Marika Baxter PT, MSPT, OCS
For as long as I can remember I’ve felt aware. Of the unseen and the unspoken. What was underneath the surface of the visible and tangible world. And like many, this less objective or "knowable" landscape felt off limits to explore. Until.
My healing journey started with the physical body. As a gymnast, I experienced many injuries and had a series of knee surgeries in high school. After going through cycles of rehabilitation and having this profession in my lineage, I went to college to pursue a degree in physical therapy. As I continued to heal myself and work with patients, my awareness of these invisible and less objective threads grew. I began seeking the knowledge and understanding of what it was I was perceiving and why it was woven into the experience of pain.
Through my immersion into these questions, I've come to understand that it's not only our physicality that needs healing. I began to study the profound affects the psyche and subtle energy have on how we experience being in this body. Our traumas - personal, lineage and collective - inform our beliefs and perceptions of ourselves and our circumstances. When unprocessed, they affect how our energy and life force flows. And ultimately, what is unmet manifests in our bodies. Dysfunction in our nervous systems, musculoskeletal system and movement patterns are just some ways this can be expressed. I believe it is in meeting these parts of ourselves and dissolving the separation from within that we can begin to truly heal and ease our suffering. And that perhaps it isn't just healing we are seeking after all, but a return to wholeness. In soma, psyche and spirit.
For me, the experience of being human began to transform as I brought what was unconscious into my awareness to be seen, heard, and loved. As I unraveled these beliefs and layers of conditioning, the constrictions in my physical body and energy shifted. As I inhabited more of myself, my relationship with pain changed, and I felt safe to embody and express my authenticity. This ever unfolding path of connecting to my true nature allowed me to see that understanding this less tangible landscape was not off limits after all. That the search for healing myself was in fact illuminating how I would continue to serve in the transformation of others.
My work is always evolving and currently sits at the intersections of physical, emotional, energetic, intergenerational, and spiritual worlds of healing and transformation. With my knowledge as a physical therapist, and as a certified Realization Process Teacher and IFS practitioner in training, I use somatic meditation practices and self inquiry to give clients an interoceptive experience of wholeness. To unravel constrictions that limit their ability to experience themselves and the world, both physically and energetically. And to reclaim their own aliveness and embrace their whole, authentic Self.
I look forward to meeting you. With love,
Marika
"I sought out Marika Baxter because she is also trained as a physical therapist. As I’d hoped, her multi-faceted understanding of the body has informed her teaching as she shows me how to move within my limitations.
Unexpectedly, she has given me more. She has shared her wisdom about how to discover myself through the medium of my body—which is, after all, my “self.” Marika is calm, kind, and generous with her knowledge. I feel lucky to work with her."
- C.S., Connecticut
EDUCATION
Springfield College, Masters of Science in Physical Therapy, 2003
CERTIFICATIONS
Certified Realization Process Teacher - Empathic Ground/Spiritual Psychology, Embodiment (in process) - Judith Blackstone
Reiki Level I & II - Maggie Taylor
Aromatherapy Certification Program - Aromahead Institute
Orthopaedic Certified Specialist, Physical Therapy (OCS)
TRAININGS
Advanced Energy Apprenticeship (in process)- Cyndi Dale
IFS (Internal Family Systems) Circle Program - Richard Schwartz, Toni Herbine-Blank, Pamela Krause
Access and Living from Self - Loch Kelly
Somatic IFS Workshop - Susan McConnell
Movement for Trauma, Level 1 - Jane Clapp
Advanced Energy Training for Empaths - Wendy DeRosa
Comprehensive Pilates Mat & Apparatus - Balanced Body