Welcome to Body & Mind Healing

Hi all, and welcome to Chiang Mai. Please let me introduce myself; my name is Rod from the UK. I have been interested in the holistic fields since the 1980s, and this is where my journey began: to improve my life and health, which, in turn, led me to learn to help others in their search for improving their lives and healing themselves.

As you can see, I have been busy learning many different ways of balancing and healing body and mind. It has been a lot of fun, hard work and sacrifice, though the rewards for my efforts have paid off tremendously, especially for improving my overall quality of life and allowing me to tune into my natural teaching and healing abilities. 

My loving wife and I opened Body and Mind Healing in Chiang Mai, Thailand, nearly 20 years ago so that we could offer alternative ways of healing. 

Through the holistic approach, our success has much to do with our wonderful students and friends who came in search of something new to help them in their journey in their lives.

I have been studying Chinese holistic arts since 1993 and Qigong (Chi Kung) since 1995 and Wudang Tai Chi since 2000. My first experience with Qigong was in 1995, when I studied an Indian Yoga and Qigong method. I still continue to practise this form of Qigong today, and we have some elements of this system of Qigong in our Qigong Healing course. I also studied Tai Chi and Qigong with Tai Chi UK, run by Sufi Michael Jacques, the 3-time world champion of Tai Chi pushing hands (a Tai Chi training technique). In 2002 I received level 7 Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong holistic certification, and during this period I taught my first Qigong and Tai Chi class in London in 2002. Sifu Michael Jacques trained under master Sifu Dan Docherty, with 40+ years' experience in Tai Chi and Qigong, and is also another one-time world champion and forerunner in the UK and internationally in the system of Wudang Tai Chi Chuan (Wu-style Tai Chi). Having completed my training with Tai Chi UK, I then continued to study with Sifu Dan Docherty to perfect my skills in the art of Tai Chi Chuan. Before leaving the UK for good in 2004, I had managed to learn the Wudang Tai Chi Chuan, short and long forms, plus the sword, sabre and spear weapons forms, and also a 12-year period of learning the full internal arts of Tai Chi Nei Kung practice, which are part of the Wu Tai Chi Chuan system. In 2009 I was certified by Dan Docherty as a level 4 intermediate Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong instructor. Sifu Dan would only give teacher certifications to students of at least 5 years' experience. I also studied with Godfrey Dornelly, another senior teacher of our Tai Chi system. Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong, like yoga, are lifelong practices in perfecting your technique and, of course, yourself. 

My experience in yoga began in 1995, when I started to study and practise the spiritual teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, the great spiritual teacher and master from India. I studied his teachings for 6 years, and I still continue to incorporate this practice of Kriya Yoga in my life every day. In the year 2000, I wanted to deepen my meditation practice, so I started to learn and practise yoga asana. I studied and practised yoga asana in India, the USA, England, Spain, Scotland, Thailand and Italy and was privileged to study with many experienced yoga teachers, such as John Scott (UK), Sheshadri (India), Richard Freeman (USA-Ashtanga Yoga), Godfrey Devereux (UK-Dynamic Yoga), Karen O'Bannon (US), Bijoo Metha (India-Iyengar Yoga), Tara Fraser (UK-Vini Yoga) and Mataji (India-Nada Yoga & Yoga Nidra). I embarked on a career in yoga in 2002 and have completed nearly 1000 hours of teacher training. Initially, I enrolled in the British Wheel of Yoga's 6-month teachers' foundation course with Tara Frazer (Vini Yoga). In 2003, I continued my studies with Godfrey Devereux (Dynamic Yoga) and completed my yoga teacher training with him in 2004. I continued to further study yoga asana in India in 2004, and I studied with Iyengar yoga teacher Karen O'Bannon intensively in the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India, for 3 months, where I completed another 489-hour certified yoga teacher training course. Along the way I studied with many excellent yoga teachers. Petra Mitidieri (Ashtanga Yoga), who was my first yoga asana teacher, and her teaching of the Ashtanga full primary series were great fun, a challenge and very inspirational. 

Reiki and Healing: While I was in India, I trained and studied the Usui Shiki Reiki healing system with Rohini Khatrii in the Parmath Niketanashram. I also studied Usui Reiki at the Reiki Training Institute India with David Swann & Uma Sharma (photo above). I am a 5th-generation Reiki Shinpiden and instructor, with my first teaching experience teaching Reiki being in 2007, teaching and helping over 900 students from all over the world with their Reiki healing understanding and development. 

Paramahansa Yogananda was a great inspiration for me in the realms of meditation, spirituality and working with healing energy since 1995, and I have received all 4 initiations into Kriya Yoga after practising for more than 30 years. I also had the opportunity to learn a remote healing technique taught by the Great Yogi. 

Mantra: I had the privilege to study Mantra (Nada Yoga) and Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep) while living in the ashram with Mataji (Sadhvi Abha Saraswati), a well-known teacher in Rishikesh, India. 

Mantak Chia. Inner Alchemy & Taoist Practices: I had the opportunity to study with Mantak Chia in 2002, while he was in London, and studied Inner Alchemy at the Tao Center in London through various teachers (Kris Deva North) and other resources. I have been teaching Taoist Inner Alchemy practices since 2007.