bridge builder Werner Streicher
Among the most valuable gifts I have received in my life are my wife Kerstin, my three adult sons and their wives and children, our three animal friends, and my own life journey with all its ups and downs. The gifts that life had in store for me came to me while I was attending an “outer and inner school of life”:
In the “outer school of life,” I first learned to accept that my grade point average was not high enough to study my dream subject, medicine. This was followed by positions as a nurse, sports therapist for rehabilitation, alternative practitioner for psychotherapy, therapy director in cardiac rehabilitation, addiction rehabilitation, gynecology, orthopedics, and psychiatry, operations manager of a health center and a thermal spa, and CEO of a clinic for holistic medicine. At a health resort, I was delighted to be able to teach people about the effects of natural remedies such as brine-spring-water, mud with high content of humin-acid, and natural carbon dioxide spring-water. My research work in the USA in the field of cardiovascular physiology gave me an even deeper insight into people's health-related issues and needs. As director and team member of a famous clinic in Schwyz for holistic medicine, we succeeded in transforming it into a clinic with an interprofessional concept in the fields of natural healing therapy, psychiatry, sleep medicine, and specialized medicine branches from 2013 to 2015.
In the “Inner Life School,” I experienced my first awakening at the age of 18, when I was suffering greatly from the violent communication between my parents. I had an inspiration: “Become a bridge builder, lead people out of darkness into light, out of the pain they have experienced into freedom.” My years of stomach aches and the sadness associated with them suddenly made sense to me. From then on, I always looked for ways to bring people out of the valley of tears and into healing. Early on as a child, I played the role of “surrogate husband” for my mother, and later I imagined that I could free my father from his alcohol consumption. These attempts failed at the age of 38 in a divorce and a physical separation from my beloved sons. During this time, I experienced a “second awakening.” My focus shifted to searching for a form of love that was not bound to conditions, as it had been in my life up to that point. When I came into contact with this pure unconditional love, I was able to open myself up for the first time in my life for a deep feeling of gratitude towards my parents, that I had the privilege to incarnate with them, and forgiveness happened on all levels, liberating us all.
As a mentor in transformation processes, I have been focusing since 2015 on accompanying and supporting people on their journey from suffering to the path of light. I help them to resolve old wounds, to question their one-sided focus on external success, and to replace the darkness they have experienced with the light they long for. The question “Who do I no longer want to be?” comes to the fore, and at some point this leads to the question “Who or what am I really?” “Who or what am I in my unlimited true essence?” During this inner work, I experienced my “third awakening.” I realized that we humans have the opportunity to recreate our own reality in every moment of our lives. I realized that Astrid Lindgren had described this freedom of creation so wonderfully in her book "Pippi Langstrumpf". I learned to acknowledge that I had been in an illusory, self-made prison of suffering, pain, helplessness, and vulnerability. Leaving this place became my first steps toward true freedom, as I learned to accept myself and my counterpart as we truly are, as human beings who are pure divine light and awareness at our core.
