Miriam Jacobs, RPP, CMT, is the founding director of The Berkeley Polarity Center. After a successful career as a visual artist she found herself drawn to the healing arts and began her formal studies in 1989. She has studied a wide variety of modalities, including cranial sacral therapy, chi nei tsang, therapeutic touch, reflexology, ayurveda, and herbology. Her training includes the Polarity Wellness Network in New York City and the Bay Area's own McKinnon Institute.

At this point we know that our bodies, our minds and emotional states all effect one another. Since this is true then each of these levels must be addressed for healing to take place.

A beautiful system that incorporates and honors this connection is Polarity Therapy, a non-diagnostic holistic health system, supplementing and supporting medical treatment.

Polarity was developed by Dr. Randolph Stone (1890-1981), a chiropractor, osteopath and naturopath. He studied Ayurvedic and Chinese traditions and integrated them with quantum physics and his previous skills to develop a cohesive bodywork-based system known as Polarity Therapy. (Much of yoga is based on Ayurvedic principles and many spiritual authors such as Deepak Chopra and Caroline Myss, refer to these principles in their work.)

In Polarity, touch is used to balance energy. Words are used to encourage right thinking, which can release energy blockages on the emotional and physical planes. Nutritional support and simple exercises are suggested to help clients continue their own healing process. The bodywork techniques, range from deep pressure point work and rhythmic rocking manipulation to gentle holds and stretches. The long-term effects are deep relaxation, emotional and mental clarity, renewed physical vitality and greater personal awareness.

During a bodywork session, one client recalled a childhood incident. In relating this, she was able to alleviate her physical and emotional discomfort and make peace with her past. Another client found Polarity to be her only relief from sciatica.

Polarity looks at life as a process and believes that pain and disease is a challenge and an opportunity to grow and change. In Polarity Therapy, the practitioner's role is not to cure but to facilitate the client in healing themselves.

The Berkeley Polarity Center offers private polarity sessions and Associate Polarity Practitioner (APP) certification approved by the American Polarity Therapy Association (APTA).