Cotati-area woman’s journey to alternative therapy

It has been 14 years since Pam Rowen-Herzog began her journey to alternative therapy. Before that, armed with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s of divinity, she helped find housing for Philadelphia’s homeless and addicted, and tried to change the world through political activism.

Her first pregnancy altered everything. “It was 2001, and I couldn’t get over the fact that I was carrying this pure, new life inside of me” she said, her voice filled with wonder, even after all these years. “I wanted to do all that I could to protect it and love it,” she said. “I dropped coffee. I became a vegetarian. I found a midwife.”

Her midwife had walked through Central America, from village to village, helping women with their births. “I asked her what equipment she took with her, and she said, ‘I asked the women to have six towels. That’s all you need.’

“Everything the medical world wanted to do, like circumcision, was harsh and complicated. When my midwife told me I’d only need six towels, I knew that was all I wanted. A beautiful, uncomplicated birth. No forceps. No drugs. No surgical procedures.” Impressed, Rowen-Herzog began exploring homeopathy, herbs, flower essences, essential oils and other natural remedies. As her family grew and she watched her three healthy sons develop, she realized the power of the mind and the emotions.

She studied holistic kinesiology and took online courses to become certified in such newly structured disciplines as emotion code, reconnective healing and quantum touch. All she learned convinced her that the human body has within itself everything needed to maintain a healthy balance and to heal itself. The task is to learn how to “read” that inner knowledge.

Now 49, she lives with her husband, sons, their dog, a flock of chickens, two goats and a big, woolly sheep on a couple of farmlike acres near Cotati. In her backyard office, she works to help clients attain physical, emotional and spiritual balance, calling herself a “spiritual midwife.”

Most come seeking release from depression, anxiety or fear. “A lot of people come because they want to get off medications,” she said. “People who come to me have already tried everything else.”

From her studies she believes the body and emotions emit frequencies (often called vibrations), which can reveal imbalances. It is these frequencies she works with, using a program called the body code method. She measures her clients’ bodily reactions with a pendulum. As she asks each question, she says, the pendulum moves, responding to the frequencies coming from the client’s body.

The questions are “yes/no” ones. If the pendulum moves back and forth, the answer is “no.” If it moves in a circle, the answer is “yes,” and Rowen-Herzog explores the “yes” answers with more and deeper questions.

“Most every problem ultimately comes down to something emotional,” she said. “If the problem is structural - bones out of line or something like that - I send them to a chiropractor. Or they may need surgery.” Once the emotional root of the problem is found, Rowen-Herzog says, she passes magnets over the client’s body to draw out the troubling frequencies, thus freeing the body of that particular imbalance.

Rowen-Herzog said the questions and pendulum “answers” work even across great distances - just as prayer is thought to. She has clients in India, China, the Mediterranean and Middle East, as well as across the United States and conducts sessions by phone or Skype.

“I can’t heal anything,” she said. “I can only assist the body. I guide people through transitions, holding space as something new is born.” Just like a midwife.

Pam Rowen-Herzog’s next workshop is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 16.

For more details, visit www.guideforconscioushealing.com.