Namaskar Bonnie,
I frequently work with clients who have had amputations of a limb, removal of an organ (due to cancer), or loss of use of a limb (due to stroke).
I work with them as if the organ or limb were still there, as I feel that the energy of the organ or part really IS still there. Just as, when our physical body is no longer here, our energy is still very much a presence.
Even in the case of a missing limb, I work with the part of the limb that is there, and work energetically with the no-longer-physically-present limb. Often, I get the sense that there is even more need to be lovingly present to the parts that aren’t there … the person may well be mourning the loss of these parts of themselves, may be angry, sad, frightened, and there is an energy to that which needs tending, much listening, much caring.
In Therapeutic Touch, there is a concept called “unruffling,” which involves energetically calming or soothing the energetic upset from surgery, injury or illness. I use this for the parts of the body where there has been such an energetic disturbance – and encourage clients to bring their energies home to their proper “homes.” There is often a “going through the fire” as they work through the issues, but then, there is an “aaah” … a calming … a feeling of sattva as they sense this energetic “home coming” once again. It is literally palpable in the room.
So I can understand that your student would find Yoni Mudra very healing, even if her small intestine is mostly missing, and she has a colostomy. The same will be true for all such energy work – while surgeries such as bowel surgery, ostomies, etc. may displace the navel, for example (ayurvedic bodywork can help correct such imbalances – ask Mukunda about this), energetically, I feel that it is possible to work with the energetic “homes” even when the physical body no longer has that “home.”
I think, when sadhana is strong enough, we learn that we are always “home.” So I support these students to find a sadhana that rings true to them (Y.S., “ishvara pranidhana”); the sadhana seems to help the energies find their way home.
Blessings,
Hamsa
