What is “The Holistic Awareness Center”?

The story of this holistic center started some years back…

Georgios was an opera singer in New York and was becoming dissatisfied with his progress. His voice was beautiful, yet he would not hold himself correctly when he was performing, and that led to extra strain and, obviously, stress. At the same time, Christina was a top executive in a multinational firm in Manhattan, New York, with a team of over 50 people, daily team brainstorms, presentations, get-together with PR firms, brand and web agencies, and at least once-a-month travels around the globe for strategy meetings. Life was good…or was it?

Both our friends were deeply spiritual, knowing there is more to life than what meets the eye. At that pivotal point in their life, they started to feel something was just around the corner. Georgios came across Alexander Technique, a technique that can tremendously help artists, and really anyone, to have balance and alignment in their body and their life. He started taking lessons in the Juilliard School, fell in love with it, and decided that this was his life’s calling- to become an Alexander Technique Teacher. Becoming a teacher also came natural to him, as he had already been an Elementary School Director for years.

Christina had always been mesmerized (excuse the pun for the ones that know who Mesmer was) with hypnotherapy and the light it sheds into our sub- and unconscious. She decided to train and become a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and that later also included Master Hypnotherapy with the National Association of Transpersonal Hypnotherapists. That was a side hobby, or so it seemed.

What happened next?

Christina got pregnant. She decided to give birth with the help of HypnoBirthing, a complete educational program for everything there is to know around birth and post-birth, that is based on the principles of hypnotherapy. They decided to go for a natural home and water hypnobirth, and welcomed their son into the world in peace, harmony and health. Christina added the Mongan Method HypnoBirthing and Hypnofertility into the modalities she studied, and she became a big proponent of the program, having been a HypnoBirthing mom herself.

Georgios continued his Alexander Technique teaching at the world-renowned Balance Arts Center in NY. Some people that are not familiar with the technique ask if it is similar to Yoga. The answer is that Alexander technique dont need additional input, as it is a satisfactory approach itself. In addition he went on to also study Healing Touch, a system that is based on energy medicine and healing and was started by a nurse in the USA. Energy work like Healing Touch and Reiki can be powerful in healing people fast and effectively, and he fell in love with this addition, as now he could offer his clients a holistic approach to therapy, through bodywork and kinesiology (aka Alexander Technique), plus energy support through Healing Touch. As an opera singer, he also enriched his practice with Breatheology, a technique that focuses on how to optimize every breath so we can improve our potential. It is of tremendous help not only to singers, actors, sports professionals (e.g. divers), public speakers but really to anyone who breathes (!) and wants to become more energized in their daily life.

Enter The Holistic Awareness Center

Georgios continued practicing the Alexander Technique, Healing Touch and Breatheology modalities. Christina realized that her true passion, more than sitting on leadership teams and boards, was Hypnotherapy and everything around this practice. She decided to open a holistic center with Georgios and marry their love for holistic methods. They brought together the modalities they shared, i.e. Hypnotherapy, HypnoBirthing, Hypnofertility, Alexander Technique, Healing Touch, Breathology and Life Coaching (as Christina has been trained heavily in coaching as an executive and also wished to share all her knowledge around career and life advancement).

The name THE HOLISTIC AWARENESS CENTER

Georgios and Christina came up with the name of their holistic center by bringing together the principles they believe accurately depict what their center is all about.

• Holistic: They both are strong advocates of a holistic approach in life. Another word that would have been appropriate is “multifaceted”, but it was not easily pronounced or understood, therefore dropped from the brainstorming session. The notion of holistic means to look at everything from every angle, not just what you see with your eyes, hear with your ears, smell with your nose, touch with your hands, taste in your mouth. Every experience has an emotional, mental and spiritual aspect to it. It is a blend of body, mind and spirit. How many times do we look at something that looks right, yet we say, “I don’t feel it is right”? Well, this means we are taking a more holistic view at things, keeping in mind our whole experience instead of just the obvious.
• Awareness: That might be a very difficult word to explain, because it is a word that is felt more than it is thought. It encompasses everything we stand for as human and spiritual beings. It is that sense of knowing, of remembrance, of consciousness of our human but also divine nature. The higher our awareness, the more we wake up to all the possibilities that exist for us in our lifetime, and the more we claim our full potential.
• Center: The center literally means the point that is equally distant from every point on the circumference of a circle. This is exactly what The Holistic Awareness Center aims to be. It is the middle point that serves the community and brings everyone’s awareness to the understanding that we are indeed connected, like points in the circumference of a giant circle that holds everything together with extremely accurate perfection.

The whereabouts of The Holistic Awareness Center

Christina and Georgios lived in New York with their son and this is where they decided to open The Holistic Awareness Center. After getting a steady following in NY, and as their son was getting older, they made the decision to extend their holistic center to Athens, Greece– which happens to be both Georgios and Christina’s birthplace. Christina and Georgios both felt this addition would be very beneficial not only for their family as they would be able to spend more time with their extended families and friends,  but would also allow them to be of service in Greece, which is becoming more and more open and interested in holistic therapies. Some of the programs are still fairly unknown in Greece. These include Healing Touch, Breathology, Hypnofertility and HypnoBirthing with the first, original Mongan Method from the USA. With the support of their holistic center, they wish to be a stepping stone in everyone’s journey toward mindful awareness through a holistic understanding of mind, body and spirit.