About Mary
Mary Sullivan is a licensed acupuncturist with a Master’s Degree in Counseling psychology. She is also a Registered Polarity Practitioner with a specialty in Cranial Sacral technique.
Mary began her study of the Healing Arts in 1977 at the Alive Polarity Institute, then located near Mt. Shasta California. She studied the work of Dr. Randolph Stone, an osteopath who pioneered work with the energy body. His belief that the body is a reflection of the mental emotional patterns has guided Mary throughout her career as a body worker. Dr. Stone’s teachings include diet, exercise, self help techniques as well as a body work system that balances the entire body-mind –spirit system.
Mary was so greatly influenced by Dr. Stone that she dedicated her professional life to deepening the wisdom she learned from Dr. Stone.
She became a massage therapist in 1981 and integrated her polarity practice with Swedish, deep tissue, shiatsu, reflexology among other modalities.
She was fascinated by the body mind connection that she studied Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute and received a Master’s Degree there.
She then went to the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine and received her Master’s Degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine, became an acupuncturist and herbalist licensed in California and nationally.
She continued the cranial sacral studies she had begun in her polarity training. She studied with Hugh Milne, Charles Ridley and Michael Shea.
Mary continues to deepen her practices in her studies of Tai Chi, yoga and meditation.
She divides her time between North Fork and Santa Barbara each month. She has two children and two grandchildren.
Mary's music was used as the sound track for this local video about a horse and her rider.
We are the Light
We are the light on the lake In the afternoon sun Forming endlessly dancing balls Of sunbursts playing leapfrog In delightful frenzy. Whirling dervishes circling the gentle silver breezes merging with each other then separating into patterns that can be followed only by a soul entranced with the ecstasy of the movement- There are no squiggles here As there are in moonlight on water. The sun draws us into a vastness That tells primordial stories of who we are. We are the light on the lake And here we remember and watch The light moving towards us on the shore- Enticing us to join her in delicious lovemaking with the wind, The sky and the snowy cathedral peaks behind her. We are the mountains, the breeze That stirs up the light and sends Her in our direction. We are the pine twig I picked to fill my senses with her essence- To clear my head and let me remember My meness. We are the icicles formed in the brook babbling over stones As we stand listening to the sounds we make. We are not separate from the grasses Frozen in the icy brook waiting For the sun to free our greeness once again. We are the sound of the silent mountains that only stillness can make As we sit quietly receiving the other who we also are. We are this peace, this majestic mountain cathedral. We are her altar. She worships herself through our attention, our love, The longing we feel in our bodies. She is drawn to us and allows us Into her snowy solitude, her timeless surrender. We breathe her in and she is us.