Deep Healing with BodyTalk

Mar 26, 2021

By Shelley Poovey

Marylene Smeets was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003. At the time, her doctors told her there was no cure for MS, an autoimmune disease that causes a slow deterioration of the myelin sheath of the nerves. MS results in partial or total loss of muscle control, including tremors, double vision, and memory lapses.

The year she was diagnosed, she tried MS injections for six weeks, but when they started hurting more and more, her therapist said, "Your body is trying to tell you something." This rang true for Marylene. Could it be possible for her body to heal by tuning into the messages it was sending?

By the time Marylene walked into my office, she believed that her body did know the story of why she became ill and that it was capable of healing itself. Her previous BodyTalk practitioner had gone on sabbatical, and she desired to continue the work they began. At the time, she wanted to focus on a combination of lifestyle changes, stimulating the body's ability to heal itself, and uncovering the root cause.

During the first year, a recurring theme of gut inflammation kept coming up, well before any ties between gut health and MS were known. Marylene continually posed the question, "Why gut inflammation? I have a neurological disorder."

As a BodyTalk practitioner, I knew that her body was taking us exactly where it needed to go but explaining that to Marylene felt incredibly challenging. I was aware that her experience with BodyTalk was limited to her own sessions, and without any scientific research to validate what was coming up, I was left asking her to trust the BodyTalk principle that session priorities may not always seem related to a diagnosis.

Our process challenged my own perceptions too, but when a landmark study was published linking MS to inflammation in the gut, we both dropped into a deeper level of trusting the work we were doing. Marylene started writing letters to her body, asking it questions, and bringing those questions into our sessions.

It made it so much easier when the difficult questions arose, "Are my symptoms of double-vision a sign that my MS is getting worse? Or could this be a sign of my body's increased healing response?"

We realized that instead of trying to answer these questions intellectually, we could bring them into each session, allowing the formulas to work with the questions through priorities--not problems or problem-solving. This basic concept helped both of us stay grounded during our three-year journey together.

Marylene Smeets (left), author of Merciless Gift, and her longtime BodyTalk Practitioner and friend Shelley Poovey (right)


What does healing look like? For Marylene, each BodyTalk session seemed to be informing or validating her intuition as well as the recommendations from her team of practitioners, helping guide her process. Over time, sessions uncovered early childhood trauma as an underlying factor, catalyzing an unwinding process of layer upon layer of locked emotions that seemed to be at the root of her inflammation.

My work with Marylene taught me to appreciate that what comes up in a BodyTalk session can be outside of the known, established paradigm--things other modalities and treatment protocols are unable to uncover; things only a person's innate wisdom knows; things unique to them.

In Marylene's case, unresolved anger surfaced around her father's shaming behaviors toward her as a child, lingering long after his death. It was amazing to see this come up around the same time she received her first clean scan from the neurologist. Despite the excellent news, Marylene was bereft of any joy. Instead, she was full of anger, rage, and resentment. All of those locked up emotions had finally surfaced, the root cause ready to be addressed directly!

That was five years ago. Marylene continues to receive clean scans and is thriving and living her purpose, sharing her miraculous story with others: Sometimes healing is messy. Healing has no defined timeline. The healing journey is unique.

Marylene's journey took her into the depths of childhood trauma--somewhere she never expected to go--but also into the realm of the mystical, which brought healing and resolution to these inner conflicts. As she followed signs and synchronicities, had major breakthroughs and incredible setbacks, there were moments she came in for sessions feeling completely lost and hopeless. To be honest, so did I. However, we both remained committed. We felt we were truly onto something even in those darkest moments.

Working with Marylene taught me that trusting the body's wisdom by simply following the BodyTalk Procedure and Protocol charts while educating clients about the science and philosophy of BodyTalk is critical to its effectiveness. It helped me deeply appreciate that part of being an effective practitioner is walking alongside our clients, providing critical support that is so rare to find anywhere else.


Meet Shelley


If you could be doing anything in the world at this moment, what would it be? 

I've been dying to go to the Galapagos Islands. I'd like to go on an eco-sustainable cruise with a crew of ecologists that take you hiking and on explorations around the islands and in the water, to feel the magical energy and connect with the sentient animals that live there.

If you had to change your name, what would you change it to and why? 

I have always loved my full name, it would take a lot for me to change it. Before I was born, my parents agreed to name me Katy Janine, after my great-grandmothers from both sides. However, when my mom held me for the first time in her arms she said she just knew my name was supposed to be Shelley. (Not Michelle, and not the usual spelling of Shelly either!) The last name Poovey is so unique, I've never met anyone with that last name who was not a close relative. AND it rhymes with groovy. Just can't go wrong.

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given? 

I remember as a sophomore during my undergrad years of college getting into an elevator with my computer programming level one professor as I ascended to the "graduate level" of the Computer Science building. I told him I was invited to a graduate level course and was so nervous, I felt inadequate, so undeserving! Everyone there but me was going to be a grad student, adept in advanced mathematics and computer programming--unlike me, a lowly undergrad! I'll never forget his response, "It's good to put yourself in a room where everyone is smarter than you. That's when you really learn and grow." It was the best advice I've ever gotten, which not only helped me relax, it inspired me to continue to challenge myself in that way, even to this day.

Do you have a favorite personal saying or mantra? 

"Who I am and what I have is enough."

Why BodyTalk, Access or the Life Sciences? 


As a survivor of childhood trauma, coming from generations of family trauma, I feel lucky to have found dance, yoga, meditation, and martial arts at a relatively young age. These activities and practices helped my body feel resilient to the chronic ongoing stressors I faced as a teenager and young adult. When BodyTalk came along, I had a three-hour a day yoga practice and strict vegetarian diet in order to manage my chronic stress, anxiety, and digestive issues. As long as I kept up the regimen everything was manageable. But if I missed a practice, traveled, or had to eat something out of the ordinary, everything went haywire. I tried acupuncture, deep bodywork, as well as psychotherapy with very limited results--even detrimental results at times. Pretty soon after my first few BodyTalk sessions, I noticed I needed that rigorous schedule less and less. I was more adaptable and resilient. All the tools in BodyTalk, Access, and the Life Sciences have supported me along my journey to healing, as well as taking the step to become a practitioner and sharing this wonderful work with others. It's an endless well of high-level knowledge that is so difficult to access otherwise, in its sophistication and simplicity of use. It's a complete system that has the capacity to support an individual through all dimensions of healing, personal growth, self-realization, and self-actualization. I am very grateful for it and that I was introduced to it at such a critical junction in my life.

Shelley Poovey is an Advanced Certified BodyTalk Practitioner & PaRama Practitioner who has coordinated BodyTalk continuing education programs and BodyTalk Founders Courses, with John Veltheim, in New York City since 2010. She has been an active contributor to the BodyTalk community speaking at IBA conferences and sharing her meditation approach, Radiant Human Meditation.

Shelley holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Psychology. She is a certified Reiki Master and Registered Yoga Teacher with specialized training in Meditation and Yoga Nidra. Shelley completed three years of study and is certified in Advanced Energy Medicine and is working on her Masters of Science in Health and Human Performance Program at Pacific College.

Clinic: BodyAttune IBA Bio




Merciless Gift --
Opened in New York

Marylene's book is currently out in Dutch (Genadeloos Geschenk - Uitgepakt in New York) and you can pre-order the nearly-completed English version. After her life-altering MS diagnosis and a time when she had difficulty even walking, Marylene has been symptom-free for years and wants to inspire other people dealing with illness and disease.


"I think there is a strong link between physical complaints and specific mental problems," says Smeets. "If your own immune system attacks your body, as with MS, for example, it can be a reflection of being too hard for yourself. I have become much softer for myself since my diagnosis."

You can find Marylene on Instagram at @marylenenyc or learn more about her book and pre-order the English version at https://www.marylenesmeets.eu/english/.

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