In a world where physical ailments are often treated in isolation, Jeannine L. Rashidi has built a transformative practice that sees the body, mind, and heart as interconnected. As the founder of Goodbye Tension and the creator of the innovative EDHIR® Process, Jeannine’s approach to wellness is rooted in the belief that true healing comes from within. With over two decades of experience in integrating Ayurvedic principles, bodywork, and mental-emotional processing, Jeannine has become a leading force in addressing the root causes of tension, trauma, and disease. In this exclusive interview, Mystic Mag dives deep into her journey—from the creation of her unique therapy methods to her dedication to empowering others to awaken their inner healer.
Your journey began with traditional massage therapy, but you shifted toward more integrative approaches like PUSH and Ayurveda. What inspired you to move beyond conventional methods?
What I found was that everyone coming in for traditional massage wasn’t able to address the core of their issues. It seemed that clients had to come in consistently, and even then, the results felt palliative at best. We weren’t addressing the root cause of the problem—only providing temporary relief. This left me feeling like I was making money off of people’s pain, which didn’t sit well with me. I wanted to find a more meaningful way to help clients, so I began searching for other modalities that could get to the root cause of pain.
When I discovered Push Therapy, it seemed to delve deeper into the core issues by examining how people use their bodies. It’s a more conscious approach. Instead of a client coming in, falling asleep, and passively receiving treatment, the client stays awake during the session. They don’t have to remove their clothes, which is particularly beneficial for people with trauma—something I’ve found myself specializing in over time. During sessions, we examine how clients use their bodies and encourage them to feel what’s happening. The sessions are more intense because we work across the grain of the tissue.
In between sessions, we teach clients self-treatment techniques to relieve their own tension and use their bodies differently. The goal is empowerment, not dependency on the practitioner. However, because Push Therapy can be quite intense, it’s not suitable for everyone. That led me to explore other modalities, like Yamuna table treatments, which use different-sized balls to relieve tension. My search has been a continuous journey of discovering approaches that align with my principles: addressing the core problem so clients don’t become perpetually dependent on the practitioner.
The Ayurvedic piece came into my practice about 12 years ago. Ayurveda focuses on diet and lifestyle, which I’ve found to be integral to addressing pain and health holistically. In my practice, everything is connected. For example, if someone comes in with muscular pain, it’s rarely just about the muscles. Let’s say a client has anxiety, which resides in the mind. If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, you might notice how your shoulders tense and scrunch. That leads to neck and shoulder tension. Anxiety also cuts off blood flow to the digestive tract, which can result in gut issues.
With Ayurveda, we address the whole person. We look at the gut, routines, and stress levels. It’s about treating the root cause, not just the symptoms, because everything in the body is interconnected.
Your practice focuses on alleviating the core of physical, digestive, emotional, and mental tension. How do you approach identifying and addressing the root causes of these issues?
It’s usually done through more of an interview process. Depending on how someone finds out about Goodbye Tension, I conduct sessions either in person or online. If someone is reaching out online—let’s say they’re on the other side of the world—it’s usually because they’re dealing with a medical issue. They might already have a diagnosis, but Western medicine hasn’t been able to alleviate their symptoms. Perhaps they’ve heard about Eastern medicine and are looking for a different approach, or they’re seeking help with mental and emotional components, which led them to me.
Through the interview process, I explore what has brought them to me in the first place and how I can address their immediate concerns. That’s typically what they’re seeking relief for. At the same time, I use this process to plant seeds, helping them understand that there might be a deeper root cause than what they currently perceive. For instance, if someone comes in with digestive issues, how can I help them see that the root may lie in the mind?
From an Eastern perspective, most diseases originate in the mind, but that can be a difficult concept for clients to grasp. My role is to communicate this in a way that resonates with them—making it accessible and easy to understand. This approach helps them begin their journey back toward health, with a clearer understanding of the connection between their mind, emotions, and body.
What type of services do you offer?
Primarily, it’s about heart and mind integration because everything begins with the mind. That’s essentially the foundation of my approach.
When you visit my website, you’ll see several different options, but everything operates under the principle of integration. If you come in for an in-person session, we might start with physical therapies. However, we’ll eventually dive deeper, examining diet and lifestyle through the lens of Ayurveda. We’ll also explore what’s happening mentally and emotionally to address the mind component.
Ultimately, the goal is heart and mind integration, bringing all aspects of well-being into harmony.
You’ve developed the EDHIR® system to integrate the heart and mind for wholeness. Can you explain how this system works and what inspired its creation?
This is an acronym for Explore, Discover, Heal, Integrate, and Relate—EDHIR®. This process emerged because I specialize in trauma, a focus that stems from my own experience with decades of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
If you’ve ever suffered from trauma, you know one of the most challenging aspects—especially within the framework of traditional Western psychology and therapy—is having to repeatedly tell your story. The mind doesn’t track time, so every time you recount your story, you’re essentially reliving it. For someone with PTSD, this can be unbearable, as they’re already trapped in a cycle of reliving the trauma.
I kept asking myself: How does one heal without having to relive the trauma over and over again? This question led to the development of EDHIR®, which emerged both from my work with clients seeking help and my personal healing journey. What I discovered is that healing doesn’t require reliving those painful moments. Instead, it involves finding and reconnecting with the aspects of ourselves that became disconnected as a result of the trauma.
When we experience trauma that overwhelms our mind-body system, parts of us disconnect as a self-preservation mechanism. This disconnection is adaptive in the moment of trauma, but what’s often overlooked is how to reconnect with those parts of ourselves afterward.
My role through the EDHIR® process is to help clients locate those disconnected aspects and reclaim them.
Explore: The first step is to explore where those disconnected parts reside. It’s an internal journey of discovery, identifying all the aspects of yourself that were separated during the traumatic event.
Discover: Once we’ve explored these aspects, we bring them to a safe space that you create within yourself—a space where nothing bad can happen.
Heal: With the discovered aspects in this safe space, I guide clients through the healing process. This involves addressing what these parts need to feel seen, heard, loved, accepted, and safe. Each aspect is nurtured and supported until it is ready to heal.
Integrate: After healing, we move to integration. The once-disconnected aspects merge back into the self, creating a sense of wholeness.
Relate: Finally, we enter the relate phase. This is the most beautiful, interesting, and sometimes challenging step. With these reclaimed parts of yourself reintegrated, you must learn to relate to the world—and to yourself—in a new way. Since many of your decisions and actions were made from a disconnected place, this phase involves adjusting to life with this newfound wholeness.
As you go through this process, your relationships may also shift. Some will evolve, while others may fall away. This can be both beautiful and challenging, but I’ve witnessed remarkable transformations as people embrace their authentic selves through the EDHIR® process.
Ultimately, EDHIR® is a journey of uncovering, reclaiming, and reintegrating, allowing people to live life in a way that feels whole and aligned.
Ayurveda places great importance on diet and lifestyle. How do you guide your clients in making sustainable changes that align with their individual constitutions?
There are individual constitutions, which represent one aspect of health. In this day and age, however, the primary focus is on what is out of balance. The individual constitution is referred to as prakriti, but what often needs attention is the imbalance, or vikriti. Our goal is to help individuals understand how to bring themselves back into balance.
There are some key components that everyone listening or reading can benefit from, starting with routine.
Routine: It’s important to get to sleep by 10:00 PM each night. The reason for this is that the mind can only digest its previous experiences—whether from the current day or even unresolved experiences from the past—between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. However, this mental digestion can only occur when the body is asleep. Many people believe eight hours of sleep at any time is sufficient, but the timing of those hours makes a significant difference. Prioritize falling asleep by 10:00 PM, getting good-quality, deep sleep, and waking up around the same time each morning—ideally between 5:00 and 6:00 AM.
Additionally, eat three meals a day at consistent times, with your largest meal around midday when the sun is at its peak. This aligns with our digestive fire, which is strongest during that time. Your lighter meals should be in the morning and evening.
Food and Drink: Focus on eating warm, cooked foods. Avoid raw foods, cold foods, and cold liquids. Here in the United States, drinking beverages with ice is common, but this practice dampens our digestive fire, slows down our metabolism, and reduces our ability to transform nutrients. Over time, this creates imbalances.
Breath: Establish a consistent breathing practice. This could be deep diaphragmatic breathing, box breathing (inhaling for a count of four, holding for four, exhaling for four, and holding again for four), or alternate nostril breathing. Wherever the breath goes, the mind follows.
Perception: Life is inherently beautiful, despite the challenges and less-than-ideal situations happening in the world. It’s how we respond to these circumstances that matters most. If we let negativity consume us, it can directly impact our health. Negative energy is a form of consumption, and it affects us just like unhealthy food or harmful substances. Pay attention to what you are consuming—not just through your diet, but through your thoughts, visual inputs, and inner dialogue. Focus on maintaining a positive perception, as it is essential to your health and wellness.
These are the basic principles of Ayurveda. Addressing imbalances, however, requires a unique approach tailored to each individual. This is where seeking the guidance of an Ayurvedic practitioner or doctor becomes essential.
For those interested in learning more, I’d love to share my book, Abundance Beyond Trauma (https://a.co/d/3QH1fj6) , which comes with a companion workbook (https://a.co/d/87q99pW) . Both are available on Amazon. Additionally, you can visit my website at GoodbyeTension.com. There, you’ll find the free “I’m Triggered Pocket Guide” (https://www.goodbyetension.com/abundance-beyond-trauma) on the Abundance Beyond Trauma page, which is available as a free download.
I also offer a free 25-minute discovery call for anyone looking to work with me. Feel free to take advantage of these resources as you embark on your journey to health and balance.
