Who We Are
Who We Are
The Staff of the Balancing Center
Director: Priscilla Kapel
I grew up in Bronxville, New York, in the days when all food was organic, “ice boxes” had real chunks of ice in them, we were awakened by hundreds of noisy robins on the lawn, and the telephone operator would ask you for just four numbers, and then she would plug you in to your friend’s phone.
My mother and I used to go to the zoo to sketch the animals, and we made clay sculptures of them. This was the beginning of my career as a sculptor. Dad was an inventor, and he enjoyed sharing his theories about the space-time continuum and speculating about the universe. Those conversations developed, eventually, into my open-ended spiritual curiosity.
After high school at Concord Academy, in Concord, Massachusetts, I studied sculpture, ceramics and chemistry at Ohio State University, and did my graduate work at Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The next year I married John Kapel, a design student at Cranbrook, and I became part of his Slovenian family and community.
We moved from New York to California with our two-year old Vida, our one-year old Evan, and Ben was born a few months later. As they grew up I was able to do some terracotta sculpture, and the kids did theirs too.
By chance I came across a dear Cuban friend I hadn’t seen since we were teenagers, Ernesto Gonzales, who was giving a show of his welded sculpture in a garden in Palo Alto. As soon as I walked into the yard, he put down his torch, lifted up his mask, and joyously called out “Ah Ha! The Rumba!” We talked about the good times in art school in New York, and our rhumba dancing, and then he said “You need to be a welder. Sit down. Here is the torch. I will teach you.” He was an exacting teacher. Precision. Details.
From then on, steel and bronze became my new medium. Pictures of some of them are in the Gallery section, under the Green logo.
In the late sixties, when our daughter Vida went to live in a commune, I felt that this new view of society was a valid concept to explore, so I spent the summer in a commune near Mendocino, and experienced a life-style that was a welcome contrast to the suburban social consensus.
After I got home, John and I developed differences. We eventually separated, and I moved from Woodside to Palo Alto. I received my massage certification, studied bodywork with Michael Murphy at the Massage Center, and became a massage therapist. After finishing Prescott College, Evan moved into my little cottage. He talked about the new concepts in the alternative health field, and at the same time Vida introduced me to the work of Dr. Wilhelm Reich.
During that time, I studied Touch for Health with Dr. John Thie, and this became the basis for the vibrational communication and healing work that was later to evolve.
When Evan went to Santa Cruz, Ben moved in. With muscle testing, he and I were able to verify some of Dr. Reich’s experiments about orgone energy, and I became part of the Orgone Energy Workshop, in Berkeley.
My next major connection was in Clinical Ecology, with Dr. Philpott and Dr. Mandel. Their work opened up my ability to resolve amino acid utilization disorders that often form the basis for difficult health issues. I audited a class in Endocrinology at U.C. Berkeley while Ben was there studying biophysics, and these diverse resources became the foundation for the Bioenergy Balancing Center®.
In 1981 I left my massage practice at the Massage Center, and started the Balancing Center with a few very creative people. As we were developing our unique healthcare modality, we all went to the Lazaris seminars, and his teaching became integrated into the spiritual awareness that has become part of our work with clients. At the same time, we found that the muscle-testing skills from Touch for Health were able to reveal not only quite complex biochemical processes, but could clarify unresolved emotional issues, and as our work continues to unfold, we still keep discovering new and surprising ways that they are connected.
Now that I have entered my nineties, I have cut back one day of client appointments, and have turned the Bioenergy Balancing Training school over to my colleagues, so that I am able to enjoy more time for writing.
Office Staff:
Wendy Harrison has a practice as an Ayurvedic practitioner, does deep tissue massage, specializing in back and neck problems. She teaches in our school, and handles the finances for both the Balancing Center and the Bioenergy Balancing Training.
Heather Rizzoli is a gourmet chef, political activist, and teaches in our school. She is psychically gifted, and is learning to channel off-planet people from Arcturus. She is starting her own Bioenergy Balancing practice in the East Bay, in Pleasanton.
Co-Practitioner Staff:
With great regret I need to say that our very beloved Co-P and teacher, Oliver Krevet, died last March after a long illness. It’s hard to imagine being without his warm friendship and playful humor. It’s hard to get used to never being in Oliver’s physical presence again, or observe his intuitive perception with clients and students, but at the same time we are grateful that he is out of pain, and able to bask in the light of his life beyond this one. All blessings and love to you, dear friend.
We have ten women and two men on staff as Co-Practitioners, each one bringing intuitive skills, and offering unique specialties and perspectives to facilitate our client’s process. Along with these interesting variations, I am there to anchor the work within the scope of its expected parameters.
Teaching Staff:
Our school, the Bioenergy Balancing Training, is in good hands. We have a staff of nine highly skilled teachers who team-teach different units of the training, throughout the year. Zvi Margalit, Tess Amidan, Anna Spanjaart, Jill Clifton, Carol Bjorn, Heather Rizzoli, Wendy Harrison, and Kristy Roesner.
The Staff of the Balancing Center
Director: Priscilla Kapel
I grew up in Bronxville, New York, in the days when all food was organic, “ice boxes” had real chunks of ice in them, we were awakened by hundreds of noisy robins on the lawn, and the telephone operator would ask you for just four numbers, and then she would plug you in to your friend’s phone.
My mother and I used to go to the zoo to sketch the animals, and we made clay sculptures of them. This was the beginning of my career as a sculptor. Dad was an inventor, and he enjoyed sharing his theories about the space-time continuum and speculating about the universe. Those conversations developed, eventually, into my open-ended spiritual curiosity.
After high school at Concord Academy, in Concord, Massachusetts, I studied sculpture, ceramics and chemistry at Ohio State University, and did my graduate work at Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The next year I married John Kapel, a design student at Cranbrook, and I became part of his Slovenian family and community.
We moved from New York to California with our two-year old Vida, our one-year old Evan, and Ben was born a few months later. As they grew up I was able to do some terracotta sculpture, and the kids did theirs too.
By chance I came across a dear Cuban friend I hadn’t seen since we were teenagers, Ernesto Gonzales, who was giving a show of his welded sculpture in a garden in Palo Alto. As soon as I walked into the yard, he put down his torch, lifted up his mask, and joyously called out “Ah Ha! The Rumba!” We talked about the good times in art school in New York, and our rhumba dancing, and then he said “You need to be a welder. Sit down. Here is the torch. I will teach you.” He was an exacting teacher. Precision. Details.
From then on, steel and bronze became my new medium. Pictures of some of them are in the Gallery section, under the Green logo.
In the late sixties, when our daughter Vida went to live in a commune, I felt that this new view of society was a valid concept to explore, so I spent the summer in a commune near Mendocino, and experienced a life-style that was a welcome contrast to the suburban social consensus.
After I got home, John and I developed differences. We eventually separated, and I moved from Woodside to Palo Alto. I received my massage certification, studied bodywork with Michael Murphy at the Massage Center, and became a massage therapist. After finishing Prescott College, Evan moved into my little cottage. He talked about the new concepts in the alternative health field, and at the same time Vida introduced me to the work of Dr. Wilhelm Reich.
During that time, I studied Touch for Health with Dr. John Thie, and this became the basis for the vibrational communication and healing work that was later to evolve.
When Evan went to Santa Cruz, Ben moved in. With muscle testing, he and I were able to verify some of Dr. Reich’s experiments about orgone energy, and I became part of the Orgone Energy Workshop, in Berkeley.
My next major connection was in Clinical Ecology, with Dr. Philpott and Dr. Mandel. Their work opened up my ability to resolve amino acid utilization disorders that often form the basis for difficult health issues. I audited a class in Endocrinology at U.C. Berkeley while Ben was there studying biophysics, and these diverse resources became the foundation for the Bioenergy Balancing Center®.
In 1981 I left my massage practice at the Massage Center, and started the Balancing Center with a few very creative people. As we were developing our unique healthcare modality, we all went to the Lazaris seminars, and his teaching became integrated into the spiritual awareness that has become part of our work with clients. At the same time, we found that the muscle-testing skills from Touch for Health were able to reveal not only quite complex biochemical processes, but could clarify unresolved emotional issues, and as our work continues to unfold, we still keep discovering new and surprising ways that they are connected.
Now that I have entered my nineties, I have cut back one day of client appointments, and have turned the Bioenergy Balancing Training school over to my colleagues, so that I am able to enjoy more time for writing.
Office Staff:
Wendy Harrison has a practice as an Ayurvedic practitioner, does deep tissue massage, specializing in back and neck problems. She teaches in our school, and handles the finances for both the Balancing Center and the Bioenergy Balancing Training.
Heather Rizzoli is a gourmet chef, political activist, and teaches in our school. She is psychically gifted, and is learning to channel off-planet people from Arcturus. She is starting her own Bioenergy Balancing practice in the East Bay, in Pleasanton.
Co-Practitioner Staff:
With great regret I need to say that our very beloved Co-P and teacher, Oliver Krevet, died last March after a long illness. It’s hard to imagine being without his warm friendship and playful humor. It’s hard to get used to never being in Oliver’s physical presence again, or observe his intuitive perception with clients and students, but at the same time we are grateful that he is out of pain, and able to bask in the light of his life beyond this one. All blessings and love to you, dear friend.
We have ten women and two men on staff as Co-Practitioners, each one bringing intuitive skills, and offering unique specialties and perspectives to facilitate our client’s process. Along with these interesting variations, I am there to anchor the work within the scope of its expected parameters.
Teaching Staff:
Our school, the Bioenergy Balancing Training, is in good hands. We have a staff of nine highly skilled teachers who team-teach different units of the training, throughout the year. Zvi Margalit, Tess Amidan, Anna Spanjaart, Jill Clifton, Carol Bjorn, Heather Rizzoli, Wendy Harrison, and Kristy Roesner.
