Diving in deep with Christabeth

For your reading pleasure: here is an interview CLINIC did with one of our newer practitioners, Christabeth Ingold. A good chance to dive deeper into one of our fascinating practitioners!

CLINIC Alternative Medicines: Tell us more about the shape of your practice and business.

Christabeth Ingold: I started my practice June 15, 2010 and it’s been a love story ever since! I just joined CLINIC in April of this year. The story of my business is first linked to the story of my life, as many people can probably relate to: 

My whole life all I wanted to do was help people heal. Fast forward to early adulthood and I had been in both undergrad and grad school on my way to become a licensed mental health counselor specializing in expressive therapy. 

Some of my own inner wounds surfaced pretty fiercely causing me a lot of anxiety. Knowing I could heal myself holistically, I luckily got in with an amazing therapist that worked with energy and from a holistic lens. She opened my world more to yoga, meditation, energy work, intuitive eating, herbs, spirituality, and so much more. Through our work I learned how dang porous and sensitive I am to energy around me. THIS is the moment things took off for me. 

At some point, a part of my healing was actually leaving my grad program. It was the most clear decision…one of those decisions that once it popped up that it could be a choice my whole being said YES and I literally left that week.

So, now what?? I kept diving into energy work because I loved it so much, responded so well to it (energy work is my therapy lol), and saw how it impacted others. After becoming a reiki practitioner, I started receiving messages while in session. As I shared what came through with my clients, it was all so right on that I was like “ok, this is a real thing”, and I let myself surrender to spirit–or whatever language you want to use- and channeling really is at the core of what I do. 

Soulfully Nourishing [Christabeth’s business] is the result of taking ownership of myself as a healer. 

I’ve always worked for myself and have had office spaces in different locations as my life evolved. I’ve worked from home, had space in Arlington, Andover, Cambridge, Somerville, Easthampton, and now Northampton. Most of my services are virtual so I have clients local to me as well as farther away. I also take my services on the road and have held a retreat in Hawaii, have done tons of workshops locally and virtually, and regularly visit Vermont and north of Boston. 

After completing my holistic massage therapy program at Spa Tech Institute in 2018, I was a contractor at Boston Chair Massage until 2020.

CAM: What is distinctive about the way you practice?

CI: I can’t tell you how many times I receive feedback on my skill level of holding space. This is so important, because the work can happen on a deeper level when the space is welcoming for all of a person and what they are bringing–and having every part of them heard and honored. 

Also, the modalites I offer literally serve the mind, the body, and the Soul.

CAM: What do you like best about your modality/ the work you do?

CI: Oh that’s a hard one lol! It feels really magical–all of it. I love being a part of a process where I get to help someone come back home to themselves. The lights are already on within them, I just happen to help hold the map to get back home. Once those lights are remembered, they now have come back home again within themselves. 

I see the body as a portal to access the other parts of ourselves and massage work helps do that. I see readings as the bridge between understanding our human experiences/selves and Soul perspectives. I see astrology as the blueprint or road map that our Higher Selves have sent us here with to help us navigate our lives. 

CAM: What do you like best about your clients? Or, who do you most like to work with?

CI: I love working with people who are curious and committed to the work, EVEN if there’s resistance or fear. The first step is showing up and holding that resistance or fear, THEN the work can happen. From there, I love witnessing the relief, the ah-ha moments, clarity, healing, love, freedom and everything else they experience BECAUSE they are committed to their process. 

I also love working work queer, trans, and female identified folx. As a queer woman, it feels important to me to be in space with these folx. 

CAM: What do you like best about your business?

CI: Easy: EVERYTHING. Really–I am beyond grateful the universe kicked me onto the fast track back when I was working through those wounds (I mean…there’s always another layer;). It’s become clear that THIS is where I get to affect change, and I get to do it in an incredibly expansive, free way. I am the boss of me and I love it–it must be all that Sagittarian and Uranian influence in my chart;) 

CAM: Is there something you’ve been reflecting on in your work lately?

CI: I love reflecting on how much the body holds the stories and experiences of our lives, the lives of our ancestors, and other lives we have experienced (if that’s a belief you hold). Some stories are beautiful and want to bring strength through us, and some are ready to heal so we can come home more fully and freely  to ourselves. Also, grief. How it shows up differently in each of our systems, and how this work has the ability to hold it all with love.

CAM: What’s your favorite self care practice? 

CI: Gosh, there’s lots and they change! My favorite one for a few years now is taking sacred showers, which is really about being intentional. I acknowledge as simple as a shower might sound, I hold privilege in this practice. May this inspire your own practice to create what feels good for you: 

I love ambiance, so no matter the time of day the only light I use is candlelight. Sometimes I listen to music, sometimes silence is the medicine. I use a skin brush before I shower, and honor the water I have access to and thank it. Shampooing first to give myself a good scalp massage helps relieve stress and open me up to clearing energy. I love the different body scrubs by Firme Arte and will pick one depending on what I need that day (I’m growing a collection lol), and from feet to neck will use this. These really help shift my energy and after kin brushing is another element to outer and inner body care. Afterwards I use a body oil that I get made seasonally and personally from a friend depending on what I feel I need energetically. Also, I use something called toning and light language while showering. Like music and sound, the vibration of singing also helps cleanse me and I notice my heart feels lighter.