Today we’d like to introduce you to David deBardelaben-Phillips.
Hi David, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I began my personal journey in the 90s while I was in college. I needed to learn to love myself as a gay man. I was fortunate to work with a counselor who helped me to understand that I was ok just as I am. Fast forward 18 years after college. I had been in a loving relationship for 16 years, but I was not happy. I couldn’t figure out what to do. I finally found the courage to say I deserve to be happy and ended my relationship. This began my next big transformation. I enrolled in a class on Powerful Presence and also decided I wanted to attend a spiritual retreat. I found a retreat being held in the Poconos with an emphasis on claiming your joy and happiness. Seemed appropriate so I went and had an enlightening experience. At the conclusion of the retreat another participant said to me, “You need to go to Easton Mountain and attend the retreat Living Full Out. It will change your life!”
Wow!!! He was right. Living Full Out was my first experience of a body-based therapy. It helped me to access deeply held emotions and to begin to tear down the walls I had built to protect myself. I wanted more. So, I did the retreat again and began to inquire with one of the facilitators about his training. Six months later, I was enrolled in school. I have been fortunate to have many amazing teachers at the Institute of Core Energetics as well as incredibly gifted facilitators and instruction at highly respected spiritual centers and institutions such as the Esalen Institute in CA, Omega, Easton Mountain, and Shalom Mountain in NY, Kirkwood Retreat Center in PA, and the Life Coach Training Institute in San Diego, CA. I have also been privileged to have experienced excellent teaching on energy at the Chagrin Valley Wellness Center, University Hospitals, and Ursuline College.
Today, I am excited and privileged to bring this amazing work to the Cleveland, OH, area through my private practice – Energetic Awakenings.
Many of my clients initially contact me and say…
- I want to be happy.
- I feel stuck and don’t know which way to turn.
- I’m tired of fighting with my family and friends.
- I’m depressed and have extreme anxiety.
- I’m tired of being alone.
Clients who work with me embark upon a personal transformation journey. Many of my clients state they learn to…
- Stand tall and proud
- Let go of the past
- Feel their energy and aliveness
- Discover their authentic self
- Love their selves
- Claim their power and their voice
EDUCATION / CREDENTIALS / HONORS
- Advanced Certified Core Energetics Practitioner, Institute of Core Energetics, New York, NY
- Master of Education, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
- Certified Exceptional Relationship Mentor, Center for Exceptional Relationships, Asheville, NC
- Certified Life Coach, Life Coaching Training Institute, San Diego, CA
- Reiki Master – Holy Fire Certification – Ursuline College, Cleveland, OH
- Reiki I & II, Chagrin Valley Wellness & University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH
- TRE (Trauma / Tension Relief Exercises) practitioner in training
- Eden Energy Medicine Basics – Ursuline College, Cleveland, OH
- Bachelors of Business Administration, Marshall University, Huntington, WV
- Teacher / Faculty Member, Institute of Core Energetics, New York, NY
- Racial Justice Facilitator, YWCA, Cleveland, OH
- LGBT Cultural Competency Trainer, Plexus, Cleveland, OH
- Amazon #1 Best Selling Author: Your Shift Matters: Breakdown to Breakthroughs
- 2020 Cleveland Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Executive Honoree
- Impact of a Core Energetics Process Group on LGBTQ+ Authenticity Research published in the INTERNATIONAL BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY JOURNAL Volume 20 Number 2 Fall/Winter 2021-2022
- Level 1 Clinical Training – Gottman Method Couples Training
- Certified Imago Relationship Facilitator (graduation Dec. 2023)
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road was not always easy because to do this work you must face your own demons and shadows. I am happy to say that doing that has brought me to a much more authentic place for of living.
I am blessed that along the way to being in private practice 100% that I had the opportunity to work with some non-profits in consulting roles that helped to provide income as I built the private practice. Very grateful for time spent with the Council of Smaller Enterprises, Plexus – LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, and Health Action Council.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Energetic Awakenings?
One of the things most unique about my practice is that I am currently the only Advanced Certified Core Energetics Practitioner in the state of Ohio.
Core Energetics is an evolutionary transformative and holistic healing process. Focus is placed on the balance and flow of energy between body, mind, emotions, and spirit. By combining bodywork, energy, and more traditional therapeutic counseling techniques, you are supported in achieving the life you want.
Creating Connections??
The vision is to invite you to a deeper experience and identification with your core energy and feelings. You become more conscious of your underlying defenses. Through movement, and other techniques, you become aware of how you block your energy and recreate defense patterns learned in childhood that today keep you limited and disempowered.
Much of the bodywork consists of breathwork and physical exercises designed to create awareness and to release energetic blocks or to charge and contain energy. Awareness alone is not enough; in order to make lasting changes you need to mobilize your life force energy differently.
Work with your body is critical to make sustainable changes because your belief systems, coping mechanisms, and emotional responses are not simply just psychological, they are somatic and powerfully anchored in your body.
The benefits of Core Energetics include:
Becoming more centered
Transforming negative distorted emotions
Becoming more real, joyful, and connected with all of life
Disentangling yourself from inherited blocks, ancestral restrictions, and childhood insecurities
Living your life fully.
As an Advanced Certified Core Energetics Practitioner, I will support you to feel all your feelings, feel your energy and aliveness, and to stand powerfully in all your truth in a self-responsible way.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My friend and colleague Patty Starr introduced me to alternative healing along the way and supported me on the journey to get certified. My friend and former coach Maia Beatty helped me to Step Into My Power.
The amazing faculty at the Institute of Core Energetics,
classmates and colleagues that supported me in the journey, including Clare Carr, Tristan Avery, and Tony Dubose just to name a few.
Pricing:
- 60 min individual sessions are 150
- 90 min individual sessions are 200
- 90-minute couples sessions are 225
Contact Info:
- Website: energeticawakenings.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/energetic.awakenings/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/energeticawakenings
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/energetic-awakenings/
