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Seashell Therapy

Discover the Healing Power of the Sea

iUniverse

Introduction to Seashell Therapy

It all started with me as a child many years ago during one of our many family trips to the New Jersey Shore. I remember my father telling me that if you hold a seashell to your ear, you'll be able to hear the sounds of the ocean. You'll hear the echoes of waves crashing against the shore.

We went to the Jersey Shore almost every summer, for a one-week family vacation. During these times, we collected shells from the beach and visited many seashell shops, trying to locate special shells to add to our collection. My family, friends, and countless others have collected shells and listened to the ocean in the shells.

It is only now, as a psychotherapist, that I have come to realize that there is more to seashells than previously comprehended! The more you think about it, who would negate the oceanic-sound phenomenon surrounding the shells? Hearing ocean waves from the sea, by placing a seashell to your ear, always seemed to be a miracle to me. This wonder was implanted in my mind during childhood and never questioned. After all, seashells came from the sea, and therefore these amazing sounds of waves crashing on the shore are natural and must be attributed to the shell. This sound derivation has been rooted in our conscious and subconscious minds for centuries and throughout many of our world's cultures. Why not use the sound phenomenon as a tool for healing in therapy? In fact, why not explore the seemingly infinite healing applications of seashells in the health-giving process? Many researchers (Attenborough 1979, 8–9) believe that life evolved from the sea, and therefore, why not expect that life can be healed by the sea?

After decades of training, study, and work as a therapist using traditional healing practices, I found that many alternative holistic methods were actually more successful and faster than just sole customary psychotherapy. I am always looking for new and creative ways to foster wellness.

With over five billion people in the world and centuries of development and human understanding, why not seek a posture of trying time-tested methods and create unchartered healing? We must learn from the past to create a healthier future. Accepting change, making changes, and acquiring new belief systems often take time and education. Also, it is important to be mindful that not everyone is ready to move from the traditional treatment methods. Not everyone is ready to accept changes without time-tested proof. Be ready to hear from the skeptics, especially in a field like healing. Healing approaches often vary with location in the world, education, training, philosophy, experience, and beliefs of the healer and client. These and more factors may influence healing. Some people just do what works!

I felt a need and desire to explore new seashell healing applications. It was an interest that emerged early in my life and later became activated by my private psychotherapy practice. The more I brought shells into the therapeutic process, the more it worked. Success was multiplied by more success. Although not used in every case, shell therapy is tailored to the individual and becomes part of the problem-solving process. Individual treatment goals and plans are infinite and unique to the individual.

Many seashells have an ascribed magical power about them, developed over the centuries. People relate effortlessly to shells. I consider seashells as a natural energy source and common denominator in life. Although I am very excited by this intriguing tool for use in current therapy, I discuss caveats about how it is not for everyone!

Who would deny the authenticity of ocean sounds from seashells? These sounds have been heard from shells for centuries and have been documented in archetypal masterpiece paintings, established as the lore of ancient cultures, and acknowledged in classical literature and poetry. This serves as proof that the magic and mystery of the sea lives on, from ancient times until today.

The breakthrough therapy idea for me took place while watching television! One day not long ago, suddenly and without warning, a travel agency advertisement appeared on the screen and depicted a customer in a travel office making plans for his next trip. The customer picked up a conch shell from a book shelf and held it in his hand. It showed the shell ringing as if it were a telephone! The customer lifted the shell up to his ear and began to listen.

The travel agent then said, "Listen to the shell! Where is the shell telling you to go on your next vacation?"

I was amazed. I felt that it was an imaginative commercial for booking a vacation tour. It seemed to summon the ancient magical powers of the sea to provide the answers about the destination of his next vacation and future expeditions! For me, the idea of using seashells as a tool for psychotherapy was clearly revealed. I could not wait to bring my collection into the office and try this method in therapy. Also, I could not delay telling others about using shells as a self-help tool. I was extremely excited and ready to begin experimenting with this healing technique.

Instead of expecting to hear only the ocean, why not listen for the many more possible answers and advice about life? Why not ask your shell any question that you want? These sounds from the shell may really be the conscious or subconscious projections, perceptions, or wishes of the person holding the shell. The more I used it, the more I liked the idea. The idea grew and expanded rapidly.

As it turned out, the concept of holding the shell to your ear and asking questions, or listening to what it had to say, formed one of three basic therapeutic techniques that I now use with my shells in therapy practice. Heeding what the shell is saying is essentially holding the shell to your ear and listening. Is the shell telling you that your next cruise vacation will be in the Caribbean or Hawaiian Islands? You may find that using hypnotherapy or visual imagery will enhance decisions about future travel plans or more significant communications from the sea, on a cognizant or subliminal level. The listener may design more than the destination of his or her next trip.

It can take place anywhere and with anyone. It can take place alone! Just listen to the shell! Examples of other significant topics that may emerge with or without solutions in any setting are as follows:

>> How can I reduce my anxiety attacks?

>> How can I obtain more self-confidence and self-esteem?

>> Should I file for divorce?

>> Where should I go to school?

>> How can I get closer to my friend?

>> Whom should I marry?

>> What career path should I follow?

>> Why am I so depressed?

>> Where should I live?

>> How can I make things better?

>> What are my New Year's resolutions?

>> What is my plan for losing weight?

>> What should I get my Aunt Mary for her birthday?

>> How can I make more money?

>> Should I lease or buy a car?

>> What are my intentions?

>> How can I be more mindful in my actions?

>> Am I really an alcoholic?

>> How can I reduce my fears?

>> How can I deal with my anger?

>>How can I express my love?

>> What is the solution to my problem? The answer is: (insert your solution or ideas) _____________________________________________.

In Seashell Therapy, several techniques for learning from shells are explored. The idea is to identify the shells' physical and ascribed characteristics and use them as a conduit to your personal behaviors, goals, and problem solving. The shell essentially becomes a channel from its ascribed characteristics to desired individual human behaviors. In Seashell Therapy, you will be provided with several examples of shell qualities assigned to seashells over the centuries. With practice and visual imagery, you will learn how to draw on these energy powers and transfer these positive features to yourself or the person who selected the shell. Hypnosis may also help the individual learn about his or her subconscious or conscious desires, using the shell. Examples of how this technique might be used in therapy sessions are:

>> Choose a cowrie shell so that my pregnancy and childbirth will be easier.

>> Select and use a conch shell to improve my communication.

>> Give a cockle shell to my partner to express my love and appreciation.

>> Use a helmet shell to gain courage.

>> Find a murex shell to become a stronger person.

The shell serves an energy channel in drawing out negative energy from the body, allowing positive replacement power and energy to flow back into the body. The shell often aligns with parts of the body that need healing or transformation. Shells used in this way allow us to attune our body tempos to the various rhythms of nature and return to harmony in our lives. Some examples of using shells to increase positive energy and remove negative energy in a therapy session will be discussed later in more detail. These examples are as follows:

>> Select a ribbed scallop shell, such as a tiger's paw, and place it on your body, in a way that the negative forces flow out and positive energy flows in.

>> Select shells and place them over your chakra locations in order to enhance attunement. Chakra locations are: Root Chakra (base of spine), Sacral Chakra (sacrum, genitals), Solar Plexus Chakra (above the navel, below the chest), Heart Chakra (center of the chest), Throat Chakra (throat area), Third Eye Chakra (center of the forehead), Crown Chakra (top of head).

>> Place selected shells around, near, and/or on your body in such a way as to effect energy flow in a positive way.

Implications for the future are also to be considered and deliberated. These are just a few of the exciting questions: How are we, as humans, connected to the earth, sea, and spirit? Can energy and power from the sea influence and transform our lives? How can we better tap into this energy and spirit? What other mysteries from the sea or from seashells will we discover? How do we all fit within a balance of nature and life on earth? Have we evolved from the sea and are therefore healed by the sea, or is there a higher spirit or energy source involved in healing, or both? Nature versus nurture—are we coming closer together or further apart? Scientific proof versus holistic and spiritual energy—are we coming closer or further apart?

The following chapter will guide you through same basic information about seashells, their various uses by humans, and their potential for use in therapy and emotional healing.

The Nature of Seashells and Mollusks

Since the formation of the earth and the beginning of humanity, the sea has been the foundation of life on earth. Seashells and the mollusks within them have grown and evolved into thousands of species. They survive under all of the earth's environments and conditions, including light, darkness, extreme heat, extreme cold, and on land or sea. In fact, new species are still being discovered every year (Gamlin 1997, 35).

Although a wealth of scientific and symbolic data has developed over the centuries, much is unknown about the unexplored and unexplained life of seashells and the creatures that live inside them. It is no wonder that the evolution of seashells and the development of humankind have come together and connected for centuries. We share a relationship today in body, mind, and spirit. It is a natural phenomenon of the earth.

Mollusks are invertebrates, animals without backbones. The word mollusk comes from the Latin word mollis, meaning soft. Mollusks have soft bodies, slippery skin, and a flesh-covered lobe known as a mantle. Most mollusks have shells that protect their soft and vulnerable bodies. The shell is actually made by the mantle. As the mollusk grows and develops, it slowly secretes the several distinct layers of the various shell forms (Safer and Gill 1981).

Shells are produced by mollusks for protecting and supporting their bodies. The production of this hard outer shell involves seawater composed of chemical ions—including various percentages of chloride, sodium, sulfate, magnesium, calcium, potassium, bicarbonate, bromide, borate, strontium, and fluoride—plus other dissolved materials. Two ions found in seawater important to mollusks and seashells are calcium (Ca) and carbonate (CO3-2), a byproduct of the breakdown of bicarbonate (HCO3). These ions are the main ingredients of shell formation. The ions are then combined to form the compound CaCO3, known as calcium carbonate. The calcium carbonate is secreted by the mollusk mantle, forming the shell (Echoes of LBI, 48, Marchese 2013).

Sounds that come from seashells have been studied and explored for decades. Years ago, people who lived by the sea believed that when held to the ear, seashells resonate with something like the roar of the ocean. Although this explanation has seemed to bring pleasure to many, it is often provocative to scientists and lay listeners. In 1915, popular science writer Rudolph Bodmer suggested that the sound of the sea association followed from the symbolic power of the shells. "The sounds we hear when we hold the shell to the ear are not really the sound of sea waves. We have come to imagine that they are because they sound like waves of the sea. Additionally, knowledge that the shell originally came from the sea helps us to this conclusion very easily." He stated that the sounds had a technical explanation. "Both sea and seashell sounds were generated by waves: The sounds we hear in the seashell are really air waves—waves that is, of concentrated, resonant noise from the listener's surroundings" (Helmreich 2013, 23).

In 2001, Jennifer Lawson, in Hands-On Science and Technology, asserted that "Many students will tell you that they hear the ocean in the seashell. Actually, the dull roaring sound they hear is the echo of the blood moving inside their ear" (Helmreich 2013, 24). These and other similar explanations of seashell sounds have surfaced over the years. Explanations and myths continue to evolve. These sound explanations seem to have only one thing in common. It is that the mystery of life continues to be a mystery, a vast unknown of science, lore, history, beliefs, and values, both ancient and contemporary. Perhaps we must enter further into the spiritual areas of life to find the answer.

Seashells have been used for insights into human behavior for centuries. (Safer and Gill 1982, 121–180). The meanings connected to seashells have developed from the early history of humankind and have advanced from the sea and the beginning of life on earth. For example, spondulix shells (spondulix means a form of money) are thousands of years old. They originated on the coast of Ecuador and have been found in graves at Tikal. This shows evidence of trade between Ecuador and Guatemala (Menzies and Hudson 2013, 137).

Seashell and mollusk history can be dated back to 1200 BC. (Safer and Gill 1982, 50). Human beings have developed an anthropological view by transforming seashells into ritual objects, symbols, and metaphors. The meanings attached to the varieties of seashells appear in almost every society, often connecting the themes or characteristics of the shell with the person and place in culture. We are connected to the earth in many ways, including the rhythm of the seasons, days, tides, moon, and sun. Our heartbeats connect to these earth rhythms. We must learn to connect to these cadences for healing.

Healing, Heartbeats, and Imagery

Here is an exercise to connect to the rhythm of our heartbeats. Try this and you may be pleasantly surprised at the results.

>> Select a seashell and hold it in your hand.

>> With shell in hand, place your hand over your heart to feel your heartbeat. (Your heartbeat range is probably about fifty to sixty cycles per minute.)

>> Convert your heartbeat to sound by making a beating sound with your voice.

>> Now you may gently remove your hand with the shell from your heart area and continue to use your voice while tapping the heartbeat on a drum or drumlike surface, such as a table, desk, or lap. Now continue to tap this rhythm as the sound of your voice stops and the tapping or drumming beat remains.

>> You have now connected to your heartbeat and the natural rhythm of your body, earth, and your natural surroundings. Enjoy the relaxing feeling and therapeutic benefits derived from this exercise. Stop drumming after about five minutes. Your feelings of peace and tranquility will continue, even after you have completed this exercise.

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Excerpted from Seashell Therapy by George Toth. Copyright © 2014 George Toth, LCSW-R.. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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