How's Business? Can You Change Your Brain and Heal Your Life?

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

—Andy Warhol

Through training, education and her own transformations, Cheney Canyon resident Dianne Porchia has developed a multi-faceted therapy called W.I.S.H., Whole Integrated Self Health.

In fact, she’s in the final stages of editing her book on the subject: “Whole Integrated Self Health – A Guide to Healing, Loving and Living Consciously.”

Healing, she says, comes from integrating body, mind, heart and soul.

A loving attitude develops through gratitude, appreciation and forgiveness.

Living consciously places attention, and intention, on one’s choices, actions/reactions and responses to emotional triggers.

“People come to me when they are repeating the same old patterns and they’re not working; nothing is changing, whether it has to do with relationships, career, their personal life, or their health,” she says.

Porchia works with individuals, couples, students, groups, and even organizations who are ready to commit to self-healing.

For individual or couples work, she encourages clients to come to her hillside home, where the glorious view, tranquil fountain and well-tended garden encourage people to uncoil.

She says, “My best qualities as a therapist are my compassion, accessibility and grounded presence. I get feedback all the time that I’m really safe, and that’s important for the work.”

Jumpstarting Change

Unlike traditional therapy that can go on for years, W.I.S.H. techniques can jumpstart change in just a few sessions. Porchia describes herself as a facilitator who helps remove barriers and “clear away the junk” so that clients can access trouble spots that need work.

Stress is one of the most common, and most debilitating barriers to wellness. When it grows unabated, stress corrodes internal organs, zaps physical energy, blocks creativity, and reduces the plasticity of our brains.

Porchia works with clients not only to reduce stress but to change their responses to it, so that change is something they can more readily manifest in their lives.

For couples struggling with either natural or in vitro pregnancy she offers “WISH For A Stork” Retreats at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort in San Luis Obispo. The weekend retreats help couples dissolve blocks that impede their chances of welcoming a child into the world.

Since 2003, she has helped law students pass the California bar exam, a rigidly timed, high-pressure, three-day test.

“I work with students on relaxation techniques. When the body goes into panic mode, they learn how to bring it back to calm quickly, so that they can focus on the test,” she says.

The same techniques, customized to the individual, can work with actors, athletes, public speakers, and with people who suffer from panic attacks.

For women and men seeking total immersion in another world, Porchia's latest offering is Eat, Paint, Pray Love – Life in Balance, Tuscan Style, a 10-day excursion to Florence, Italy, and the surrounding countryside. The experience creates an optimal way to change patterns and set intentions for personal transformation.

Something Profound

Porchia took her own first steps towards healing while living abroad in England with her husband and stepchildren. His work had caused them to relocate from Beverly Hills. She was free to pursue whatever pleased her. She chose to earn her fine art degree in London. She says, “I had a wonderful lifestyle, but there was a high price to pay for it.”

The cost was her health and a disconnection from nature and the things that moved her soul. Something profound was missing, and after 16 years of a comfortable, secure marriage, she divorced in 1997. No longer surrounded by family, her world unraveled.

To cope, she did something she hadn’t done before. She received massage. “For the first time, I experienced what it means to have an emotional release through bodywork.”

Faced with the need to earn a living, she considered returning to her pre-marriage profession as an interior designer. But, “that chapter was closed,” she says, “I needed a new challenge.”

The massage opened blocked channels to her lifelong relationships with dance, yoga, art and nature. She chose instead to dig deeper into these interconnected aspects of her own life.

Porchia’s inquiry laid the groundwork for W.I.SH. She became certified in Therapeutic Touch and Cranio-Sacral Therapy, and in 2001, earned a Master's Degree in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica.

As her Master’s thesis, she wrote the book about W.I.SH. After more than a decade of putting her theories into practice, she is ready to self-publish.

The time that the book spent in hibernation has actually been ideal, because new, scientific studies about the mind-body connection have emerged. Current research in psycho-neuroimmunology and psychology underscore the brain’s ability to change thinking patterns and, as a result, behaviors.

Porchia says, “Everyone is creative. It’s not limited to painting or drawing, for example. The mind is always looking for creative solutions.”

For more information, visit www.porchiaswish.com and www.passingperformance.com.