This is the story of how a man and a woman, born in widely different continents, were united by the love and passion for helping people to a better and healthier life. About how they chose Cyprus to become their new home and how they realized the common dream of starting Kayana, a healthy company that sees the body and soul from a holistic perspective.
Michael and Viola welcome us to their home in their lush garden. We sit down in the shade to listen to their story.
Michael was born in Nicosia in the days when the island was a British colony. The year was 1946 when his parents, due to redundancy in England after the Second World War, made the decision to move to Cyprus. Michael’s Greek grandfather, from the island of Symi, had a trading company and some property in Cyprus from before the war and his grandmother was British.
When Michael was 11 years old he started boarding school in England. In the years that followed, he would visit his family in Cyprus during summer vacations. He remembers how he used to really miss Cyprus, the warmth and the people. England was not the place for him.
– During my earlier years, I had never really figured out if I felt like a Cypriot or an Englishman, said Michael. But after years at boarding school in England, I was quite sure that I was absolutely not an Englishman!
After graduation, Michael left England to go out into the world and work as an engineer in the oil fields. Soon after he bought an old house in a village near Kyrenia in Cyprus and started a renovation project, to eventually be able to move in there. However, it would not be long before his plans were completely overturned. One day when he was out working on an oil platform in the North Sea, just a short time after he bought the house, he heard on the radio that Turkey had gone into Cyprus. Michael says with a smile:
– I remember that I thought; Well, so much for the house!
However, it would appear that he had been lucky. When he returned to Cyprus three years later he found the house remained untouched, the only residents were some chickens and goats. He continued slowly with the renovations during regular visits and gradually the house became livable again. Michael says that it was quite peculiar to return to his homeland when it was now divided into north and south.
– Everything looked the same as when I had seen it last, but the population in the village had entirely changed. Before I went, all my neighbors spoke Greek Cypriot, when I got back they were all Turkish Cypriots.
At the time he was, as he puts it, influenced by the propaganda coming from the south side of Cyprus. But after a number of visits and talking to his new neighbours in the village who had been resettled from a village near Paphos, he picked up a different version of what had actually happened and his views changed. He bought books, made research, and acquired an entirely different view of the conflict and what was actually behind Turkey’s landing in 1974.
During the 80’ Michael was a Hang Glider pioneer. Becoming a professional pilot and flying instructor, he formed his own company marketing Hang Gliding equipment and operated a flying school in the Southern Alps of France. He represented France in a number of international competitions winning a gold medal in Austria at the 1980 European Championships.
During the 90’s, Michael developed an interest in the wellbeing of the body and spirit of man and retrained in Massage and Breathwork. He founded The Body Therapy Center in France in ’93, practicing and teaching massage and personal development. He had thoughts of starting up a massage therapy center in Cyprus but it was too early, the people of Cyprus were not open to such a thing at the time.
It was at a conference for Rebirthing and Breathwork Therapy in Spain he met his future love Viola. The year was 1999 and she had gone there from Venezuela, where she ran a very successful wellness center in the capital, Caracas.
– I was born in Iraq and raised in Lebanon, says Viola. We emigrate to Venezuela in 1972 when I was 13 years old.
As a teenager back then, the move from the Middle East to South America was a challenge, but by attending evening classes Viola quickly learned to speak Spanish and started to work from the age of 13. By the time she was 20 she was a marketing manager. For a long time she worked in the insurance industry before completely changing her career course to take up the old childhood dream she never really had been able to let go of, the dream of working with psychology.
Viola had chosen to educate herself through alternative means; transactional analysis and meditation, breathing techniques and transpersonal psychology. Also she has the experience as a patient, she did four years of psychoanalysis, followed by Transactional Analysis and Gestalt group therapy.
Eventually, in 1993, she took the plunge and opened the Centro Rebirthing de Venezuela, a holistic therapy center for Breathwork in Caracas, and EdwardConsult, Holistic Business Consultancy.
In 2002, a few years after Viola met Michael, they decided that the house in Catalkoy will their home, Viola moved to Cyprus. They shared their knowledge together and started up their new company, Kayana.
Kayana sees health as a whole; the mind, the body and the spirit are all an integral part of each other. They belong together, so to be effective, therapy should not be limited to working with individual aspects of health. You have to see how it all fits together as a whole and treat situations by considering the complete picture.
Viola is a holistic psychotherapist and breathworker; she is also a relationship coach and helps couples and singles alike to feel comfortable in their relationships with others and themselves.
– Often it is about cultural differences in a relationship, she says. People have different backgrounds and often will not see situations in the same way as each other. There may be cultural differences about time perception, physical proximity, or other habits.
It is quite usual that the conflicts in a relationship will emerges sometime during the first two years together. Viola says that about 70% of the couples that come for counseling and stay in therapy until their process is complete manage to stay together and learn from their process, but much will depend on how long you have been living with the problems and the commitment of the couple to work on their issues.
– In many relationships, couples will hold on to the security of the relationship even though resentment and misunderstandings have created distrust and insecurity which affect the feelings deeply. So much better to go and talk to a professional in good time, while love, hope and respect are still there, for when emotions are long gone, it may be difficult to repair the relationship, says Viola.
Viola and Michael say that they themselves, as a couple, are very different in many ways. They are both from different cultures, different backgrounds and age. He is an outdoors person who loves to play sports, while she thrives indoors with a good book. The keys to their happy relationship in addition to love and healthy sexuality are: shared vision and core values, truthfulness and effective communication, some shared interests and hobbies, Agreement on the distribution of duties, all of which are included in what she teaches to those couples who seek her counseling.
The couples who come for coaching are of mixed ages, most are local Cypriots. Viola states that Counseling and Breathwork are only one part of the treatment, and often recommends her clients to follow other treatments with different professionals as well.
Michael is a body worker, trained in Massage, Watsu and Breathwork.
– Stress and relaxation cannot exist together in the same body at the same time, so exercises that take us to a deep relaxation will also remove all the stress.
Watsu is an excellent example of relaxation therapy for those who are stressed or just seeking tranquility within. The treatment is really beneficial for the body and the deep relaxation of the mind. The practice involves floating in a heated freshwater pool while breathing steadily. Michael is constantly present and in a rhythmic way moves the body with gentle contact with the neck and lower back. In the warm water, the body can easily be stretched and pulled out and the sounds of the heartbeat and the breathing are reminiscent of the environment surrounding the foetus in the mother’s womb. The body sensations can reconnect the sub-conscious with memories of that tranquil experience.
-Massage has different benefits, As well as bringing relaxation to the mind, the physical body can be helped with its healing processes. For couples, learning how to massage each other, touching with love and affection using a different energy than is present in sexuality helps strengthen their communication skills and builds understanding and empathy. Michael is organizing a Massage Training called “Touching Hearts” which is directed at helping couples develop their communication skills through Conscious Touch.
Colour analysis is another service Viola offers. Through various techniques it can be concluded which colours fit you best, and from there what garments to fill your wardrobe with.
– It saves time and money by choosing the right colour of clothes and makeup when you know from the beginning what suits you. And when you’re satisfied with the outside your often happier on the inside, she states.
You can tell that as a couple, Viola and Michael, live what they preach. They describe their lifestyle as organic, healthy and colourful. And there is much love and energy. They laugh together when Viola picks up an orange piece of cloth and holds it next to Michael’s face to show what colour absolutely does not suit him. Cyprus is their home now and this is where they want to continue living and help people around them to have a healthy life, in body, mind and soul.
For more information about Viola & Michael and their company Kayana please visit: www.violaedward.com and www.watsucyprus.com
