like a massage without taking off your clothes, acupuncture without needles, therapy without talking, and mind expansion without drugs. It feels like nothing else - entirely like itself.
Zero Balancing:
BodySong
Suzy Hawes-Zero Balancer
Singing Coach, Musical director, Composer
AS WELL AS:
Meet Suzy Hawes
.jpg)
As a Zero Balancer, musician, teacher, mother, gardener, cook, partner and friend, I find that everything I do is about the quality of my listening. Over the years since I discovered Zero Balancing, I have slowly deepened my understanding and skills within this elegant healing system. I am honored now, to be able to listen to bone energy with safe touch in order to help people live their lives more fully-to facilitate their healing and well being. I am also listening; when helping you to find and value your own voice, by facilitating a music ownership workshop, or by composing sound with which I strive to speak from and to, the heart. It's all about being more alive, knowing and being our true selves.
"When you touch one thing with deep awareness,
you touch everything."
- Lao Tzu
ZERO BALANCING
Developed by Fritz Smith, MD in the early 1970s, Zero Balancing is a powerful body-mind therapy that uses skilled touch to address the relationship between energy and structures of the body. Following a protocol that typically lasts 45-50 minutes, the practitioner uses finger pressure and gentle traction on areas of tension in the bones, joints and soft tissue to create fulcrums, or points of balance, around which the body can relax and reorganize. Zero Balancing focuses primarily on key joints of our skeleton that conduct and balance forces of gravity, posture and movement. By addressing the deepest and densest tissues of the body along with soft tissue, Zero Balancing helps to release tension, amplify vitality, and contribute to better postural alignment. A Zero Balancing session leaves you with a wonderful feeling of inner harmony and organization.
How can Zero Balancing help you?
Zero Balancing may help relieve body aches and pain, release restrictions in movement, and provide relief from emotional distress to improve overall quality of life. Zero Balancing may also be helpful with specific goals such as relief from back pain, improving concentration or sleep, releasing unwanted stress, letting go of old behavior patterns, or boosting well-being. Zero Balancing works in conjunction with medical therapy and is not a substitute for it.
Here is what some of my clients have to say about Zero Balancing:
"Wow! Zero Balancing works wonders. I have had ongoing pain in my back
for the last 30 odd years, due to a fall. I have tried all sorts, acupuncture, chiropractor, physio and osteopath etc to no avail. But a couple of Zero Balancing treatments, and now I no longer have the pain, and my movement has been restored. I love how I feel after a treatment, it's so relaxing. Thank you Suzy Hawes,
Marlene Corpe, Manawatu
"Zero Balancing seems to provide whatever my body is needing each time to bring it back into a state of aligned peacefulness. It frees up any restricted joints and muscles whether I knew they were restricted or not. At the end of each session I am always more self aware, grounded and present."
Esther Knight, Apiti
"Day to day work on the farm, a lot of the work is repetitive... so often I hear our workers say 'my back is sore or my arm is sore' and I know that you'll be able to help them with ZB because they come back to work really saying they feel different and they feel good and please can they do it again."
Catherine Taite-Jamieson-Dairy Farm owner, Palmerston North
I'm looking forward to working with you-to help you feel great!
*News about a recent study which strongly suggests that ZB may reduce stress
https://zbtouch.org/2017-nsi-research-results-and-overview/
*These statements have not been evaluated by a regulatory agency
MUSIC WORKSHOPS
My workshops can be tailored to highlight speaking, or singing, or a combination of both. This work can be used to enhance the exploratory skills of drama students, singing or music students, or to develop a more creative and courageous attitude in the workplace. All the workshops involve a degree of movement and physical activity. In all cases the learning outcomes are:
• Increased vocal confidence
• Awareness and development of self-listening skills
• Awareness and development of the skills necessary to listen to others
• A sense of connection and the value of others or “ensemble” feeling
• More freedom/less self-censoring
• More creative risk-taking
• More general self-confidence
These outcomes are achieved through a series of playful explorations /exercises with the group which require, slowly, that each individual takes vocal and movement risks, in an atmosphere of safety and acceptance. We work with the whole group and in smaller groups. We reflect and share our responses and insights, at regular intervals so that the shared learning process can be more easily grasped.
For speaking workshops the outcomes will also include: Awareness of techniques to improve articulation and delivery.
For Music and singing workshops the outcomes will also include: Ensemble improvisation vocal, rhythmic, and instrumental- “owning” music.
VOICE & SINGING
Over time, I have become interested in the healing/balancing potential of the voice, studying “Functional Voice” with Ruth Weimar and Gisela Rohmert here in New Zealand and at Lichtenberg® Institute for Applied Physiology of the Voice in Germany, Das Lichtenberger Institut. From 2010- 2015, I was the voice and Singing tutor for the Ucol Diploma in Performing Arts course in Palmerston North and was challenged, honoured, and delighted to teach voice for singing and speaking to five years of students.
"As a teacher, Suzy places the student at the heart of the learning process. She is patient, dedicated,
highly focused and inventive. She trusts in the power of the students to find all that is distinctive in their voices; she encourages them to find their own narratives and to trust the uniqueness of their experience. Students love working with her because they get to know themselves more deeply. For Suzy, music is both a therapy and an art form: through music we can grow the self as well as the artistic practice. Music deepens our experience of the world."- Dr. Angie Farrow, Associate Professor in Theatre, Massey University
"Susan Hawes understands people. This is where her strength as a music teacher comes from. She is able to understand an individual and amplify their natural talent by resonating with them on a level which the student gets the most benefit out of. Helping people push through mental blocks as well as developing lateral thinking around voice work is another thing Susan fosters, explaining craft, discipline and also by sharing her passion for the subject as a whole but also for the individual. There was never a moment where I felt belittled or abandoned, only ever empowered, supported and challenged and this is so important in any community."-Ryan Knighton, past voice and singing student and current theatre practitioner
MUSIC COMPOSITION
Suzy’s original compositions and musical direction have enhanced nine Palmerston North Summer Shakespeare Productions. The musician makes ongoing contributions to Palmerston North’s annual Festival of New Arts-usually composing, directing, and performing in the band. She has also written the music for two full-length plays as well as the shorter “The Bowler Hat” for which she was nominated for the Chapman-Tripp Theater Award for original music. Suzy has written and performed the music for two short films by Jane Hawes. In 2021-22, Suzy completed the score for the award-winning series of plays called "Chance" by play-write and director, Angie Farrow.
"I first met Suzy in her capacity as a songwriter in the late nineties when she provided most of the lyrics and music for a large community theatre play that I wrote called ‘Before the Birds’. Her unique skills were apparent: the music was exquisite and provided the production with a distinctive and powerful atmosphere. Suzy has the ability to reach the heart of a topic: she finds a deep spirituality and an ability to evoke a mythic dynamic in her music. She has extraordinary gifts.
Since then, Suzy’s music has moved from strength to strength. In the time I have known her she has
formed her own band, acted as composer and musical director for The Manawatu Summer Shakespeare and The Manawatu Festival of New Arts on numerous occasions. She provided the music for The After Eden project which toured schools in the local region and was nominated for a Chapman Tripp Award for her music for ‘The Bowler Hat’ which toured in Wellington in 2007. Most outstanding was her musical score for a production called ‘The River’ where she provided an enchanting, complex and memorable score for a small choir. She has worked with professionals and emerging artists and has produced musical gold even from the musically illiterate. On all occasions music has been pertinent, exploratory,generous and melodically outstanding."- Dr. Angie Farrow, Associate Professor in Theatre, Massey University
GET IN TOUCH
The best way to get in touch is to call or message me at 027-422-3442. Or you may email me at suzyelizabethhawes@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you and working with you to help you feel wonderful!
Sorry! My Palmerston North Studio is no longer available.
Until I find new premises, please consider coming to my home studio. I can also come to your address if necessary so please call me! And let me know you if you are aware of a good space for me in Palmerston North.
HOME STUDIO (Wednesday through Monday) Where you are encouraged to relax in the gardens or walk in the bush, before or after a session. Call for directions. We are located above Feilding in the upper Colyton area, off of Taonui Rd.
I charge $75.00 per session and am happy to receive cash or an on-line banking deposit. This may vary for shorter or longer sessions by arrangement. No one is turned away who needs a ZB.
a session lasts approximately 45 minutes -1 hour
Please wear comfortable clothing, a shirt or blouse and leggings or fitting trousers. Please-no jeans or other thick, stiff, or riveted clothing -if possible!