What Does a Mind Body Spirit Release® Session Actually Feel Like?

 By: Cheryl Hensley

Master Mind Body Spirit Release® Practitioner, Director of Operations and Lead Instructor Mind Body Spirit Release® Academy, Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP), Reiki Master,

 ECR Practitioner 

One client walked in curious and uncertain. Here’s what she discovered and what it might mean for you.

Most people arrive at their first Mind Body Spirit Release® session the same way: curious, but not entirely sure what they’ve signed up for. That uncertainty is completely normal. Mind Body Spirit Release® doesn’t fit neatly into any box most of us have been handed; it isn’t therapy, it isn’t massage, it isn’t meditation. It’s something genuinely different.

One of our clients recently shared her experience with Cheryl Hensley, our Mind Body Spirit Release® Practitioner at Heights of Health. Her account offers a window into what a session actually involves and why, for so many people, it becomes the piece that finally makes everything else click.

What Was Actually Happening in That Room

To someone unfamiliar with somatic healing, parts of this account might sound abstract. But each step has a clear purpose rooted in how the nervous system and body actually work.

Setting an intention isn’t a ritual formality. It activates the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for conscious decision-making, and signals to the nervous system that this is a safe space for change. When we name what we want to shift, we begin to make the unconscious conscious. That is, quite literally, where healing starts.

Identifying blocks through muscle testing works because the body’s nervous system holds information the conscious mind doesn’t always have access to. Muscle testing acts as a biofeedback tool, allowing the practitioner to communicate directly with the body’s intelligence. It bypasses the analytical mind and surfaces what is actually stored.

Generational blocks are not a metaphor. Epigenetic research, including the landmark work of Dr. Rachel Yehuda at Mount Sinai, has shown that trauma leaves biological markers that can be passed down through family lines. Patterns inherited from parents and grandparents can quietly shape our stress responses, relationship dynamics, and beliefs about ourselves. Releasing them at the root doesn’t just benefit you; it interrupts the chain.

The body systems identified digestive, intestinal, energetic reflect something both modern science and ancient medicine have long understood: emotions don’t stay in the mind. The gut, in particular, houses roughly 100 million neurons and produces the majority of the body’s serotonin. It is exquisitely sensitive to emotional stress and one of the first places the body signals that something is unresolved.

“Awareness is required to make changes.” The simplest line in her account may also be the most important.

Why Healing Happens in Layers

Notice that she isn’t expecting one session to fix everything. That’s not a limitation of Mind Body Spirit Release®; it’s an honest reflection of how deep healing actually works.

The issues she’s working with have been present for years, possibly decades. They were laid down gradually  through repeated experiences, inherited patterns, moments that were never fully processed. Releasing them happens the same way: gradually, in layers, as the nervous system builds capacity to integrate what it was previously too overwhelmed to hold.

What’s significant is what happens between sessions. The mantras, the breathwork, the concepts to return to these aren’t homework in the traditional sense. They’re anchors. Small, consistent practices that reinforce the nervous system shifts that happened in the session, so that new patterns of thinking and feeling have a chance to take root before the next layer is addressed.

What You Can Expect From Your First Session

Every session is tailored to the individual; no two are identical. But based on the experience described above, here is what the arc of a first appointment generally looks like:

Who Is This For?

Mind Body Spirit Release® tends to resonate most deeply with people who recognize themselves in one or more of these:

• You’ve done the work, therapy, books, self-development  and still feel like something won’t shift
• You carry anxiety, chronic stress, or emotional patterns that seem to run on autopilot
• You have physical symptoms (digestive issues, chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disruption) that haven’t fully resolved through conventional approaches
• You sense that some of what you carry isn’t entirely yours; that it runs deeper than your own experience
• You’re highly sensitive and need a gentle approach that won’t feel overwhelming or retraumatizing
• You want to understand the ‘why’  to have what’s happening in your body explained in a way that makes sense

Our client came in uncertain. She left with clarity about what was held in her body, why it was there, and perhaps most importantly, tools she could actually use. That’s what a first Mind Body Spirit Release® session looks like. Not overwhelming. Not retraumatizing. Just a quiet, guided process of finally letting the body say what it’s been trying to say.

“None of it was time-consuming. The individualized tools she provided have helped me get back on track when I find myself slipping into old habits of thinking and feeling.”