Chauvet Bishop: Healing can happen wherever it needs to

This post is part of a Grief Care series, featuring BIPOC healers across multiple traditions and modalities. Each week will spotlight a different healer, sharing their work, how they’re meeting these deeply challenging times, the grief they’re carrying and how they’re tending to it, and what it means to hold space for their communities at the intersections of healing and justice.

Today, I talk with Chauvet Bishop, a massage therapist, reiki practitioner and poet from Brooklyn.

“I'm a Queer Black woman healer, I get to support and teach my community.” — Chauvet Bishop

So many have been grieving so much since the pandemic began. What are some of the griefs you’ve been holding these last few months?

The amount that State violence has been amplified in BIPOC, poor, working class and LGBTQ+ communities always hits hard. Seeing people being harmed and dying on screen, video or reading it doesn't get any easier.

Personal loss anniversaries are more raw. Also, not being able to see my friends and (chosen) family like I used to. Screens just ain't the same

As a massage therapist who’s deeply attuned to the energy of the body, is there somewhere in your body where you carry your grief? 

My upper back and shoulders and the center of my chest.

What does taking care of that grief look like to you?

Letting myself cry, showers, binging shows, self-reiki, talking to loved ones and I was able to start therapy this year. Having a therapist with a similar background has been transformative.

In a massage session, can you usually tell when people are holding grief in their bodies? How does that manifest or present?

Absolutely. It's different for everybody; sometimes it's a place they didn't even know they had pain. It can be an energetic or emotional release, or the sensation of a weight being lifted. I've worked with energy that feels thick like tar, some that moves like tornadoes and everything in between, but it's still grief.

How can massage therapy support those who are grieving? 

Touch releases oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin in our bodies. Their whole job is to make us feel better and create connections between people. 

What about the anxiety and overwhelm that so many of us are also feeling right?

Those same hormones are being released. Bu I also recognize in both cases, that for some folks, touch is traumatic. 

Are you seeing clients right now, and if so, do you have a sense of the patterns of muscle tension and other unease in the body that may be uniquely related  to these last few months of sheltering in place and racial reckoning (especially given your collaboration with the People of Color Healing Circle in New York)?

I've been doing more distance reiki and been very selective with in-person massage because there are immunocompromised folks in the community I don't want to put in danger. People have been speaking about neck, shoulder, hip and lower back pain — also a lot of stomach and chest pain or discomfort. Being still, moving differently, recovering from illness and increased stress are definitely linked to all these issues.

As a black massage therapist, are there any misconceptions or stereotypes about massage therapy among BIPOC? 

That it's inaccessible. That it has to be spa music and incense. 

How are you working to change those?

I use a sliding scale and barter. I make house calls, point out that these practices are part of our healing history. I've offered massage in offices, wellness spaces, at events or actions,, at poetry slams, parties, workshops. Healing can happen wherever it needs to. 

Despite the push to diversify wellness in recent years, people of color are still less likely to engage in holistic health care like massage, acupuncture and other practices:  what does it look like to you to prioritize and create greater access to such wellness care?

Word of mouth has always been strongest. Seeing the number of Black and PoC healers increase gives me hope. The conversations are more frequent and we're referring each other.

Teaching and showing the benefits of holistic, preventative and complementary medicine is important, whether we’re bringing it to different spaces physically, through video, graphics — any way we can distribute knowledge.

Mutual aide work has played a major role in access, especially through this pandemic.

When the pandemic began, one of your offerings to your community was sessions on guided self-massage: how can self-massage help us cope with stress, change and worry? 

Taking space to care for yourself is so necessary in a time of extended crisis. With self-massage, you're checking in with your body, breath, what you've experienced and how all of that feels. It can be grounding, relaxing, rejuvenating, whatever you need that healing to be. Self-healing practices help remind us of  strength and connection from our bodies to how the world works. 

Social distancing has many of us isolating and experiencing a lack of touch and physical contact in our lives: can self-massage help with some of that skin hunger?

It definitely is not the same, but it does help to be kind to yourself. Being intentional with touch, offering love and comfort to your own skin is a wonderful practice regardless of proximity to other people.

Many people may think of massage as simply a way to relieve stress, but it also helps us connect to our bodies: why is that so important in times of grief and trauma?

It's common to become numb and disconnected when we experience grief and trauma. Connecting to our bodies keeps us aware of any changes in health/function and can improve our immune system.

One of the reminders you often share is “If you can’t acknowledge the harm, what are you healing?” Why do you think there’s often such resistance to acknowledging and sitting with what’s uncomfortable, and how can massage help us access the wisdom and truth in our bodies?

We're taught to just tough things out, be thankful it isn't worse, praised for how much pain we can endure or feel we will be seen as weak. These things are harmful and wildly racist at the root. Learning how the body works to heal and what is harmful is eye-opening. Everything is connected — environment, activity, nutrition, genetics, lived experience, all of it. Holding space for the type of generational trauma most PoC carry can be difficult sometimes but has never felt unsafe. These emotions and pains are deep, they deserve to be acknowledged fully. Healers have an intimate understanding of pain. 

What are you most passionate about in this work?

Using it as a form of resistance, whether it's in a wellness space at an action or a home visit where a QTPoC received a safe, judgment-free healing session, possibly for barter. I'm a Queer Black Woman Healer, I get to support and teach my community.

If there were one thing you wanted people to know about the healing benefits of massage therapy, what would it be?

It's a versatile practice that can help correct and prevent the harm our bodies encounter over time.

BIO

Chauvet Bishop is a Massage Therapist, Reiki Practitioner, Poet and Host of Open Room at Nuyorican Poets Cafe. 

She received her massage therapy training from Swedish Institute. She began practicing in 2011. Since graduating from the Swedish Institute, Chauvet gained experience in spas, wellness centers and gyms. She has also brought her massage skills to businesses, parties and backstage for various performances around NYC. Chauvet currently focuses on in-home massage (pre-quarantine), reiki and organizing wellness spaces for community events with the Audre Lorde Project. Since the pandemic, she has offered grounding and self-massage videos as a form of community healing.