Dina Bernat-Kunin is a graduate of the BlueStone Institute as a certified energy practitioner and works as a Healer in private practice in Los Angeles . She spoke with us about her experiences working as a facilitator at Bloodline Healing workshops.

Interviewer: Besides being a Bloodline Healing Facilitator, what training do you have as a practitioner?

Dina: I’ve been practicing since 1987 as a traditional social worker/therapist/clinician. I also did a 2 year certificate training program in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the southern CA psychoanalytic Institute in Los Angeles. I graduated from the BlueStone Institute of the Healing Arts as a certified energy practitioner.   

Interviewer: Can you recall a moment when you realized that Bloodline Healing had a big impact on someone you were working with?

Dina: One particular client had a history on both sides of the family of a lack of nurturing and caring. Everything was focused on survival and there wasn’t a lot left for really being able to see each child as an individual. She didn’t receive what she needed, because the parents didn’t receive what they needed emotionally. So she really went through life with a lack of trust. When she started making connections and really bringing to herself as an adult, what she needed as a child, she was able to start trusting herself and start trusting life.

Interviewer: What are some of the reasons why people have tried Bloodline Healing in the past?

Dina: People feel that the decisions and choices that they have made in life have been impacted by things that they are not fully aware of. They have that sense that there are things at play in their family or their lineage that they are bound to. They feel they have to live with this family script and they don’t feel free. Discerning the burdens of ancestors and lineage allows them to make clearer choices and really step off that family script to create their own. That doesn’t mean disinheriting the gifts of their family, it means that they can embrace the gifts that their family gives them, but also embrace who they are as an individual and being able to move forward in their life.

Interviewer: What makes this a unique approach to healing in your eyes?

Dina: In this work, we really make an effort to connect to our lineage and explore not just our nuclear family and our own individual life, but what we inherit. And the experiences of our grandparents and great-grandparents and what they’ve gone through. Sometimes their emotional experiences have not found closure or found expression and their stories are unfinished. So then there are things that get passed down. That’s a very unique way of looking at who we are.

Interviewer: What’s your favorite part of the workshop?

Dina: I love the support that people just naturally want to give to their co-participants. We teach how to give that support so that people feel safe. That really allows people to bring all of their feelings; even the uncomfortable, challenging feelings that they don’t always want to acknowledge or show. I love those moments where they make this connection to their lineage. We work at exploring family trees and as people are talking and sharing, they start to see things they haven’t seen before. They say “Oh, I can see why I struggle with this. Look at my family. It’s not just me. This is maybe not just my burden”. You see this look on people’s faces when they start to put that together. And it’s just this expression of, “Oh, there’s hope for me”.

Interviewer: What advice do you have for a first time participant?

Dina: It’s really important, almost vital, that if you’re coming to the workshop that you have some container outside of the workshop that you step back into. That you’re doing some other kind of personal work and getting continued support. Because a lot comes up that can be surprising and maybe even feel a little overwhelming. So you need a safe and containing place to come and continue to process after.

Interviewer: What made you want to experience Bloodline Healing?

Mika: We had a family therapist, Eileen Walkenstein who wrote a book, The Imprinters. She wrote about family bloodline history and that we carry on our parents or family’s unfinished business. And that sort of opened my mind to the importance of this bloodline healing. Then I started working with George, it just expanded.

Interviewer: The Ancestral Dialogue is the part of the workshop where participants speak directly to their ancestors. Can you describe what you remember from the experience?

Mika: The way that George slowly and deliberately prepared us for that experience was really powerful. He talked about boundaries and limits and grounding in oneself and developing a protective shield. And all of that led up to this feeling that I was safe there, and ironically I wanted to risk it all.

I have three children and two were so easy and then this third child was my challenge. I tried so hard to be a good mother to her and it just wasn’t working. So I got angry at her. I really played a lead in trying to create this family mythology that this child was a difficult child, but it all was because I wasn’t getting feedback from her that I was a good mother to her. She had a different kind of energy and instead of just being open to learning about her, I kept trying to compress her energy instead of understanding it. In my own childhood everything was about keeping me tight and together. I really was carrying through my mother’s lineage. And then things really, really shifted.

Interviewer: Did you notice a shift in your emotional state after the workshop?

Mika: I felt so much sadness and grief about all those years when she was vulnerable and I kept pushing her to shut up and conform. Afterwards, I read all her notes that she had given me. And every step of the way, she was trying to communicate with me and trying to say in her own way what she needed. Because of my own family history I was not going to tolerate that. I was going to let her know who was in charge. She just wanted a heart connection. The amazing thing that happened was that my daughter was out of the country at the time, but I texted her something very simple. For whatever reason, she could feel the shift in my energy and she wrote back a response that just opened my heart even more and it’s been better ever since. We still have stuff to work on, but we are on a different plane now.

Interviewer: Did the workshop help you to clarify plans in your life, or some other kind of practical shift?

Mika: This relationship shift meant the world to me. I’m a core energetics practitioner and it has helped me so much in my work. This shift that happened in this workshop has helped me so much in my work with clients. I can be open to all of their goodness and all of who they are. It was major, this relationship shift and how I can generalize it in my life.

Interviewer: What is your advice to someone who would like to try Bloodline Healing for the first time?

Mika: It’s a great gift to experience and it’s a gift not only personally, but also in relationships in people’s lives and opening up lots of old blocks. Prepare to be profoundly affected. In other words, the more you can bring the more you can get out of it.

Experience this potent and meaningful work firsthand at one of our workshops.  Join us for our annual Brandeis Bloodline Retreat on Feb 6-8th, 2015 in Simi Valley, 45 minutes outside of L.A.

As I look forward to being the MC of the Hilo All Nations Powwow on September 20th-21st, 2014, my heart gets warm with memories of last year’s powwow.  One of my favorite highlights was the Eastern Sky Ambassadors flying in from Canada to share Smoke Dance on Big Island Hawaii.  This year, we are joined by the Moiy’ma Hopi Eagle Dancers who are flying in from Hopi territory in Arizona.

Performing at the All Nations Powwow in Hilo Hawaii Sept 20th-21st.

Recently, I visited the new powwow grounds in Keaukaha Hawaiian Village on Big Island Hawaii, a Beach Park in Hilo, and I was struck by the lapping waves on this volcanic island.  Such a surge of energy ran through me as I envisioned the next group of Powwow Dancers and participants who will get to enter such a rare arena in the lush foliage of Hawaii. Not too far from the grounds are the famous Cold Ponds, a mix of cool underground spring water that combines with the warm salty water of the ocean.  It is said that the water has curative properties.  I agree.  It’s the perfect place to take a dip after a long day of singing and dancing.

I added a video clip showing the new grounds as well as some favorite moments from last year’s All Nations Powwow in Hilo.  Enjoy.

We had a magnificent Bloodline Healing workshop at Brandeis-Bardin in Simi Valley, CA.  Here are some of the highlights, including 2 adorable horses and a few workshops videos.  Enjoy.