Process Acupressure (PA) was developed by Aminah Raheem, Ph.D. as a holistic way to work with the active energy of both body and soul for healing and growth. She has taught the method internationally for more than forty years.

 “Process” is a working state wherein an individual deals with issues of the body, mind and spirit that are often buried in the unconscious. During a PA session an organic change often occurs as a result of creating a clearer, stronger flow of energy through the whole-being. The objective of process work is for the client to come to a more conscious understanding of themselves.

The session is given while the client rests on a massage table, fully clothed. The practitioner applies firm, gentle finger pressure to specific acupoint combinations, and encourages the client to notice what they are experiencing. Often, by acknowledging and addressing symptoms or signals that arise during a session, positive change can begin to occur. By following this natural process the unique essence of the individual is magnified and brought into clearer focus. The client is empowered to choose the pace and depth of this exploration at all times. A full session lasts about one hour.

Process Acupressure can stand alone as a therapeutic modality, or it can be combined with psychotherapy or other bodywork modalities. It does not replace medical care, and is not appropriate for severe medical problems or psychosis. Individuals receiving regular care from a mental health professional should check with their practitioner before attending a class or scheduling a session.

Process Acupressure is celebrated as one of the most effective tools for exploring the “whole-being.” Certified PA practitioners are skilled at empowering their clients to consciously integrate all parts of themselves—body, mind, emotions and spirit. The 300 hour Process Acupressure certification process includes coursework, sessions and mentor-reviewed practice. All certified practitioners pass a series of practical skills evaluations with senior members of the faculty. This is typically a four-year program, an extension can be requested, if needed.

Process Acupressure (PA) is a simple, yet profound, holistic method that combines traditional acupressure (to a fully-clothed body) with a process approach to consciousness. It facilitates healing and the natural growth process that arises from within the individual. Process skills are taught that facilitate clarity-in mind, emotions, and spirit. Soul centered development is emphasized. Although acupressure is a lifelong study, this course will empower you to work effectively with energy flow in the body including both meridians and chakras, toward greater balance. You will learn tools that give you confidence. PA can be used alone for self-help or easily given to another. It can also be combined with another body modality. For example, our work with the Great Central Channel strengthens the energetic pathway of the spine and is an excellent complement to Acupuncture, Chiropractic, CranioSacral Therapy, Massage Therapy, rehab modalities, and more.
In this course you will learn:

+ a simple but powerful acupressure method to balance body energy

+ how to combine bodywork with psychological-spiritual process skills

+ how to empower self and client toward greater understanding and responsibility for health and growth

+ to focus health and development in the most fundamental strength and wisdom of one’s own soul

+ how to use the skills on yourself to further your own growth

+ Chakra Tai Chi

Note: This is one of our two Foundation courses. The other is CA1:  Clinical Acupressure 1: Basic Applications. There are no pre-requisites for this class.

This 4-day course progresses process and acupressure skills. Practice with safely following and encouraging a person’s natural process, to promote greater health, the meaning of symptoms and life events. Deepen your confidence to recognize and follow the signals that arise during a session. Refine your skills as you go deeper into your own growth process. This course emphasizes soul work which includes life review and soul purpose. Advances basic PA protocol and Chakra Tai Chi.

Pre-requisite: PA1A: Foundations

This course relates body parts and symptoms to parts of the personality and psychological development. Uses the many acupressure protocols taught in Clinical Acupressure 1 to advance understanding of psychosomatic conditions. Links parts of the body to personality parts and explains their role in personality development. Teaches how to process and progress parts of the personality toward maturity. In this 4-day course, you will learn how to identify and dialogue with personality parts (subpersonalities), learn how parts of the body relate to personality parts and symptoms, learn how to update and transform personality parts to serve present needs, and practice many acupressure protocols from Clinical Acupressure 1 with peers.

Prerequisites: Foundation courses: CA1 and PA1A; and PA1B

Process Acupressure skills, the Clinical Acupressure basic protocol, and processing methods are used to address many present symptoms or obstructions that are rooted in childhood wounds or teachings. Healing—in body, mind and emotions—is emphasized over simply remembering trauma. The student will learn how to identify, discharge and heal those traumas through tissue release with loving touch. The inner child’s experience is validated and methods taught to re-pattern old obstructive thinking and behaviors.

Prerequisites: PA1A and PA1B

brings together previously accumulated PA and CA skills with leading edge contemporary psycho-spiritual design. Each day of the class will feature a special lecture, via video-conferencing, from the originator of Soul Lightening Acupressure, Dr. Aminah Raheem. These lectures will focus on the whole-being through the multi-dimensional hologram of energy and development in the 21st Century. The five elements of Chinese Taoist theory are reviewed in direct relationship with the environment around us and new bodywork protocols are given for each element. The twelve organ meridians are reviewed, along with an introduction to working with light consciousness.  A deeper exploration of the 12 Officials is a focus of this course, including how to access their wisdom during process work. Students find this course gives them confidence to work with the integrated and multi-dimensional perspective of an Advanced Soul Lightening practitioner.

Prerequisites:PA1A: Foundations, PA1B:  Progressing Process (Formerly:  Advanced PA1: Living in Soul), PA 2: Body and Personality Parts, CA 1: Basic Applications, CA 2: Meridians

Note: Anyone who has already taken PA3 may take it again for half price whether or not they have completed CA1 and CA2.

Process Acupressure 4: Transpersonal Integration is an advanced Soul Lightening Acupressure course. It utilizes the skilled touch method and the psycho/spiritual processing skills established in PA1A, PA1B, PA2 and PA3 courses. This intensive course focuses on the psycho/spiritual aspects of each of the 7 Chakras, the 8 Extraordinary Vessels, and the natural evolutionary development of the whole-being. Participants will explore a soul-guided personal experience and learn how to facilitate this awareness for their clients as they support the whole-being using Soul Lightening Acupressure. Participants will refine their understanding of Chakras and the Eight Extraordinary Vessels from a Soul Lightening Acupressure perspective, and explore their own experience of Transpersonal Consciousness. Participants will explore the nature of evolutionary development and consciousness of the whole-being, pre-heaven through post-heaven, and will learn to facilitate transpersonal consciousness with their clients using Soul Lightening Acupressure protocols for each chakra and each Extraordinary Vessel. Pre-requisites: PA1A, PA1B, PA2, CA1, CA2. Strongly recommended: PA3 and CA3, or permission from instructor.

The Basic Protocol and processing skills will be used to heal ancestral patterns that obstruct present life skills. Specific work focuses on healing ancestral patterns that have come down through ages (instead of individual instances) and reclaiming ancestral strengths that have not yet been owned. A soul-dominant segment focuses on soul relationships and soul purposes through ancestry.
Prerequisites: Foundation courses: CA1 and PA1A; and PA1B.

In this four day class, participants will explore their soul purpose: what gets in the way of actualizing it, what life learnings and insights help to uncover it, and what is their own unique soul purpose at this point in time.
This exploration will involve experiential creative processes and soul guided process acupressure sessions each day. Materials using astrological readings from Lyn Birbeck’s Mayan calendar and Jan Spiller’s book Astrology for the Soul are prepared specifically for each participant and provide a jumping off point for introspection into oneself. This class encourages a willingness to synthesize experiential and intuitive knowing with practical life applications and behavior, and to share this synthesis with others.
Required is the ability to work confidently with points and Soul Lightening formulas, and to access soul wisdom in acupressure sessions.
Prerequisites: PA Certification or PA Certification candidate with CA1, PA1A, PA1B and permission from the instructor

Aminah Raheem, Ph.D. is the originator of Soul Lightening® Acupressure. She developed the holistic methods of Process Acupressure and Clinical Acupressure after more than 20 years of study in various psychologies (including Process Work) and hands-on body modalities, along with 40 years of spiritual practice.
This work began with her development of Process Acupressure, which works through the body’s energy systems to assist conscious development and the realization of soul purpose. She is also the originator of Clinical Acupressure which specializes in the dynamic, multi-dimensional aspects of the human energy system but does not incorporate psycho-spiritual processing skills.

Dr. Raheem is the author of Soul Return: Integrating Body, Psyche and Spirit, a book at the forefront of defining the relationship of body and soul, and Soul Lightning: Awakening Soul Consciousness, which charts an individual and global path for reaching soul consciousness. Through her writing, we find models we can apply to our own lives that demonstrate how to complete the past and create a new life, woven from the stuff of our own souls. Her stories confirm that we, too, have had “soul lightenings” that can lead to soul consciousness. This book helps us to move along more confidently on our own soul journeys.
Dr. Raheem has worked for over 30 years with body/soul coherence, as a transpersonal psychologist, bodyworker and teacher. As a master teacher of psycho-spiritual development, Dr. Raheem has taught holistic theory and practice to bodyworkers and psychotherapists throughout the world. She was adjunct faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology for 10 years, and her courses can now be found at venues such as Esalen and the Upledger Institute.
In addition to earning her Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology, Dr. Raheem is also a Zero Balancer, Zero Balancing Teacher, and a Diplomate of Process Work. She is the Originator and Spiritual Director of Soul Lightening International.

Grace is an instructor of Clinical Acupressure through Soul Lightening Acupressure and maintains a busy private practice in Princeton, NJ. In addition to her Advanced Certification in Process Acupressure, she is a Reiki Master, an Integrated Energy Therapy Master Instructor, and has completed 6 levels of Tachyon Training Certification. She has served as an aquatic director and instructor, and was trained and certified by the YMCA. She is also a First Aid and CPR instructor. Her extensive training includes Neuro-muscular Therapy, Cranio Sacral Therapy, Bach Flower Essence Training, Touch for Health, and Zero Balancing.

CA Mentor Information for Missy Oleaga

Leah is an advanced level Process Acupressure instructor and mentor with Soul Lightening International. She was one of the charter teachers in the Soul Lightening Acupressure program, and has led courses in Clinical Acupressure, Process Acupressure, Advanced Process Acupressure, Ancestral Healing, and Inner Child Healing. Leah is also a Certified Movement Therapist, teaches the Alexander Technique, and lead courses for the Family Constellation work of Burt Hellinger. Her advanced training includes CranioSacral Therapy, Lymphatic Drainage, Visceral Manipulation, Fascial Mobilization, Process Acupressure, Clinical Acupressure, and an Intensive Human Dissection Course. Leah has had a therapeutic bodywork practice in New York City since 1983, and Leah was among the group of instructors that created the Seva Stress Release after September 11, 2001, and was instrumental in training other practitioners to provide this service (Seva) to the rescue workers and the people of New York City in the aftermath of 9/11.

PA Mentor Information for Leah Matalon

Cathy has many roles within the Soul Lightening International organization. She is a Process Acupressure and Clinical Acupressure instructor. She has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2005. She served as past-President and Program Director of SLI. Cathy is currently serving as Treasurer and a member of the Executive Board.  She is a Licensed Massage Therapist with additional diplomas and certifications in Asian Bodywork Therapy (NCCAOM), Process Acupressure, and Clinical Acupressure (SLI). In addition to her busy teaching schedule, Cathy maintains a full private practice at Crossings: a center for the Healing Traditions in Silver Spring, Maryland. She has also previously served as an affiliated practitioner at the Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Maryland, and at the Center for Integrative Medicine in Easton, Maryland. Ongoing outreach programs include working with military service members and their families through the Healingworks Restore and Renew Wellness Clinic at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, and the Acupressure for Anyone world outreach program through Soul Lightening International.

PA Mentor Information for Cathy Miller

Gina is a certified practitioner of Process Acupressure and Integrated Manual Therapy with a private practice in Holmdel, NJ. Until 2008 Gina served on the Board of Directors for Soul Lightening International as secretary and as the Director of Certification. She also served as a member of the Steering Committee from 2006-2007. She is an experienced instructor of many modalities including Process Acupressure, CranioSacral Therapy, Lymphatic System, Myofascial Release, Aging and Longevity, and Stress Management. Her teaching career has taken her to a variety of settings including the Arthritis Foundation of New Jersey, the American Cancer Society, the Visiting Nurse Association of Trenton, NJ, Rutgers University at the Monmouth Medical Center, at AT&T and at the Baxter Health Care Corporation. She has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, and is currently authoring her first book about the “Heart of Healing.”

PA Mentor Information for Regina Rosenthal

Alvina is an instructor and mentor of Clinical and Process Acupressure through Soul Lightening International. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist in private practice since 1991 in Naples, Florida (and New Jersey, occasionally). In addition to her Advanced Certification in Process Acupressure and Clinical Acupressure, her extensive training includes Shiatsu, Reiki, Reflexology, Cranio Sacral Therapy, Trager, Yoga, and a certification in Zero Balancing. Alvina is a member of the International Alliance of Healthcare Educators, the American Massage Therapy Association, the Zero Balancing Health Association, and Soul Lightening International.
Alvina helped to develop Soul Lightening’s Good Points for Self-Care Program and she teaches several one-day classes including The Immune Lymph Booster and The Women’s Health Protocol. She was in the first wave of teachers to use and to teach the SEVA Stress Release created after 9/11.

Alvina has been a regular presenter at The Florida State Massage Therapy Association (FSMTA) which allows her to present Dr. Aminah Raheem’s Chakra Tai Chi at their monthly meetings and publish articles related to acupressure in the monthly newsletter.

Alvina is the developer of Art of Holistic Massage (AOHMassage) which is offered online, webinar-style and live. It is based in Chinese Medicine which has been a tract for Alvina her whole life.

PA Mentor Information for Alvina Quatrano 

I love learning and teaching complementary and integrative health modalities for whole-being health. I have training in Occupational Therapy, Spiritual Direction, Zero Balancing and Soul Lightening Acupressure in addition to multiple other modalities. As an OT for over 35 years, I’m used to working with different learning styles and multi-sensory approaches which helps me break down activities and information into small bite-sized segments that are manageable for the learner. I love providing extra resources and tools for progressing students through the process of rote learning to understanding the material and eventually embodying the principles as you progress through certification.

My goal is to empower you as a learner and support the learning process while allowing you to work at the pace that best fits your internal and/or external motivation tendency.  I am comfortable with working in person (following current safety guidelines), via phone or Zoom calls. I can help you navigate technology if needed. I encourage regular contact (every 6 – 8 weeks) either through mentoring calls or study groups. I encourage all students to reach out to other faculty members and advanced practitioners for mentoring sessions to get a variety of feedback and information if possible.

I keep a folder of our interactions and your progress. I encourage you to also keep a folder or 3 ring binder of all information sent. I also keep email correspondence and prefer that way of sending written reports.  It is your responsibility to track your sessions and progress on completing all the requirements for self-sessions and sessions on others. Keeping a journal or bullet point list of the things you are learning about yourself is recommended. I don’t need to see the journal entries, but hope you use it to track your own soul progression.

 When we set up an appointment for a 1-hour phone consultation, I charge $65. I expect you to keep track of sending payments. There is not charge for occasional email correspondence or brief 5 to 10-minute calls. My current fees are $85 per hour for private sessions (phone or in person). I offer study groups ($20 each or 3 for $50) throughout the year, but still encourage a mentoring session occasionally.

I prefer you send self/others session reports via email a day or two before we meet for a mentoring session. I would like to see a combination of session reports on others and your own self sessions. I have some sample forms you can use to document these sessions if you need that structure. For those with learning challenges, we can discuss alternative ways for you to get these session reports documented. I would like to see a progression of your skills based on new classes you take and new skills learned, so try to spread the reports out over your entire certification process and don’t rush through them just to get a requirement checked off.

We can discuss ideas for your community service and special project in our mentoring calls. Please email progress reports and a final written summary when the project is complete. I encourage you to take classes with other faculty and consider some mentoring calls with other faculty for a well-rounded learning process.

5-10-21