmed, and we just keep rambling on and repeating the same negative things over and over and over while it starts to manifest in our subconscious mind and even in our conscious mind we're stuck in that. "Things are never going to get better. I'm stuck in overwhelm."

However, repeating a positive belief several times a day, saying it out loud is a wonderful thing to do. So instead of saying, oh, I'm all over the place, I say, my mind is calm and relaxed. Now, while I'm saying this, I take a cotton roll or a cotton ball and I drop on one drop of orange essential oil or a drop of frankincense, whatever you like, whatever is really good, something that is really uplifting. And before I say my positive belief, I take a really big whiff of that aroma that is on the cotton ball or cotton roll. I inhale it deeply like, so, really take, just take a deep breath and then I say, my mind is calm and relaxed. Now we're going to add a third component to that.

The third component is inhale the essential oils, put your hands over your chest in the center of your heart, both hands criss-crossed. While you're taking a deep breath, you inhale your oil and you say, my mind is calm and relaxed. And I say that 2, 3, 4 times, take several deep breaths in between. And I actually hold the hands over my heart for two, three, sometimes four minutes. That is incredibly calming to your heart and your mind energies that are really on overload. And they feel really discombobulated for a lack of better words.

[CHRIS]

I feel more calm and relaxed. Just hearing your voice to share this activity.

[ANGELA]

You know what, Chris, there are so many other positive beliefs. When I work with my clients with the emotion or emotional energies in sessions, we release a lot of negative things in the subconscious mind and literally in the body, I mean, emotions can be stuck in your knee and your lower back and your neck and your little toe. I found some in your teeth literally. Once you released it there, you created an empty space. So what do you do? You don't want to leave that empty space or more negative stuff can go back into your belief system. So we are exchanging that and filling that empty space with a positive belief. And I always always end with one positive belief at the end. So it could be, I am moving forward with ease. My life is calm and relaxed. My mind is clear. My mind is clear. Sometimes that alone, that just doesn't help. If we feel this thumping and this overload, it's like, my mind is clear. My thoughts are calm and relaxed. My mind in my body are aligned in balance. So those are all the different things that you can say. And of course, because that is what I do. I have lots and lots and lots of positive beliefs.

[CHRIS]

I love and I appreciate how you shared that too, how a very calming voice. And especially because a lot of therapists are listening and we use of course, some kind of behavioral therapy and changing negative beliefs deposited, but I love how you uploaded it even more to use essential oils and some touch with that. And I think that that could really enhance that for people and really get that more in their conscious brain and help them to relax more.

[ANGELA]

Yes, you're absolutely right. Very often, it's about the touch. Even if you touch your own heart, it can lower the energies and calm the energies in your body. Of course, then sense. Senses are incredibly powerful. They can go right into your limbic system and they can just create such a wonderful source of calm and relaxation and balance in your body. I have seen people when I used to have workshops in person go from totally overwhelmed and jittery and nervous energy to an amazing calm within like 15, 20 minutes, some just by diffusing an essential oil or a combination of them. In fact, I just read it to my essential oil inhaler line and I only had four inhalers and I made a custom-made, but usually when I'm finished with my clients, when we come to the end, I test them for either essential oil roller blends that I've customized and created or four inhalers. I let them know which ones are wonderful while they are processing. So we are releasing this negative energy and sometimes it can take literally a day or two, occasionally up to 5, 6, 7 days. So we want to make sure that sometimes the processing is not going to be too overwhelming. So a little bit of essential oil or some of the aromas can settle again, those overcharged energies and it can make processing so much easier.

[CHRIS]

I love that. Wonderful. I know you wanted to share some other self-care techniques you used during or after processing. Was there anything else that you recommend?

[ANGELA]

I think very often the energy holding the heart. Sometimes I also put my right hand over the forehead, and then the left hand on the back of my head. That's also a super relaxing technique where you literally balance the energies in your brain. And again, you can leave your hands there as long as needed. And like, I can feel how long, let's just say, if I hold my hands for two or three minutes, it's like, oh, I feel that little shift and then I'm okay. If you're not quite in tune with yourself, just leave your hands there for a little bit, for a few minutes. However long you do this, it's an improvement and it is something good that you're doing for yourself.

[CHRIS]

That's very a simple strategy to use too.

[ANGELA]

To the techniques that I have are extremely simple. However, they are quite effective. Last year when the pandemic hit so hard, I have had more and more of my clients asked me, "Angela, what is it that we can do in between our sessions? Is there anything that we can do to keep our balance and not to feel so triggered?" Because going through the pandemic, you have to understand every person has something going on in their life. Whether it's a lot of stress, whether it's a little stress, however, once all of this stuff happened, it's almost like we're adding another layer to our regular stuff. And that can be overwhelming. People have told me that they feel stuck, they feel extremely overwhelmed, they had a lot of fear to get COVID. I mean, there was just so many components. So again, getting back to what I was asked, and then towards the end of last year, I actually started to create a bunch of different modules that are extremely colorful and they are very uplifting and super easy to use all around emotional wellbeing.

I made this into a membership, which is still at this point in beta testing, but I have beautiful modules. By the click of a button you can look up 52 negative beliefs that we turned into the positive beliefs. So I literally give an example of the negative. Maybe you're resonating with some of that because you want to change that belief. You want to turn that around and there is underneath a positive belief and it is really amazing. Again, I put lots of color in there and lots of flowers. So it's really resonating with people, all the colors and the positive elements. It's almost like people can see it, smell it and touch it without really being in the middle of that module. But it's just really resonating with them. Then my founder members, they had a fabulous idea and they said, "Angela, how about if you make a really quick module, a really short one where you take maybe two or three techniques?"

And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, that is absolutely fabulous. So what I did, I even made it more easy and more compact. So for instance, I have this module now. It's changing your moods and emotional emergencies. There you go, and then you click on it. Then I have divided it. If someone feels overwhelmed, there is a macho. Someone that goes through a heartache, someone that is totally stuck and they don't know how to move forward. And then there is a positive belief, there's a quick self-care tip, and sometimes I have recorded essential all recipes, my own recipes that I'm giving away and that people can learn and they can make their own recipes. And they're super simple. So they are all excited about these new modules right now because of ---

[CHRIS]

That's wonderful. I love it. I think that that's really going to help people to really integrate this into practice outside of the times that they see you.

[ANGELA]

Yes. And you know what I have learned, especially again, I know I keep going back to the pandemic, people don't want to go look through stuff that is lengthy. They don't necessarily watch videos that are half an hour or an hour, two hours, but if it's within 15, 20 minutes or less, they are totally okay with that, unless it's a subject that is really, really interesting to them. But I wanted to give people techniques that are easy, that are simple and that they can do anywhere. If you can do this at work, people are starting to go back to work. They can just put their hands over their chest and take a really deep breath. If they feel awkward about it, well, then you go in the break room or maybe you go in the bathroom or in the lounge, or maybe during your break, when you go outside and you have the opportunity to go for a short walk. You can take a couple deep breaths. Maybe you can use your inhaler during the day. Some offices and some people allow a diffuser. So then just have a diffuser running for a half an hour here and there. So those are all my little quick self-care tips.

[CHRIS]

That's a lot. You have a lot of ideas. I love it.

[ANGELA]

Well, I hope you can pick some of them up and I hope your listeners are benefiting from some of them as well. I do know that a lot of people nowadays have essential oils, but in all reality, they really don't know the safety issues. They don't know about dilutions. They have not learned that and so with me, I am a stickler for all of those. But I think it's important because you really want to make sure to stick with the safety issues in order for someone else not to go overboard because they're a form of a medicine and you got to be careful and mindful of what you're doing. That being said, they can be incredibly benefiting and uplifting. May I give one quick example?

[CHRIS]

Yes, go ahead.

I had gone to a supermarket that was, oh my goodness, probably four or five years ago and this lady at the register, I could just, well, first of all, I could pick up her low energy, but she was also, you could tell she was extremely depressed and sad and listless, if you will. She actually worked a store that offered a lot of organic supplements and produce and all kinds of things. However, so I thought, well, she's working in this kind of environment. Maybe I should ask her if everything is all right. She says, no. She says, I'm very, very upset and sad and life has been just overwhelming. So I, because I'm a certified aromatherapist, what do I have? I always have essential oils in my purse. I'm always ready for somebody, to be of help.

So I took out my lime essential oil, which at that point was my go-to. So I opened up the bottle and I just let her inhale that 2, 3, 4 times. Literally within less than a minute, you could tell she was taking this real deep breath and then she let go of whatever was stuck in there. She was like, oh yes, I started feeling better already. And I'm standing there and I was almost baffled, but in a good way. I was like, yes, works every time. So for her, the lime oil was just the perfect modality that she needed at that very time. It is uplifting, it is encouraging, it is an oil that makes you happy and that's exactly what she needed. She needed a little happy in her life and that just gave her that little bit of encouragement that she needed.

[CHRIS]

So you try to match which individual needs that someone has with an oil?

[ANGELA]

Yes. So again, I also make customized oils. I had someone yesterday and the person had a horrific headache and so I made her a custom blend. The custom blend for them could be probably very different than for someone else. It could be is it a stress headache? Is it a emotional headache? Is it a hormonal headache? Is this a headache because of an event, something that is stuck in her body and it hasn't been released? So there's all different types of questions that you have to ask yourself. And then of course, sometimes you have to adjust the recipe a little bit sometimes, but the thing is with me, I'm very conservative. So I start with a little bit of a lower dose and then we can always add some oils to it. But yes, for the most part, my clients love my oils so I'm really excited. I'm in my kitchen or in my downstairs office and I mix lotions and potions with my beakers and graduated cylinders and all this stuff and that's just my happy place.

[CHRIS]

The greatest enthusiasm for holistic stuff. I think you said before, you're a holistic nerd.

[ANGELA]

Yes. I am a holistic nerd. It's true for myself a lot to that phrase and I think you picked up on it.

[CHRIS]

That's where you get your energy from, I can tell,

[ANGELA]

Well, again, doing self-care is crucial. This is something that we as practitioners and counselors really have to be mindful of. It is imperative to keep our mind clear, calm, and collected because it's very, very easy to get overwhelmed and go down the rail with the client sometimes, whether they're seeking energy work, whether they're seeking counseling. And I am so excited, I'm going to slip that in. I just finished my bachelor's degree in counseling and I'm one of the rare people. I have done things the other way around. I have really been in the holistic field for several decades and for the last three years I've been studying to become a counselor. So I've been throwing applications for apprenticeship. I have learned a lot in addition to me working with clients. I worked with a lot of trauma clients, interestingly enough, and I picked trauma and people that are going through rough times, anxiousness, all of those kinds of things. That is what I picked for my counseling subject.

[CHRIS]

So I know you mentioned that you're trained in touch for health. So can you share more about what that is?

[ANGELA]

Yes. So touch for health is also an energetic modality. You just very similar figure out by pointing like say to the lungs, to the heart, to the brain and then check and see if there is something stuck. It's very, very similar and you can basically repair or for lack of better word connect the meridians in the body again. I have been doing this a lot, too, during my emotion sessions. Like I told you at the beginning, I mix a lot of my modalities together and I test whatever comes up, whatever shows up. So if people are testing weak in their meridians, then the way we align them is I have a magnet with two rollers on there. What I do is I take them and I literally roll them around my forehead, the top of my head, the back of my head, and the back of my neck.

Sometimes I roll them down my spine to release the stuck energy and to get balanced in someone's body again. So that is what I do now very often because I also do healing touch. Now healing touch is when a person is laying on a massage table and I take my hands that are either on the client or above the client and I measure the energy. I also test again, muscle response testing to see where they are aligned in their body and where they're not and then I just do, instead of asking questions and talking like through my regular energy sessions, I don't talk out loud at all. I just do a lot of feeling with my hands and very quiet testing, whether or not something is balanced. And then I either hold the clients' feet, the heart, the hands, the forehead. And I can also, I know it's not going to be a surprise anymore, I can do this remotely without somebody being here.

So I basically just go downstairs in my beautiful calm space and I just imagine that person is laying there and I do the same exact steps as again, as a person would be, that is directly laying on the table. I don't do anything different. I just connect with them energetically and then I release what needs to be released and to do a chakra alignment, which is very simply an alignment of all of your energy centers. So I have done that too, and it's amazing and so rewarding that I could actually do all of these things during the pandemic and able to help my clients the whole year, while they have been shaken up by that event.

[CHRIS]

I love how you combine all these together. I think sometimes that can bring healing to a whole other level when you have different modalities.

[ANGELA]

Yes. And for a long time, I only used one modality or the other, but it's like when you're a counselor, when you're starting out or when you are in any occupation, you usually go by the book. But then once you starting to get more comfortable with what you're doing, you're making things your own, you're creating your own script, you're creating what works for you, how you can connect with someone else. And that is what I'm doing and ---

[CHRIS]

Evolving is the word that comes to mind.

[ANGELA]

Evolving. There you go. That's the perfect word. I'm evolving because at the end of the day, it's not about me. It's about the clients. What is best for them? What is for their highest good? What is it that they need at this time? What is beneficial for them? And I think, again, going back to their muscle response testing, this is literally my go-to. This is what I do all day long and it has been an incredible gift. In fact, I have taught several classes, actually in my house several years back and in the morning I teach the muscle testing on each other and I try to have everything lined up in pairs. So I have enough people so two people can work with each other and I have people even hold them in test for foods or drinks or supplements or essential oils and they're holding them in their hand and they're testing each other, whether it's good for them o not. Well then we have a break halfway midday and then in the afternoon I teach them five self-testing techniques. So when they're at home and let's just say, they want to test themselves for a specific essential oil, then they can just test themselves and say, okay, this is the perfect one for me today.

[CHRIS]

Yes. So Angela, what's the best way for listeners to find you and learn more about what you do?

[ANGELA]

People can find me on my website and it's super simple, www.angelasantiago.com. It can't get any easier than it. It's my name. I do have a little surprise though. I have a free eBook on emotional wellness, how to move forward with ease. If your listeners would like to, they can click on that free eBook and they can download that.

[CHRIS]

Thank you for that free gift.

[ANGELA]

You're so welcome.

[CHRIS]

But thank you for coming on the podcast today, Angela.

[ANGELA]

It was so much fun and I so much appreciate you, Chris. I appreciate all the things you're doing and your group that you have out there on Facebook. It is absolutely amazing. I love it and I am so grateful that I have met you and that we have connected. And again, so much gratitude for doing this interview today. Thank you.

[CHRIS]

Yes. And I'll put a link in the show notes as well. How do you get to the holistic counseling and self-care group on Facebook so all listeners are welcome to join us. I'm glad you mentioned that too, because I think part of this podcast, I wanted to really create that supportive connection in this community because I feel like a lot of us are isolated as holistic counselors. So that's wonderful to hear, Angela. I love it.

[ANGELA]

Yes. And you're right and I think that's also a part where I have started a membership because women, and it's only for women and because they're so isolated or have been isolated, and that's what I hear almost on a daily basis. I know things are opening up again, but there's still a lot of isolation out there. So thank you, Chris, for being so mindful and doing so many good things in our community. I appreciate it.

[CHRIS]

Absolutely. And I want to have a big thank you out there to my listeners for tuning in today. So glad you could be here and I could help you on your healer journey, but I need your help if you can please support the podcast by being sure to subscribe, rate, and review wherever you get your podcasts.

And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love. Until next time, take care.

If you're loving the show, will you rate review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform? We just started this and that helps other people find this show. Also, if you're feeling uncertain about your modalities and you want to build your confidence to be your unique self, why don't you to join my free email course, Becoming a Holistic Counselor over at holisticcounselingpodcast.com.

In my Becoming a Holistic Counselor course, you'll get tips for adding integrative care into your practice, what training you need and don't, and the know-how to attract your ideal holistic clients. If this sounds like the direction you are headed, sign up at holisticcounselingpodcast.com.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.

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Self-Care for the Counselor - a holistic guide for helping professionals by Christine McDonald , MS,NCC,LPCS