About me

Acting

​

I'm Michael Hunter, I have an MFA in Acting and worked as an actor in London and New York for 10 years.

 

The question of what acting has to do with healing is a pertinent one, and the answer is surprisingly relevant.

 

The concept of acting, as we know it in contemporary movies and theater, traces its roots back to ancient Greek Theater. For the Greeks, theater served as societal therapy, intricately tied to the mystical traditions of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Actors, then and now, are tasked with transforming fully into their characters; they are expected to be subsumed completely by another’s identity. 

 

This is reconstruction of mythical realities.  It’s spirit work, shape shifting, and acting is a type of intentional possession. 

 

As an actor I spent countless hours meditating and immersing myself in liminal space, living into mythic realities on stage.  It was a shape-shifting dance with the powers and entities in the unseen.  Acting is spirit work.  

 

We go to the movies or theater not simply to be entertained; it’s an opportunity to experience and process emotions that may be challenging to confront alone.  We get to see dramatic situations play out with conflict, distress, and final resolution.  These dramas are mythic and they can help us better navigate our own lives. 

​

Oriental Medicine

 

In my late 20’s I returned to graduate work, this time in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.  I wanted to more explicitly participate in the healing of others, and I wanted a more direct relationship with the people I worked with.  

 

Oriental medicine steeps in its connection to the past, including with the ancestors.  The medicine is holistic and anamnestic, seeking always to include the broad swath of patterns that bring a person to a particular moment.  Personal history is important, and ancestral history equally so.

   

Early in my career I was the first Staff Acupuncturist at The Cleveland Clinic where I worked in the Department of Pain Management.  There's always been a genuine hunger in my clients, even in a hospital setting, for spiritual connection, something that speaks to more than just a diagnosis of their physical ailments but also includes a recognition of their wider lived reality and makes room for the unseen in their self-understanding. 

​

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

 

During the COVID pandemic, unable to see clients in person, I sought a way to continue my work online. Acupuncture needles are just one tool in the expansive toolkit of Oriental Medicine, and I knew there had to be a way to deliver this ancient wisdom virtually, but I lacked a vocabulary to do it. The vernacular of Oriental Medicine is embedded in ancient metaphors that don’t easily translate. 

​

Introduced to Internal Family Systems (IFS) through my wife, an IFS psychotherapist, I found that the IFS model precisely paralleled the Oriental Medicine model of the psyche. IFS and Oriental Medicine are saying the same thing!  And, IFS provides a modern vocabulary to connect with clients over Zoom, prompting me to undergo training in IFS and shift my practice to an online model.

 

Ancestral Lineage Healing

 

IFS, with it’s approach to practical spirituality, led me to the work of Dr. Daniel Foor at AncestralMedicine.org.  Dr. Foor has brought forward an incredibly organized and thorough model of interfacing with the ancestors based on his many decades of training and practice.  

 

This work has profoundly deepened my spiritual lexicon.  It’s provided me a modern, easily understood plan of action, translating the ancient metaphors of Oriental Medicine into tangible steps. Drawing on my experiences in the Mysteries as an actor and acupuncturist, I now help others navigate the unseen realms; places that hold great promise for personal and community healing.