Compassionate Healthcare For True Transformation With Dr. Rabia J. Goodban

Humans, by nature, are creature of comforts. But sometimes we get so set in our beliefs that we just accept life as it is. However, everything that you personally go through is a gift for other people eventually when you master it. When you’re stepping into your purpose, you are able to help more people with that.

In these challenging times, your health and well-being need extra attention and support. In this interview with Debra Graugnard, Compassionate Healthcare specialist, Dr. Rabia J. Goodban, teaches you how to allow compassion to flow through your systems and carry you to a true transformation journey. Offering transformative healing for almost two decades, Dr. Rabia combines different alternative healing modalities in her practice, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, Sufi healing, shiatsu, Chinese medicine, and environmental medicine. With these tips that she shares to us, learn how to stay connected, grounded, and keep your breath and heart rate flowing steadily and fully to support your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.

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Compassionate Healthcare For True Transformation With Dr. Rabia J. Goodban

We have with us the beautiful and lovely Dr. Rabia J. Goodban. She is going to talk to us about Compassionate Healthcare for True Transformation. Rabia and I have originally scheduled this long ago and we settled on the title of Compassionate Healthcare for True Transformation because this is what she does and what she carries.

With all of the unrest, the protests, and everything we’ve had since then. We’ve had a virus and the lockdown. We’ve had the murder of George Floyd. We’ve had the protests and riots. We’ve had so much going on and we’re in the midst of this. It is important for our country and our world because on every front we have been living in a world that is not sustainable.

We have been trying as best as we can to keep going as if everything is okay, “We’re going to get through this.” Honestly, it’s been totally unsustainable. For many of us who are passionate about living a life of truth and integrity, and having a world of peace and one that we all want to live in, there’s no way that we could continue and keep pretending.

It’s ultimately a good thing that this has erupted in the way that it has because we’ve got to make space for change. We all have to show up and participate in that. Nobody is exempted. We can’t say, “My life’s been great. Therefore, I’m going to keep living as normal.” We’ve all got to show up and be present to what’s going on.

We’ve all got to commit to making the changes in ourselves that we need to make to create a world that we all want to live in. A world that is sustainable for our planet as well for humans and all of our humanity, all of the human beings, animal life, plant life, water, air, soil, or earth. For all of it.

I’m excited that Rabia is going to be here because she’s somebody that carries that passion and that expansive view as well. It comes through in everything that she does. What she’s going to share with us has taken a little bit of a shift from the original that we planned months ago.

She’s now going to give us some helpful tools and tips that we can use to keep us present and taking care of ourselves as we’re going through this huge transformation that needs to be happening.

I’m going to read her bio so you can know all the wonderful things that she does, and then I’m going to turn it over to her to guide us in her special way. Dr. Rabia J. Goodman is an acupuncturist, herbalist, clinical social worker, Sufi healer, and shiatsu therapist. She holds a doctorate in Chinese medicine and she specializes in environmental medicine.

Her focus is on supporting the transformative healing of deep-seated issues. She is passionate about empowering clients to optimize a healthy lifestyle for both themselves and the planet. She has been offering healing work professionally since 2001.

She is developing her own line of flower essences to support accelerated healing. In addition to sessions at her practice in Lakewood, Colorado, Rabia offers remote healing work. Welcome, Rabia.

Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here with you.

It’s wonderful to have you. Can you start out by telling us how you got to be in the profession that you’re in right now? As kids, unless you’ve been growing up with parents who were into the alternative world, it’s not something that we think of, “I’m going to go into alternative health.”

You’ve done a lot of different training and modalities that you brought together. Most of us hit that place because of not being able to find what we’re looking for in the world. We hit up against these mainstream systems that we’re all bucking up against. We don’t find the answers we’re looking for so we look for change. How did you get here?

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The person I would probably credit with my choice of career would be my mom to honor her, but also maybe to her chagrin because it’s not the stability of a mainstream profession in certain regards. There was a book by Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan.

There was this book about crystals and stones. I love to read and so I read those at a pretty young age. My sister got leukemia when I was fourteen and we did the conventional treatment, but we also did macrobiotics and imagery therapy.

We did chakra work with Shirley MacLaine and her chakra video back in the day. We’ve integrated the complementary medicine, as well as prayer, and that impacted me. For a while, I was interested in being a medical doctor and it shifted me in a different direction.

You had both the influence of your parents and your upbringing and the tragic experience of your sister’s battle with leukemia.

I felt the pull and the pressure to conform and to go the legitimate path. I remember one of my teachers in the MSW Program, I had done a report on alternative medicine. She did not think that was a good choice. It wasn’t very encouraging.

I practiced as a clinical social worker for a while. I was working for Lynx people with psychiatric and psychological support in the employee assistance program. I was asking them, “Have you tried yoga? Have you thought about St. John’s wort? Have you looked into other things to alleviate your discomfort?”

That was when I started feeling quite a bit of discomfort. I was never diagnosed with fibromyalgia but it felt like that kind of physical pain. That’s what got me into the shiatsu training, which I signed the contract for the program. It was a 550-hour program before I’d ever even taken a class. I was one of those where I was like, “This is what needs to happen.”

I want to back up to one of the words you used that stands out for me. You said you thought about going the legitimate route. Can you reflect on your use of the word legitimate versus the route you chose? This is important because this is what we’ve come up against in the system.

Some of the legitimacy has some dollar signs in it. Some of it has to do with what we also consider as real science.

It’s what’s accepted in our mainstream world. I want to take this opportunity to point out something that I feel is important not only for people who are seeking healing, physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual for whatever you’re going through, as well as the practitioners who have gone this alternative route, the natural route.

I’m going to tie this into what we’re dealing with within our world. We have been going along as best as we can trying to survive in a system that is not supportive of our natural way of being. Our natural way of being is one with nature, inclusive, love, compassion, and connection with each other.

The world that we have lived in has created all kinds of systems to divide us, and to put us into separation from nature, from each other and from ourselves. Part of this is divine orchestration and divine plan, but it’s also the system that we’ve been living in and trying to get by as best as we can, and trying to suffer through.

Whether we’re talking about race relations, which is a big issue. What also has been a big issue is the healthcare system, the justice system, the legal system, the financial system, the education system, the food system, all of it. Every one of us tries to say, “This is the world we live in.”

We take it for granted and we’re going to try to get by the best that we can, but it’s time to call BS on all of it. We’re seeing that now with the protests and people coming together. Hopefully, this time we will see real and lasting change. People are coming and banding together saying, “This isn’t right. We’re not going to accept this as a way of living anymore.”

SCS Dr. Rabia | Compassionate Healthcare — Compassionate Healthcare: Alternative healing modalities support the body in doing what it already knows how to do.

Hopefully, we see the change we need to see in the world. We need to see the same kinds of change. I don’t want to take away from that in any way, shape, or form, but we need to see the same kinds of reform in our medical system about what we consider legitimate and not legitimate.

The medical system does not treat people equally and fairly. I don’t want to speak ill of the entire thing because it does have its place and it does have some good but in a lot of ways, it hurts people more than it helps them. It discredits all these things we call alternative or natural remedies that could help and support people in their healing process.

It keeps it out of their reach and increases their suffering. This is another system that we’ve got to come up against and say no. The alternative world and all of the modalities that you’re bringing in are getting more and more credibility as more and more people are saying, “This helped me.”

I didn’t come into it knowing anything or giving any credibility or even knowledge of it in the way that I came up. I got sick. I went the medical route. I got sicker and then said, “There’s got to be a different way.” That was my discovery of it. I’m glad that you use the word legitimate versus not legitimate.

This is an opportunity for us all to take a look at what we consider as legitimate and not legitimate. Where we stop ourselves from getting what we need and giving credibility to the things that can help us because of those pictures in our minds and the system that we’re integrated into that says what’s legitimate and what’s not.

The intrinsic intelligence, the body knows how to heal itself. A lot of these modalities support the body in being able to do what it knows how to do. It’s an incredible machine. It’s an incredible technology and nutrition is such an important piece in that.

At this point, it’s not being taught or supported much in the mainstream. That trickles down and affects all different types of areas. It’s not just in the medical. It’s in agriculture and all these different sectors. A shift in one place might help it shift everywhere else.

My sense of you is that you have all of this knowledge, wisdom, and experience integrated into the totality of you. You’ve got this incredible tool bag with all of these things in it. How do you meet someone and figure out how to treat them and what to do?

One of the things I love about social work is the idea of meeting people where they’re at. One of my teachers who is a social worker shared motivational interviewing. It’s the idea that if I say, “You need to stop doing this behavior,” it only makes you want to stand firmer in it.

“You think I shouldn’t eat ice cream anymore? I’m going to get more of them now at the store. In fact, I’m leaving now so I can get extra.” If I say, “What are you interested in changing? What are you comfortable with?” “I eat pretty well. I get fast food twice a day every day.”

We’re not going to start talking about nutrition until you’re interested because otherwise, it’s violent. It’s in Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication where we’re supporting the being to shift as they’re ready.

We’re inspiring them but not forcing them, which isn’t always congruent with even sometimes the Chinese medicine model. We’ll tell people, “You need to eat this and you need to stop doing that.”

It may seem like a more passive way of supporting the individual but in the end, it is empowering. By this idea of partnering with the other, they get to realize how much power they have for their own health. It is a gift that once you have, no one can ever take that from you.

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In some ways, I feel like that’s one of the biggest things. It’s not an acupuncture point. It’s this mindset that gives people, “I get to decide. I can broaden it.” A lot of people I see already have that knowledge coming in, but not everyone does.

There’s so much information out there about, “You have to do this,” and then a conflicting totally opposite, “No, you have to do this,” or “No, you have to do that,” especially around nutrition and eating that people implode. I love what you say about meeting them where they are, finding out where they are, what they’re ready for, and what could be their next step.

Some of them want bodywork. Some of them don’t want bodywork. Some of them want to talk and some of them don’t want to talk. That is a nice toolbox to have because, “If you’re interested in going more the nutritional route, we can do that. If you want to go more, the esoteric energy route, we can do that.” It’s a lot of keys to play on the piano but it still feels like we can find a tune that fits.

With all that’s going on in our world, is there anything that you’re seeing more of or less of? Is there something that you want to share with the people who are struggling now?

I wouldn’t officially call myself an astrologist, but I also wouldn’t say that I don’t know a lot about it. Things that are going on astrologically and what’s going on societally is also what’s going on individually. It’s almost like these masks are coming off.

You think you’re going to open and clear out one closet, but all the closets in the entire house and in the garage are almost busting open and shooting everything out into the house. I feel like there’s a faster, almost like an acceleration, that’s going on for people like popcorn being ready to shift. That seems beautiful even though it doesn’t mean it’s always comfortable for people.

Change is often very uncomfortable. How do you help people or whatever you’re seeing with people in your practice through these times of necessary change even though it’s uncomfortable?

I feel like compassion is a word that gets thrown around. Sometimes it’s almost like it’s there but you can’t find it. It’s on the spice shelf but it’s like, “What does it taste like again?” It reminds me of water.

We’ve talked about the way the water can soften even the toughest stone over time. Its gentle flow will smooth it, no matter how rough it is. It could be shaped like the most terrifying dagger in it. It will soften. Modeling that for clients and showing them what that looks like.

Many of us don’t necessarily grow up understanding what compassion toward the self is. When we start practicing it as you and I both know very well know, it becomes almost like the best elixir. It’s the best medicine I’ve ever seen.

I know one of the things that you’re passionate about is self-compassion and teaching people self-compassion. You have some things that you want to share. Some practices you want to share with people that can meet us where we are in this moment and help to support us.

If I was feeling a struggle within myself, I’m not sure how to start giving myself that compassion. The first thing I would want to do is to check-in with my breathing. A lot of the time, the breathing is up in the upper lungs, not necessarily in the belly.

If we breathe from the belly, we allow the blood or our own internal ocean to flow more evenly throughout the tributaries and all the countries. The easy and even deep abdominal breathing, letting everything open and softens in terms of rooting into the ground.

The idea in Chinese medicine of the heart is the place where the compassion resides. It’s regarded as the emperor. It’s acknowledging the heart and going right to the heart. It’s not banging on the door and making them enter or they’ll let you enter, but banging on the door and saying, “I know you’re in there. If you like, I’ll be in the hallway waiting for you.”

Pressing on the pinky side of the inner arm near the wrist just medial to that tendon, you can find one point there that feels almost like you could go deep into the bone. It’s very nice and lets you sink in with your thumb.

That brings awareness and connection to the heart in a way that sometimes can be a little bit more palpable than trying to bow into something that not everyone always feels right away. Allowing the breathing to normalize so that it’s nice, even and deep.

If we can’t feel any compassion flowing, then maybe starting to list a few things that we feel grateful for. “I’m grateful that I can breathe deeply. I’m grateful that I still can talk.” I know that sounds silly but it doesn’t have to be big things. It can be things that we often take for granted.

“My digestive system is working well, that I can see, hear, taste and smell.” All of a sudden, it’s almost like that gives permission for compassion to flow. It’s always there. It’s almost like when people call in the angels, they’re ready. They want to be of service. We just need to ask for their assistance.

I’m feeling that as you’re speaking about it. Would it be okay with you if we back up into that and do that together with our audience?

Yeah. That would be lovely.

You started out talking about breathing, checking in with your breath, where’s your breath, and breathing into your belly. You’ve shared with me before about the physiological significance of breathing into the belly and what that does for the physical body.

Can you share a little bit about that before we start into the actual guided practice? To me, it’s another thing that turns on a light bulb that says, “Remember, it’s not woo-woo to do your breaths.” This is impacting the physical well-being of the body and everything that it impacts.

The diaphragm is almost like the tide and the way that it is moving up and down as we inhale if we allow ourselves to breathe deeply, then we’re allowing the aorta which is carrying so much blood, this waterfall or this very large tributary or I want to call it the ocean because, for all intents and purposes, it is where the majority of the blood is flowing.

Through using the diaphragm, we’re helping to regulate and support the optimal flow of blood. Not to go to a tangent, but this interesting notion with Corona about its potential effects on the blood. I find that fascinating that it would affect not just the respiratory system but also the circulatory system, the breath, and the flow.

It’s an interesting metaphor for the planet and also for the idea of the heart and the lungs that this is the chakra that this particular virus is affecting. Even though I know it’s systemic and it can affect lots of different systems but it’s still very interesting.

It is significant because I believe this is one of the ways that the Earth, the animals, the planet and everything is speaking to us. It gives us messages and signs about what we’re needing to change, what we’re needing to leave, and what we’re needing to move towards.

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It is significant and when you can tie it into how that impacts the physical well-being of the individual and how that mirrors the planet, the universe, and the larger meanings are very important, so please tangent away.

It is a very interesting cause and effect of how everything is playing out. As we focus on that easy, even deep abdominal breathing and pressing, someplace that feels soft like it needs a little bit of support with the thumb and allowing the compassion to flow.

Since it’s coming from the heart, it’s also flowing through the blood, it’s flowing through the water of our own system, which makes me also think about the memory of water. The way we’re imprinting in every part of our blood system.

Can you say more about the memory of water? What does that mean for you?

It’s very interesting because I know there’s been an attempt to debunk and make Masaru Emoto’s work look like it’s not legitimate.

I totally believe in it.

Flower essences and homeopathy are imprinting water in a different but still a similar mechanism. You can’t detect anything in that water and yet it is containing something very powerful. When we are allowing compassion to flow through the body, we are teaching our own water, which is 70% of us if we’re an adult and 90% some if we’re a baby.

That’s our new normal. This idea of returning to normal that is being discussed often in relationship to being able to return to business as usual or business as a new normal. I like more the idea of the new normal as being compassionate.

It is the original normal that so far in the distant past we’ve forgotten.

Some of the research on water says that it can remember. Even if it gets imprinted in a negative way, it can still come back to its original coherency. I don’t fully understand the science. There’s a lot that I don’t understand, but it doesn’t make it not true or not real. Just because we don’t have all of the scientific ways that these things work doesn’t make them not true.

We’ve both had highly impactful spiritual experiences with the unseen realms. It’s interesting because I’ve been in programs before that we want to base this in science. It’s like, “That’s fine and good and…”

We can’t let science negate our personal experiences and our intuition because they haven’t figured out how to explain it yet. Just because they haven’t figured out how to explain it in scientific terms yet, doesn’t mean it is not real and valuable.

There seem to be some attempts to prevent all of the science from being accessible. Pyramid power is an example. There are different ways that pyramids can be formed. They can be more thin and tall or wide and flat. They impact how the energy flows up into the heavens or down into the earth.

They’ve done studies on pyramids where it helps babies to heal when they put them inside them. There are a lot of other researches that we aren’t necessarily always privy to. That’s another topic for maybe another day.

I kept saying, “Guide us through,” and then I keep interrupting you. We want to start with belly breathes. I’m going to let you do it. The first thing you mentioned was letting the diaphragm move, focusing on the belly breaths and the flow of blood.

Even if we’re having trouble feeling the deep breathing in the abdomen, even allowing the legs to get involved. What do the legs have to do with the diaphragm or the breathing? Sometimes the consciousness can start to lift up, and so by feeling the feet, the toes, and the legs, then the breathing has a propensity to return some more of that abdominal breathing naturally.

I feel that. Everybody who’s reading, you’re invited to play along with this.

That idea of opening and softening the roots. We’re not trying to force them to open, but we’re allowing them to feel safe to connect. Even with everything that’s going on, it’s still safe for us to connect to the Earth. Maybe even by our connecting, we’re helping with some mutual relationship. We’re helping her, she’s helping us.

I don’t mean any pretense but I feel like it’s our birthright. That’s why we’re here or that’s part of why we’re here. I felt like there’s a way in which connecting is giving us an opportunity to learn and to teach in a way that I don’t fully understand, to be honest.

You studied Chinese medicine. I’m not knowledgeable of it but I hear some people talk about five-element acupuncture and we’re elements too. There’s a connection there.

I’m glad you brought that up because of this idea in Chinese medicine of the chi, the energy that’s allowing everything to feel like it’s flowing. When our emotions ease, the chi flows more easily. The saying is where the chi goes, the blood flows. As the emotions are feeling softer and safe, they’re flowing everywhere into the capillaries and all the micro-circulation.

The blood then is going to follow. All of the nourishment that the tendons, the muscles, the organs, and everything needs are much more accessible because the dams are up. The restriction can melt. In a lot of ways, you and I both have seen this in our work that the emotions are maybe one of the most important things in affecting health for better or worse.

I love the way that you tied it to blood flow and nourishment getting into the physical tissues and cells of the body. I’ve always believed that and instinctually felt that and here you are giving an explanation to that.

That is very important for us to recognize especially in this time when we need to be taking measures to keep our physical bodies healthy, as we’re going through such a stressful and emotionally constricted time.

We can use that visualization for health or we could use it for self-destruction in terms of imagining the worst-case scenario, all the fear, and all the worry, or we can empower ourselves for health, brilliance, and beauty. We do have a lot of power. That’s one of the biggest secrets that people don’t often realize.

I love that. Empower yourself for brilliance and beauty. I’ll put that as a mantra. I’ll make it a quote then I’ll attribute it to you, and I’m going to post it everywhere. I’m focusing on belly breath and blood flow, bringing attention to my toes, feet, and legs to help me be connected into my body, and let my breath brought down into my belly.

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We’re being with all of it. Whatever voices can come up because sometimes they can, it doesn’t matter. We’re just continuing. If someone’s yelling in the theater, the movie keeps playing anyway. We keep letting that flow and that breathing happen.

If it feels comfortable, even allowing the mind to balance the heart a little bit more and allowing the flow to deepen. It’s almost like the compassion starts to flow and then after a while it’s a raft that we get to get on and enjoy the ride.

I’m finding my body naturally wanting to move the shoulder and breath go over there.

Anything that doesn’t feel like it’s getting that flow naturally wants to come into greater coherency and more fulfilling alignment because it feels good and incredible.

It’s almost like I can hear it saying, “That looks good. I want to get in on that.” That point you were talking about on the wrist. I don’t mean to be jumping ahead. Can you tell us again where that is?

There’s a tendon on this pinky side on the inside of the arm. I could do more of the left because the heart is slightly on the left and I’ve had teachers say this that I’ve found it to be true. We’ve got three lobes of the lung on the right and we’ve got two lobes of the lung on the left and the heart is more on the left. We’ve got more heart channel on the left side and more lung channel on the right side.

Even though the channels are bilateral, in terms of accessing the actual chi, it’s a bit more right unless someone has their heart on the right, which I know can happen. Feeling down into the point that’s like, “It’s tense, that’s nice and soft.” It’s finding out that one point that feels bolstered by having the thumb be pressed in there gently.

I initially went for the place that was a little bit tense that felt a little bit of soreness, but you’re saying go for the place of ease.

In shiatsu, they talk about the Jitsu and the Kyo. The Kyo is soft. If you go into the soft and support it, then often the Jitsu, which is the hard or the tense, naturally softens. Instead of trying to hammer out the heart and push it and force it, we’ll just support the deficient and then the excess will level out.

The compassion piece, the one thing I like about it is it seems to soften even the places that feel terrifying. Even the places that feel like they’ve been there in eternity, no matter what it is. It feels like whatever comes up, that compassion can handle anything.

When they do those frequencies, different emotions, and their vibration, love and compassion are always right at the top. It trumps any other lower state of being. To me, that is the science or at least that’s part of the science.

It speaks to the power in the softness because we think of love and compassion as soft. As you say, the water that can smooth the most jagged of rocks.

It’s the power to bring your cat into the office while you’re doing an interview.

Mine is sitting right there. Sometimes she gets right here and walks on the keyboard, especially when I’m trying to hold a pressure point and breathe into my belly as I’m doing right now. They love it. The animals do respond when we go into these meditative states and things get flowing.

They are tuned into nature. They’re not of the human disconnect. When we start tapping in, they feel it. They’re like, “We’re in the flow. I’m going to come flow with you. How do we know how long to hold this place or where to go next and how do we come out of it?

In some ways, it feels like a drink for as long as you can until you feel full. In some ways, there’s a deep state of relaxation that’s like in a yoga class. It’s nice to bring yourself back into the present space if you feel like you’ve drifted off. Wiggling the fingers and toes, and slowly coming back into space. It’s not jarring because that can undo some of the kindness toward the self.

We want to maintain the kindness toward the self as we come back into our space and get ready to move out of this yummy space. That’s carrying the yummy space with us as we begin to mobilize.

We’re bringing it to ourselves and then to everyone we encounter.

You left us with some beautiful quotes and some beautiful words. I’m going to go back and pick them out and make them into quotables and memes because they’re awesome. Is there anything else that you want to share with us before we close? Do you have any last words?

I thank everyone who is taking the time to do this work with themselves because it does make a difference. It does impact the world. Everyone’s action toward healing themselves is tremendous.

What you’ve given us is a way to come into ourselves, our bodies, and our hearts with gentle compassion and flow, and reconnecting with that natural rhythm and the rhythms of nature, which is a beautiful gift.

If all of us could do that and all of us could carry that state as much as possible, it would dissolve so much of the separation and opposition that we experience in our world. That’s very valuable.

It starts with each one of us.

Is it okay if I tell people about your website in case they want to connect with you beyond this show?

That would be lovely.

The website is SublimeMedicineAndArts.wordpress.com. Thank you so much, Rabia, for the gifts you’ve given us. I’m in a much more peaceful space than when we started. I’m going carry this with me as I move into my state of doing beyond this. It’s always an honor and a pleasure to be with you.

To everyone who is reading, thank you so much. Have a wonderful and beautiful pleasant day with all of your brilliance and beauty. We’ll see you next time. If you want to connect with either of us, you know how to do that. You’ve got all the information at your hands. Thank you so much. Have a beautiful day.

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About Dr. Rabia J. Goodban

Dr. Rabia J. Goodban is an acupuncturist, herbalist, clinical social worker, Sufi healer, shiatsu therapist, holds a doctorate in Chinese medicine, and specializes in environmental medicine.

Her focus is on supporting transformative healing of deep-seated issues; she is passionate about empowering clients to optimize a healthy lifestyle for both themselves and the planet. She has been offering healing work professionally since 2001.

She is currently developing her own line of flower essences to support accelerated healing. In addition to sessions at her practice in Lakewood, Colorado, Rabia offers remote healing work.

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