E9 S2 | Adding Healing to Healthcare: Doctor of Physical Therapy, Gina Calderone Shares How Life Experience Deposits into the Physical Body, and What Your Symptoms are Telling You

Welcome to Episode 9, Season 2 of the Sick and Seeking Podcast!

In this episode, I have an insightful conversation with Dr. Gina Calderone, a Doctor of Physical Therapy at C Force Studio. We faced some technical challenges during recording, which may affect the audio quality, but rest assured, the content is invaluable and shouldn’t be missed!

As Gina beautifully articulates:

“People can go to acupuncture, energetic healing, or yoga, but when our invisible wounds hide from us, we don't know how to find them. The body does a great job of helping us survive, but when we need to heal, pain often becomes the indicator.”

Join us as we explore the interplay of physical and emotional healing for a better quality of life.

Conversation Highlights:

• Gina’s 20+ year journey as a physical therapist and her reputation as "The Body Detective."
• The connection between physical pain and emotional trauma, including how headaches may relate to intellectual overload.
• The importance of tuning into our inner voice and recognizing bodily signals.
• Insights from Carolyn Myss on energy medicine and archetypes that shaped Gina’s perspective on illness.
• Understanding how life experiences can affect our physical energy.
• Unraveling the patterns and core issues that underlie pain and conditions in the body.
• Exploring how the mind processes thoughts while the body conveys feelings.
• An introduction to polyvagal theory and its relevance to trauma.
• Gina's plans to teach physio-energetic anatomy, connecting life experiences to physical symptoms.

Quotes:

“And our bodies usually give us clues. The symptoms are the map, providing all the information we need to know. We just have to learn how to tune in.” - Gina Calderone

“The longer a wound sits in the body, the more it decays and causes more problems.” - Gina Calderone

Connect with Gina:
Website | Instagram 

🌟 Connect with Leslie and Sick and Seeking Community: 🌟
Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram

Join an Embodied Movement Class or Wild Women's Circle!
🔥 CLICK HERE for details 🔥

🌟 FREE Support Group: Chronic Conditions - Coffee & Connection🌟
--> For people who are managing a long term health issue
-->We meet on ZOOM once a month at 12pm PT

Like The Show? Show Your Support With a Donation!

Sick and Seeking Disclaimer

Transcript

Leslie Field (00:01.399)

Hello everyone, welcome to the Sick and Seeking Podcast. I have with me Doctor of Physical Therapy, Gina Calderon at CForceStudio. Gina, I've been looking forward to this conversation. Welcome, so happy to have you with me.

Gina Calderone (00:18.05)

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy we met. I'm excited for this. Thanks.

Leslie Field (00:24.195)

I know, me too, me too. So I came across Gina's paths on the summit that I attended and I was like, who is this woman? I wanna know more about her. I wanna know more about her work. Tell me all the things. So she's gonna tell us all the things. And I think the best way to start is just, how did you get into the work that you've been doing? I know for like 20 years thereabouts, how did you get maybe into it and where you are?

Gina Calderone (00:50.986)

Wow, okay. I, wow, that's a big question. 20 years ago, I started off as a traditional physical therapist. I was working in a high, fast, you know, fast-paced clinic, high volume, and mainly seeing people that had car accidents and, you know, shoulder pain, neck pain, back pain, from lifting something heavy, things like that. And I was always curious.

Leslie Field (00:52.675)

Thank you.

Gina Calderone (01:21.01)

about what caused pain because I saw people in chronic pain and I was just interested in why their pain never went away. I was just always curious. And so I studied energy medicine and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know about emotions. I thought when life experiences happen to people and they go through traumatic and tragic events, how does that impact the body? And I just wanted to know more.

I went out on my own, started my own practice and look who came through the studio was everybody with chronic pain. And one after another kept coming in and I was certified in Pilates then and I was really like seen as this Pilates instructor who knew a lot about the body. And I was like, well, I'm a physical therapist. That's why I know so much about the body. And I started asking about their lives.

this one client of mine in particular, I'd asked him when his shoulder pain started and he said, well, when my dad died, you know, blah, blah. And I just like really heard this echo of when my dad died. And I thought, you know, if your father passed away, could you have shoulder pain from that? Like, and I just thought like grief kind of hung into the heart line. And could that make you so sad? Could that cause pain in the shoulder?

And it seems as though when I would talk to people about their pain, it would bring up the pain. It would like magnify it, even in session. And I saw that what I was starting to do is bring that pain to the surface and then do manual techniques and helping to release it. But in the beginning, it was really difficult for my clients to understand that their grief

that they had stored in their body was actually the reason for their shoulder pain. Cause they're like, no, you know, it was like when I lift my heavy bag is when it hurts. I'm like, yeah, I know. Like that's the physical part of the shoulder hurting. But as I began to ask him more about this particular client, more about his father, there was way more of a story there that had roots in trauma. And so,

Gina Calderone (03:45.042)

I just, again, became curious. I kept asking everybody about their lives and noticed that when someone came in and I knew they were having a tough time in their marriage and then either, you know, wife would said husband or vice versa and they come in and they both had hip pain. And so I'm like, huh, well, the hip means moving forward. The last child went off to college.

Hmm, I wonder if they know what to do now that there are no kids to raise like do they still have a relationship? Do they still have a connection? Is something happening? Like, is there more to this story that I don't know about what their body does? And so I that's where I kind of started to, well, one of my clients nicknamed me the body detective. So I just started going in and I just started asking questions and asking more and more questions. And it just honestly became a life of its own.

And from chronic pain, I had people referring me clients who were struggling with addiction. I had clients walking through the door who had cancer. And from there, it went probably in the order of ADHD, autism, autoimmune diseases, bipolar disorder.

Uhhhhhh

And then addiction really, a lot more people with addiction came in. And then most recently, schizophrenia. And I've just started to research trauma for the last like six or seven years and understood ACEs and adverse childhood experiences and what that means and how household dysfunction and childhood neglect and abuse from physical, emotional.

Leslie Field (05:24.587)

Mm.

Gina Calderone (05:44.638)

and sexual abuse can sit in the body. And I just started seeing imprints of it in the body. And I just knew right away if based off of what they're telling me in these stories, I know how it's sitting in the body or vice versa, if it's in their subconscious mind, it's in their body because that's what the subconscious mind is, is in the body. And sometimes I have a sense that there is trauma in the body, but they're not conscious of it. So when I go to work on the body,

it holds it up to the consciousness. And then they're like, they'll come in one day. And they're like, this happened to me. I'm like, aha, there it is. And there's the freedom. That's the freedom when it that's the release. And then from there, it's just a pure physical release from there. So at that point, what I see is that, I mean, I do my body work, but then I think

People can go to acupuncture, you can go to energetic healer, you can go to yoga, you can go to a lot of the physical modalities and energetic modalities that we know of. But when our invisible wounds are hiding from us, we don't know how to find them. And oftentimes they're hiding because we have to survive. And so we do a really good job. The body does a really great job at doing that so we can get through our days so we can...

go to school so we can be a mom, so we can go to work and pay for our bills and do the things that we need to do. The body is intelligent at doing that, but when we're ready, when we need to heal, the pain is usually the indicator. So it's been a journey of intuition and my beautiful, beautiful clients of 20 years teaching me. Honestly, it's been their stories and their vulnerability.

and our connection with one another. And it's taught me so much because I truly just wanted to know. I wanted to be good at it. I wanted to know like, could I make cancer? Not could I? Could I figure out what is the root of cancer? And could it go away? Like, can we do that? Like, is it stuck in the tissues? Is it really systematic? And then I started to learn from Carolyn Mase about energy medicine and that our body is a battery and it has energy and it's laws.

Gina Calderone (08:05.71)

spiritual laws and light and what charges us in our life and what drains us in our life. And our body is purely the map that shows us what is the problem.

Leslie Field (08:21.923)

Mm, mm, so good. So I am really concerned about this recording. I'm being really honest. This is the worst I've ever seen it go in and out and I would hate for it to be a bad recording and then my editor can't do anything. So I think just for the sake of making sure we get good, even though I'm like, I don't be fine, I'm not getting really nervous because I could even hear the kind of

robot-ness in my, and I'm like, I've never heard that. So I'm thinking maybe we both should leave and come back just to see if that helps. That's okay. Yeah, I know you're in a flow and I apologize, but we'll. Ha ha ha. I'm so, I apologize, but let's do it just to say we tried our best, so. All right, I'll see you back here in a minute. Okay, bye bye.

Gina Calderone (08:59.41)

Okay, that sounds good. Okay, yeah, let's do it. It doesn't surprise me. This doesn't surprise me. I swear it's so weird. It does not surprise me, but let's do it.

Gina Calderone (09:14.732)

Yeah.

Okay, sounds good. Okay.

Leslie Field (00:01.935)

Wow, Gina, I know there's so many more stories and maybe they're going to come out in the moments to come, but I love what you said about how our body is a map and our body is a battery because I'm sure many people listening know that feeling that these are the things that enliven you. These are the things that lift you up and give you energy. And then they also know the things that are kind of depleting and sort of like dead in you. Totally.

Gina Calderone (00:27.562)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it, we have to really take an assessment in our lives and see where we are draining ourselves. And boundaries is a huge thing that, you know, certain people that are a little bit more quiet or maybe subdued in their personality, they don't know how to draw those boundaries. And they leak energy, they give energy away. And then they're so drained and

depleted and then maybe they're really good at figuring out how to fulfill themselves again but then right back there again giving it away. And so it just goes in and out and in and out and in and out and just kind of barely really surviving and wondering how we can sit for a while and fill ourselves up and feel really good and then learn how to discern.

like I can help you, but I just are like, maybe the next day I don't have it today, but maybe tomorrow I will. And how to start being able to discern what is good for you and what is not so good for you. And I think the hardest part in that from my own personal self and helping others is that they are left with guilt and they feel bad if they don't do.

something, whatever that thing might be for someone else. And that person might make them feel guilty for it. But the true empowerment comes when they make a choice that is good for them. And that gives them energy. So it might mean leaving a job, it might mean severing a relationship, it might mean changing schools or quitting the team, whatever it might be.

And our bodies usually give us the clues. The symptoms are the clues. They're the map. They're giving us all the information that we need to know. We just have to learn how to tune in.

Leslie Field (02:39.405)

Oh, yes, the symptoms. Ah, yes. You know, I'm sure everyone's heard the phrase, oh, the body holds so much wisdom, right? But it's like, are we actually taking the time to listen, you know, and not just ignoring the headache, the pain, the this. And I think that's so interesting that especially we have a culture, we're really up in our head all day long, right? We're really good at...

Gina Calderone (02:53.131)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (03:06.935)

not deadening the body, but deadening the noise down and saying, I don't have time for you. So, ooh.

Gina Calderone (03:13.758)

Yeah, headaches are huge. I see that quite a bit. And you're right, it is that intellectual overload. So a lot of the energy gets pushed up into the head and the upper parts of the body. And could be for reasons like there could be trauma in the body. And so they don't know how to

Gina Calderone (03:44.27)

Could you hear that beep? Did you hear that? Or was it just me? I'm sorry.

Leslie Field (03:46.403)

Yeah, no I heard it but it's okay. Don't worry, I have like a million text messages going off too so I had to turn it all off.

Gina Calderone (03:54.226)

I just, I don't even know how that turned on.

I put do not disturb.

Leslie Field (04:01.256)

The tech gods and gods are really testing us today.

Gina Calderone (04:06.382)

Seriously, but you know, it is what it is. Okay. Hey, energy. It.

When people began to take Advil for it, or sometimes they become migraines and they take heavier medication for it, I have known some of my clients to take anti-seizure medication for their migraines. And where I usually steer them is in a direction of looking at their lives. Where are we using too much of the intellectual parts of the mind to

rationalize what's happening when really it's right in front of us if we sit and listen and it's really difficult to make that choice to confront whatever situation is in your life that's going to disrupt something. That's what we don't usually want to do that. So we avoid it and we avoid it and we avoid it. And then when it's in your vortex, here it comes and here comes that headache and you just got to look back on.

What happened yesterday? What happened this morning? Why am I feeling this way? What is going on? When we ask ourselves those questions, the answers are always there. They're there. We just, it's easier if we just don't look at it. We know why. It's just a little easier. I don't wanna deal with it. I don't wanna do this. We just keep doing it. And you know, when they had women mainly come to me and they have been diagnosed with cancer.

Leslie Field (05:25.84)

Mm-hmm.

Gina Calderone (05:44.374)

They know they didn't listen to that voice. They know there was a voice inside of them that was wanting a change of some kind. I even talked about it with certain clients. We talked about these patterns. And they would say, I didn't do that. I didn't make that choice. I'm like, well, that's okay. You can now, you can now. And your body can shift really fast. It can do it. You can get out of the pain. You can get out of the diagnosis.

You've got to make the choice so it shifts the energy. And a lot of times, most people are just afraid and they don't make those choices. So I really encourage people to make those hard choices that you got to do, confront it. Most times it's just confronting it and talking about it and addressing the situation and things shift and change exactly the way they're supposed to. It's not easy all the time, but just getting out is...

Leslie Field (06:39.708)

Mmm.

Gina Calderone (06:44.198)

is freeing for the body and the soul.

Leslie Field (06:46.507)

Yeah. Oh, so I guess I want to go back to some of the people that you've learned from that have really inspired you to work more energetically with the body because we know that you're a doctor of physical therapy. You know all about manipulating the body, working with the body. And like you said, there was this whole emotional component that you're like, wait a second, we've got to address this too. You can't just work on the body.

I would love to hear more about the people that have really inspired you and sort of a little bit about their work and how it's sort of like translated into your knowledge and what you're doing today.

Gina Calderone (07:25.738)

Yeah, I learned about energy medicine from Carolyn Mase. She is like a pioneer in the field of medical intuition. And she has been my greatest, greatest teacher. I still go and see her at workshops and I love what she has to say. And she is just absolutely brutally honest and truthful with people. And I really wanted to know like,

I think I went to a book signing of hers in 2005, somewhere around there. And what I, I sat in the audience and I just wanted to know how she knew what she knew. Like, how did she know why that person has cancer? Like, how does she know, like, how that person has that autoimmune disease? And like, she just like pulls it right down to the root. She nails it. I watched her, I took a two year course with her. And...

I saw her many times with people and she just nailed it. And she's like, okay, go do something with that. So what it's taught me about healing is that it's just honest truth. The more you get into the truth of what is, that is the healing. Somehow us humans are really good at just making up stories.

beliefs and pretending like we're happy and that can be stuffed from our traumas and we take on these other personas. And so when we get to the healing parts of it, I feel like I'm unwinding.

a lot of this persona that is not necessarily really them to bring them back into self. And I would say that is my study with Carolyn about archetypes. So I learned her sacred contracts course I was a part of and I learned about archetypes in there and what types of traits and characteristics make up a certain person. So most of the time when people have a diagnosis or pain.

Gina Calderone (09:32.93)

they really don't know who they are because they might have adopted some type of pattern or persona in their childhood growing up because of a parent and that's what their parent wanted them to be. So they became that and then it just, you know, strayed so far away from their true self. So it goes into that depth psychology and all the Jungian philosophy and self. So I've learned a lot from that. The movement that I correlate with that is Jyarutonic Method.

is a method that was created by Julio Horvath. And I love it because it works in a three-dimensional system. So it's not just forward, back, side to side. You're gonna work in spirals all the way around. So sometimes when people are in a lot of pain, but they're really buttoned up and they can't say much, I would just get them on the equipment and we'd start.

arching and curling and it's just really awkward for them. They don't know how to move very well because that story is really tight in the tissues. And so I'd use that method to help them physically unwind and then kind of blend the medical intuition. Carolyn said that, you know, our intuition is a muscle. You have to use it. And so even to this day with kids that I know are highly sensitive.

Their intuition is not as sharpened as it needs to be, but the energy is coming in so powerfully, which looks a little bit like ADHD, looks a little bit like autism. That's a whole different story. But then I'll teach them intuition. I'll play games and be like, okay, what am I thinking? One to 10, what number am I thinking right now? Tell me the number. And we'll just play these kinds of games to start connecting. If I look at you, what am I thinking?

Um, you know, I think since college, I read books, um, Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anadea Judith, um, Donna Eden, Energy Medicine, Norm Shealy.

Gina Calderone (11:43.522)

These are people that have been teaching energy medicine for quite a while. So I've read a lot of their books and learned that energy is the intersection of physical and emotional health. We have to look at the energy.

Leslie Field (11:58.855)

Hmm. Sidebar, I didn't share this with Gina, but I was part of a medical intuitive study, um, about a couple of weeks ago, I was invited, um, I'll have to give you the name if you're curious, she has a whole, a whole training Institute, uh, for medical intuitives. And, um, I just said, sure, I'll help. Cause I got a lot of systems in my body and organs that aren't going.

or living or the place I would like them to be, you know, the vitality and the function, right? And this medical intuitive, not only did she talk about like the function of what's going on with my thyroid. So I'm not still processing it at all, because I'm like, what? This is so fascinating. But she got into some very deep sort of personal things about my upbringing and my family life. And it felt a little too true to home, you know? Like, how would this person?

No idea who I am. All she had was my name, and I don't believe she even got it until the session. She doesn't know what I look like, so there was no photo of me. And to be able to say something to me that really hit home, that was like just, whoa, hit my body. Like, goodness me, this is pretty spectacular. And that day I was really struggling with my mood. I was in this very emotional state, and she wouldn't know I showed up to the Zoom call. She doesn't, but she does know.

And it was almost comical the amount of time she mentioned mood. I heard her mention the word mood like 15 times on this medical Twitter call. And she had no idea that I was in shambles that day. That my mood was all over the place and it was almost funny. I'm like, okay, I get it. So my thyroid is connected to the mood and all this other stuff is connected into the thyroid. I hear you. So anyway, I had to share that story because...

you know, it rings true in so many ways. It was that next level of healing and sort of processing, understanding reflection that I needed that hadn't been done yet. Right. And I believe it's, it's just that other piece that I need on my healing journey. Right.

Gina Calderone (13:59.35)

Mm-hmm.

Gina Calderone (14:07.11)

Yeah, it's an important piece. And along the way, meeting people who are struggling with pain and different kinds of diagnoses, I've met people who are very, very gifted healers. One of them actually struggled from migraines. And he was like a human x-ray machine, like a human MRI machine. I don't see the body that way. In ways I do, I kind of hear more. I think there's different senses that people...

use, I kind of hear and feel more than I see. And he saw color. He could see aura really like aura is really well. And some people can I, I choose not to see that. I don't, I don't want to see things like that. Um, I choose to feel in a different kind of a sense. Um, but sometimes I can see it in senses of color, but it's, um, I just don't pay attention to it too much. It isn't like something I'm trying to find. I just really let it come.

Leslie Field (14:59.396)

Absolutely.

Gina Calderone (15:06.094)

to me, but I think when we're really trying to work from a practitioner standpoint and sharpen our energetic skills, we just need to practice with people and feel.

Feel them.

kind of get confirmation from them what we're picking up.

Gina Calderone (15:39.334)

it helps us and guides us to where we're going. So now it's just, you know, again, it's 20 years later. I'm pretty good at it now. I've been doing it for a long time.

So I would say overall, like, Carolyn Mays has taught me how to understand.

Leslie Field (15:52.559)

I mean, absolutely.

Gina Calderone (16:01.862)

life experience and how we're draining our energy based off of our choices and how it's showing up in the body. And then I learned pranic healing from Master Ko, who is truly amazing and understands energy very well and color and entities and negative elementals and how it's in the body.

the bioelectric field that's like also there, which to me, it's more like a modality. So as a physical therapist, it helps to have certain kinds of modalities like that with craniosacral work, pranic healing, such as I mentioned, and being able to move the energy that way. But the work that I learned in medical intuition and sacred contracts,

and energy medicine is helping people understand why they're at where they're at and how they can make those shifts to feel free, improve their bodies, improve their lives.

Leslie Field (17:09.677)

Mmm, yes. It's...

Gina Calderone (17:11.178)

Yeah. But I would say as I come in as a physical therapist and you know, as they come in, I'm sorry, as a patient and I'm looking at their body, all I wanted to know was tell me what's wrong with your body and then I'll give you a reading. So that's kind of how it manifested all these years into a method.

Leslie Field (17:33.899)

Yeah, I remember when we first spoke, you said that you had seen so many patients who had done therapy, and I'm assuming talk therapy, some sort of cognitive behavioral therapy, versus, you know, and it just versus the physical therapy, because that's where they're coming to you for the physical therapy, which I find so interesting that, you know, I personally know the power of talking, but I also know the need.

Gina Calderone (17:42.134)

Yeah.

Gina Calderone (17:52.301)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (17:59.639)

the body to get involved, right? And there's different ways that it can get involved. I know you mentioned that, but I just thought it's so interesting that here you were like, they've done all the talking, maybe, maybe they haven't, but a lot of people had, yet these, these things still lingered in the body, which I think is so fascinating.

Gina Calderone (18:19.122)

Yeah, it was one person after another that would come in and I thought like they have these emotional issues that are going on and these problems in their lives like we all do and they knew all of it. They knew all their problems. And so then, you know, years ago I was like, what am I going to do about it? And so that's where I thought, well, hmm, could that emotional problem cause that physical issue?

And I just started like pulling and placing it on the body. And I did, and I like took, I call them like little sticky notes and put them up on a wall. And I feel, they would tell me these stories and I just like put them up there. And when it came time, I was like, oh. Usually when they come in, they have certain amount, they have a certain type of pain. But that isn't the root pain, it's the pain that they've straight away from. And there's an unwinding that typically has to happen. So.

we may unwind it in the third, fourth session, something like that, and then they come in and it's somewhere else, and they're like, oh, my hip's feeling better, but now my mid-back is killing me. And so I'm like, oh, that's sticky, no, oh, that goes from when you were 14. Okay, that's gonna go there. Okay, and then they come back in and it might go back to present time. And so I'm like, oh, okay, and then it might unwind itself all the way down to like, I was six years old when something happened.

You know, and it's like, oh, and that's, I can tell by the tone of the voice, usually the posture looks like somebody like sucker punched them and they're like, oh, they're just really deflated. And I'm like, that's it. That's the root. That's like the bottom of the barrel. That's where it's at. And that's where something went offline. The path detoured.

And then they either adopted some type of other persona to survive. They believed that they were no good, that they were not smart, that they had nothing going for them, and they began to self-destruct.

Gina Calderone (20:33.046)

and beyond. I mean, it goes on for many patterns and then it looks like a lot of different potential issues. So I'm usually trying to unwind to find that spot in someone's body. And most people will say, I wish I would have met you 20 years ago. I've heard that a lot. And so I usually say, it's okay, you're here now. It's all right. And so that's why now I've swung the pendulum the other way.

being a mom, having kids, my kids are teenagers now, but I'm like, this is so much easier if we're able to educate our kids and let them know if something happens, you can tell me, it's safe to tell me, and we can do something about it now. Because the longer a wound sits in the body, the more it just decays and it causes more problems.

Leslie Field (21:26.727)

Hmm.

Gina Calderone (21:30.218)

just creates a diagnosis and it just impedes our life and it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to. We can go in and course correct that, especially with a child, in one to three sessions. We can get rid of that and be done. Granted, they have a supportive parent. Granted, they feel loved. There's lots of factors and things.

Leslie Field (21:52.035)

Hmm. Well, I mean, absolutely. But you can see how and why people call you the body detective. Because like you said, that unwinding process, I think it's so interesting that you said the pain started here and then it went over there and then, and just keeping going and going deeper and deeper. It's, it's incredible. And something that I think about, especially in embodied movement, being a practitioner and now being a teacher is

I think about the things we carry with us. I was on a call this morning where two women were just reflecting about a time in their life that was really hard for them when they were moving from just having a child and then trying to work. They both, even though they're kids, like teenagers, like almost out of going to college, they both welled up with tears. And when I see moments like that, I go, oh, whoa, there's so much in there still. There's so much residue. Now, maybe it's not of the.

Gina Calderone (22:26.367)

Mm-hmm.

Gina Calderone (22:37.262)

Mm-hmm.

Leslie Field (22:50.767)

the full blown, like a traumatic experience, but it's still a wounding that they're carrying with them every day that they haven't totally like worked through or let go, right?

Gina Calderone (23:01.918)

Because I don't think that people can fathom that wound can stay there for so long and steer their life. I just don't, I mean, I remember being that until I was learning and in class and then my own personal journey. And it's like, you know, the fireworks go off. You're like, oh, wow. And it's just such a huge shift. Like I had a young father come in and he was suffering from anxiety.

and addiction and you know we're talking about like what happened in your life and sure he went through some childhood stuff more like neglect parents didn't really get along kinds of things and we were doing some body stuff and I noticed that his breathing was off he had a really tough time like kind of staying grounded in his body and you know I have him in a position where we're like curling and his head's curling up using his core.

And he's like, just so nonchalant. And he's like, yeah, when I was two, I, you know, I drowned and I fell in the pool and I'm all, wait, what? You did, what happened? And he's like, oh, I fell in the pool and I drowned. Did I not tell you? And I was like, no, you did not tell me. On my intake form, I ask for, you know, impactful events. What has happened in your life? I just straight out ask. And sometimes people can say.

they can write it down and sometimes people can't. It's really hard. And sometimes now I know people don't remember, they don't know and they just didn't realize it was a big deal. And so that event created a huge problem in his parents' marriage where, you know, there was probably a lot of blaming, anger, you know, why were you not watching, all this kind of stuff.

Meanwhile, how obviously he was saved and they got an ambulance, they got the paramedics there in time and he was okay.

Gina Calderone (25:11.318)

But to have that moment where you brush death is huge in the body and in the autonomic nervous system to reset, of course, the vagus nerve, to reset the brain, heart rate, breathing rate, gut, everything.

And I even asked myself for many years, do I have to really take people like right back to the moment? Like, do we have to go there? Because like, it's tough sometimes, you know? Like, I don't want to watch people go through that. I don't want to hear that. Like, it's sad. But it just naturally finds its way there. And being a healer is about holding space. And we hold this space. And it's just so beautiful, Leslie. It's so beautiful. I feel honored.

Leslie Field (25:42.032)

Yeah, yeah.

Leslie Field (25:47.871)

Mm-hmm. I don't know.

Gina Calderone (26:01.926)

and blessed to be able to witness people in these moments because at that particular moment, I just feel like soul to soul. Like I don't even feel like sometimes I'm in the flesh and it's just beautiful. And I just am so happy that I'm able to be there with someone and recall this moment and have them feel safe and redirect their life.

It feels, it's so sacred. It's sacred. I take my work very seriously.

Leslie Field (26:34.424)

It is.

It is. This is powerful, important work. And we all go through trials and tribulations in our life. I mean, I guess the question would be who doesn't have trauma? Really? It's a sad thing to say, but we all go through really hard things. Sometimes it's just too much for our system. And even listening. So I've been through some things in my life, you know? And I think it's always really fascinating because I have this mind that goes...

Gina Calderone (26:56.077)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (27:06.519)

Oh, that can't possibly, like I'm fine, right? The I'm fine mind, right? There's a part of the brain that convinces itself that, oh, I'm doing well, I overcame that. And in many ways you did. You're still here, you're still going, right? You're living life. What's so fascinating, what we're trying to get to the heart of is there's that wounding there that your conscious mind might not really be able to understand it, but we have people like Gina, these beautiful healers in the world who are saying,

Gina Calderone (27:12.983)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (27:36.539)

Hey, there's a lot more going on here in the body.

Gina Calderone (27:41.258)

Yeah. And that's why it's so important when people are young and understanding your children, knowing them, knowing when they've gone off and been at places and just paying attention to them and really honing in if something has changed within them. And asking yourself as a mother, as a parent, hmm, are they okay? What happened?

Like, are they not telling me something? Did something happen that I'm not aware of? And because their entire personality changed, their persona changed, they're reaching for different things, they're making bad choices. Like, are they afraid to tell me, you know, what could have happened and why it's so important to pay attention when we can and do little check-ins here and there and be like, okay, kids are okay.

kids are okay. But as adults, you know, we have rent and mortgages to pay. We have, we have bills, we got to go to school or we got to go to work. We have two or three jobs, whatever it might be. You don't have time to deal with your trauma. You don't have time to deal with it. And what are the little ways that we can? And I would suggest that, that it's just little ways. Like just read.

Leslie Field (28:59.721)

Yeah.

Gina Calderone (29:09.522)

understand a little bit. And when the time comes and you can make it to a class or make it to a retreat or do some body work and start opening, be with people who can, I never like to leave somebody feeling low when they leave. So I really try to work with the energy to help them lift so they can carry on.

Right? Like it's really important to be able to walk out of here and you're like, got to turn it on and I got to go, go do my stuff. I got to go live life. I got to get, you know, I got to go work with people. I mean, it's, it can be tough at times. Um, but it's important. It's important that we do, that we do this work.

Leslie Field (29:38.937)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (29:46.907)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Leslie Field (30:02.659)

Absolutely. We have to tend to ourselves. I heard someone say that we have an emotion phobic culture. I'm like, ah, you could say that again. Or just not even having an emotion phobic culture. Emotion phobic culture, right? Or maybe just not even having a understanding or a fluency or speaking the language of emotion. I know that might be how I was raised.

Gina Calderone (30:13.238)

We have what culture?

Gina Calderone (30:18.304)

Oh, yeah, that's true.

Leslie Field (30:32.064)

We only feel these ones. These ones down here we ignore. Right?

Gina Calderone (30:34.234)

I know, I mean, probably wasn't it a, it was just a generational thing. Nobody had time for feelings. They were buckling up their bootstraps and going to work and trying to create a home and an environment if they could. It's just now that we have been hit with.

so many emotions and the mind is for thoughts, the body is for feelings, and then we have to emote, we have to express. And I just don't think life was slow enough to figure all of that out. Now we know when there's a mental health crisis, there's a lot of stuff stuck in the body. So as we move forward, there's a lot of changes that have to be done in our Western medical model.

Leslie Field (31:33.223)

You can say that again. Gosh, what I think about is, like you said, how do we find time to really tap in or to get curious? And I get it, it's just, it's not an easy thing. It's, but it's kind of like, what's the alternative? You don't do it, you know? These are, it can get dicey, get a bit scary, like you said, things can go deeper in.

talked about with me, the issues and the tissues. And if that's not being dealt with, it's gonna go deeper, it's gonna get bigger, it's gonna go further into a deeper sort of place.

Gina Calderone (32:14.685)

It goes deeper.

Gina Calderone (32:19.018)

Yeah, it goes, it gets bigger, it goes deeper, it starts taking energy away from the organs, creates disease. That's why I thought as physical therapists, since we deal with muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, that is the skeletal structure is the protector for our vital organs. So we should be the ones that.

are on the front lines of primary care when people have chronic pain, that we need to understand the emotional components. I don't believe we know that as a profession. I actually sent off an article to the American Physical Therapy Association and they just weren't ready for it yet.

Gina Calderone (33:11.582)

I think we're on the horizon. We'll get there. At least I'll try.

Leslie Field (33:14.363)

We're getting there little by little. We need you. We need this sort of information and we need to be thinking differently about how things manifest. It's just, I don't have words, so important. I think it's also interesting when you talked to me the other day, you were saying how that trauma follows the back of the body.

Gina Calderone (33:18.824)

I'll try. I'll keep trying.

Leslie Field (33:40.235)

I don't know, I just thought that was maybe interesting for you to speak more about what does that mean? Tell me more about that.

Gina Calderone (33:49.398)

Yeah. Trauma in the back line of the body. Where I pulled this together was the polyvagal theory. There's the dorsal branches of the vagus nerve and with which you can carry the trauma. And it made sense to me because I noticed that when people came in and they had gone through significant impactful moments in their life, their

shoulders were forward, head forward, slumped back, tail tucked, and they just kind of held their body in this stuck position. And so when we would do some work, I'm trying to expand it. I'm trying to open the chest. I'm trying to lift the head, trying to connect the core so the pelvis opens.

you know, all the wounding was in there. They didn't even feel worthy of being in that position. Like I would actually move them in the position, have them stand up, and then I would have them look over into the side, into the mirror, and they're like, wow, whoa. And they would put themselves back into the position of disempowerment. They're like, no, no. Like, and you can tell that there's a story there still. There's a story that hasn't come to the consciousness yet. So it made sense to me that the back line drew. Poor posture.

because when we're feeling good about ourselves, our head is high, we feel good. Like our chest is open, our heart is open, we feel strong, we feel empowered, we feel confident and we walk with ease. It isn't as painful. So that kind of, with the theory of the polyvagal.

the theory and the vagus nerve, it made sense why I was constantly trying to disengage the back line of the body and even having the, it's like positional related, so I'd have them flip over on their stomach and have all the energy and the weight into the front part of the body so that they could lighten up the back side of the body. So I'll do exercises where they're on a rocker board.

Gina Calderone (36:10.286)

So they'll rock forward, rock back, and almost always flying back. Well, all their weight's in the back line of the body. So I'll have them like try to find, this is now working with the interoception, and proprioception, right? So like the six, the eight senses of the body. So you're trying to find yourself in space. So you don't even realize when you get on this rocker board, you're gonna fly back.

I know why you're flying back. So I'm going to have you stand on there and I'm going to have you just lean slightly to the front. And they're like, that's a new neural pattern. They've never been there before. Whoa, that's different. I'm not connected with that really well. That's the empowerment is the front piece. So then where this idea also came from is that I would, you know, I have a background in Pilates. So I found that shoulder pain, ankle pain, knee pain, hip pain, whatever it was, I was always going back to the core.

I was always going back to the mid back localized area and always going back to teach them how to fire the core muscles. And almost everyone didn't know how to do it properly. And I thought, isn't this interesting? So then I helped them fire those muscles in that region of the energy centers is the center of feeling. And then they would start talking and they're like, this happened to me or this is going on in my life. And I thought, isn't that interesting? And so,

typically most of the time when I work with somebody, I'll usually end up firing up that area of the lower abdominals to give them power. When people have been stripped of their power, they need their power back. So I'm trying to help them find it again.

Leslie Field (37:56.987)

Hmm. Oh, wow. Wow. Well, is this, I'm just laughing too. I had this, felt compelled this morning that I had to do a Pilates class, which is usually what I would not be doing on a Wednesday. So I feel like it was in preparation for this conversation today because my goodness, if you've never done a Pilates class, I'm doing reformer Pilates. I know there's mat Pilates. If you've never done a Pilates class, by goodness.

Gina Calderone (38:11.566)

Thanks for watching!

Leslie Field (38:24.219)

The way that it can really just tap into your core, this is a sidebar, it's always mystifying to me. I was laughing with my trainer the other day, like when you do weights or like planking or whatever, it's really great, but it feels like the bigger muscles are impacted. When you do Pilates, you have so many more connections and pieces and striation of that muscle in all these different areas that you probably didn't even know existed. So this is a plug for Pilates right now.

Gina Calderone (38:38.616)

BAM

Gina Calderone (38:51.41)

It is, it's a subtlety. I mean, I met people that would come in and they were doing Pilates and they're just, you know, trying, it's not a plate, it's not a 45 pound plate, you know, it's like three resistance springs. And it's just not that heavy. And I'm like, oh, you're not doing it right. And then as you know, that feeling of switching from doing squats to footwork on the reformer.

Leslie Field (38:54.097)

Yes.

Leslie Field (39:02.715)

Yeah. Springs, yeah.

Gina Calderone (39:18.566)

I mean, it's night and day, but it's something you have to sink into and understand where you're pushing from and how to find those places inside your body. So it really does allow you to go deeper. And so when I would be people that are like, place is easy. Like I just don't get it. I'm like, then you should be there.

Leslie Field (39:29.334)

Mm-hmm.

Leslie Field (39:36.071)

Oh, I couldn't agree more because I'm always humble when I step in there. I'm like, I have a pretty strong core. I could do plants for a long time. Yada, yada, yada. And then I go in there and I'm like, oh, I've never felt that before. Like, what is that? Yes, yeah.

Gina Calderone (39:48.03)

No, it'll make you sweat if you're doing it right. And when I would work with, you know, men that are really strong, but they had back pain and I didn't have the equipment, I would typically put them in one of the most hardest positions of Pilates because I knew that their brain and ego needed it. And so I do it and they're like trying so hard. They're like, oh, my God. And they know that it's only like.

Leslie Field (40:09.863)

Mmm.

Gina Calderone (40:17.678)

two springs, like how are these springs holding me up? Or like, how is this so hard? And I would almost work backwards. So then I would try to get them into their body, into the lightness of their body and where they needed to find that vulnerability and that humility inside the body. And it's a beautiful journey. It's tough though, like you don't wanna do that on, you know, on a stage. Like you don't wanna do that in a class with people. So it's always like real private in our office where it's real safe, where you can like.

You can sweat with two springs, it's okay here. You know, and then they're end up telling me all about their life and it's a beautiful thing. So, it's good. It's good.

Leslie Field (40:49.792)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (40:55.591)

Goodness, wow. That's so funny, as I was just in my Pilates class this morning, so I hear you. Now, I know that you're doing some new things and developing some new things. It's still very cryptic and strange, but I'm really excited about it because right before we got this call, I watched Gina grab this amazing chart from behind her. I thought, oh, this must be one of Caroline's

Gina Calderone (41:03.722)

Yeah, it's so fun.

Leslie Field (41:26.472)

my sister's chart, I'm sorry, her last name, you know, I was like, that must be her chart. And Gina's like, no, this is my chart. But I'm like, what? So tell me about all the work that you're doing now.

Gina Calderone (41:33.122)

Ha ha ha!

Gina Calderone (41:39.166)

Yeah, I am putting together a textbook. I want to teach in the biomedical pathways in high school. I'd love to go teach over at the college nearby in the physical therapy department, kinesiology department. And I wanna teach physio-energetic anatomy. And so it's going to basically teach you how your life experiences have deposited into your physical body and what these symptoms are telling you. And...

how you can make these small little changes now that really help us in the healthcare world with prevention instead of waiting so long and then they become really big problems that usually take drastic measures to try to heal. And it's just, it's a painful process when people get a big diagnosis and they have to go through the medical journey.

Leslie Field (42:28.943)

Mm-hmm.

Gina Calderone (42:31.382)

But if we just stay up with it a little bit, so we like learn a little bit about ourselves, we deepen the spiritual aspects of ourselves, we learn a lot more and it's, it's makes life a lot more fun and you can start thriving in different ways and accomplish dreams and hold great space for your, for your kids and help them find their dreams. But that's one aspect of textbook. I have another.

a book that I'm also writing about generational trauma with a friend. And I am trying to get an institute up and running where we will conduct research on our clients that are coming through the door so we can look at the emotional aspects, what's going on in their life, and we can look at the physical outcomes. Because I hope in 10 years, especially in 20 years, we will have lots and lots of data.

for what types of events happen in our lives specifically and where they possibly show up in the body. I would love to leave that legacy in my life.

Leslie Field (43:40.067)

You're already starting it right now. It's already happening.

Gina Calderone (43:42.598)

I know. I know. I know. It's, it's been such a journey. It's really cool. It's, it's beautiful. When I even look around my office and think of the things that I created, it's, it was just honestly curiosity. I was just really excited about it. And I saw things happening and just took a different path. I didn't, I literally remember like hanging up my white coat from the healthcare world and be like, I'm gonna hang this up for a second.

I'm going to go over here. I'm going to go research some other things. And now I feel like I'm coming back. I want to put the coat back on, but I want to teach you all that I've learned.

Leslie Field (44:26.019)

Wow, and Gina does a...

Gina Calderone (44:26.75)

and feel comfortable about it, because I wouldn't have felt comfortable about it before.

Leslie Field (44:31.031)

Well, no, but I mean, it's because your curiosity kept driving you to these places. You know, you were physically working with bodies and saying, these manipulations, these changes that I'm making to their body physically, it's not sticking or it's not like, so it's, you've walked this path and then you had to keep asking the questions because you weren't probably getting the results you wanted. The people weren't getting the results they wanted. And so here you are. And

I'm assuming a lot of our listeners are people who themselves have had a pretty long journey with like a medical illness of some description or something they're managing in their body. And you know, often we find, at least I can speak from my perspective, is that our conventional medical system as it's set up in our Western United States place, it's just not equipped to do the deep healing that I know I needed.

Gina Calderone (45:09.591)

Yeah.

Leslie Field (45:25.323)

and I know other people's know they need. And it was like a waking up process to me only a couple of years ago that I said, oh wait, all these medications aren't actually gonna heal me. Like this is just managing my symptoms and trying to get my body back into balance and just throwing a lot of medications at it. That was a big like eye-opener for me.

Gina Calderone (45:48.678)

It is, you know, there is a whole entire world of pain management. And I got to the place of questioning, why do we just manage pain? Like, why don't we heal pain? And so that's my big tagline is adding healing to healthcare, healing to healthcare, we need healing. And at this moment, you know, people have to really make that choice themselves that they wanted on the healing journey.

because I'm not sure if you're a medical doctor that prescribes what they know is going to help you with that. But luckily now, there are so many amazing people and coaches and podcasts like yours and that are teaching people how to start to tap in and how to do the work. And the best thing, the biggest thing you can do is just make that choice to start looking at it and learning about it, reading books.

Leslie Field (46:38.661)

Mm-hmm.

Gina Calderone (46:42.527)

watch YouTube videos. I mean there's brilliant information out there available now, so people can do it.

Leslie Field (46:48.763)

Yeah. I think that's such a great place to maybe close on because I know for me, I have a lot of systems in my body and things and organs that are just, again, not working how I would like them to be in my perfect world. And I can totally identify with it. It can feel like a very daunting task. Where do I start? Because we know if you have one autoimmune disease, odds are you're going to have more, right? But I think what...

we wanted to get across in this conversation, not just about energy medicine, but like you said, like small little things, get some information, try something. And then using that intuition, I feel to guide you, do you think this might be a good support for you? Give it a try, maybe it's not, then try something else, but just trying.

Gina Calderone (47:24.61)

Mm-hmm.

Gina Calderone (47:30.495)

Yes.

Gina Calderone (47:37.982)

Yeah, just trying. And one of the first questions I'll ask my new clients when they walk in is if your pain has a voice, what would it say? And many people have a hard time answering that question because they're really in their head and that rational, like, my pain has a voice? Like, I don't even know what that means. And I'm like, ah, that's where we need to go. And so...

Leslie Field (48:01.423)

Yeah.

Gina Calderone (48:06.222)

grab some paper, journal, and a pen, and maybe I'll have them do a little bubble bath at first, and put paint in the center, whatever that paint might be. Maybe it's back pain, and then draw little lines out the side and just write words at first. You know, and some people are, come in and they're super poetic and they just write all of this fluffy, fluffy stuff. I'm like, oh, okay, we gotta tighten that up. So it's, you know, it's just the way we adapt.

It's beautiful. It's great. I mean, that's how we survive. And even with our addictions, people survive. That's how they're surviving. That's how they're doing what they're doing. And there's no shame in any of it. It's what we do to survive. And then there are ways that we can empower ourselves and we don't have to reach for those things. And we don't have to live in pain. And we don't have to take all of that medication. We can start to make some choices that will... But you don't slow. You don't have to do it fast.

Leslie Field (48:39.131)

Right.

Leslie Field (49:03.344)

Yeah.

Gina Calderone (49:06.358)

The universe will support you on that choice.

Leslie Field (49:10.627)

Yeah. Oh, wow. Powerful, beautiful words. Just such a pleasure having you, Gina. Thank you so much being here for being here today.

Gina Calderone (49:20.802)

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. I really enjoyed this conversation with you.

Leslie Field (49:26.003)

Gina, before you go, I forgot to mention, how can people find you if they want to reach out to you?

Gina Calderone (49:32.006)

You can find me on Instagram, Dr. Gina Calderon is my handle. Our website is cforcestudio.com. You'll find a lot of me there. And if you want to email, it's gina at cforcestudio.com.

Leslie Field (49:50.019)

Wonderful, and I will link all of that into the show notes. Thank you, Gina.

Gina Calderone (49:55.106)

Thank you. Bye.