CLOSING THE BONES
Cerrada Closing Ceremony
Based on the Latin American Tradition, the “Cerrada” is a postpartum healing ritual, to nurture the mother after her passage through giving birth, and her journey into motherhood – whether it’s the first baby or not. It’s a celebration, a setting of sacred space, and a way to nurture the Mum. It’s most commonly known in English as Closing the Bones, but you may also hear of it as Mother Warming, Mother Roasting, Mothering Ceremony, or Bone Closing.
Beyond the physical aspect of closing the bones, there is a spiritual aspect to the massage, which provides a safe space/ritual for the mother to feel nurtured and release emotions associated with the birth and motherhood.
It’s a truly powerful healing tool that acknowledges the immense changes a woman has undergone in pregnancy and childbirth and assists in bringing her spirit back into her own body and recover from the heat lost at birth.
This ceremony is a Rite of Passage… Closing a cycle to open a new one…
This is a sacred and traditional post partum healing ceremony, acknowledging, nurturing and deeply honouring the Mother and her journey.
The process literally helps to close a Mother’s body, which has opened in so many ways, both in preparation for and during birth itself. The ritual can also help close a new Mother energetically, as both pregnancy and particularly the intense process of labour and birth, can be very vulnerable times for a woman.
Incorporating a mix of energy work, aromatherapy, sound healing, and massage, this rite of passage involves being bathed in a warming herbal bath, anointed, massaged, and finally wrapped with a rebozo in the Maya tradition.
Physically, it guides bones back into place, helps the uterus shrink back down, and stimulates blood flow. Emotionally, it provides a sense of calm and grounding, and re-establishes a sense of self.
We create an altar, a sacred space set up specifically to celebrate you and your journey during the Closing the Bones Ceremony. Ceremonial altars are used for specific changes in life, to honour ancestors, the elements of Nature and other events… It serves as a visual focus of your spiritual intentions, affirmations, prayers and energy.
Birth itself is considered to be the moment of greatest expansion of the vibrational field in all its planes (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual). The Closing the Bones ceremony honours this expansion and gently offers closure to the new mother as she returns to her own centre and integrates her personal transformation to motherhood.
Closing The Bones can also mark a special and important situation or event in a woman’s life like a stillborn, miscarriage, termination, wedding, change of career, death of a close one, etc.
3-4 hour session:
Cacao or Tea Ceremony where I give you space to debrief the birth experience
Full body Rebozo Massage
Energy Work
Moxibustion
Womb Massage
Herbal Bath or Yoni Steam or Sitz Bath
“La Cerrada”
Sound Bath
Price:
£280 + parking – at your home
SPECIAL OFFER
Closing the Bones + Bengkung Belly Wrap
£320 + parking – 1 session (you can book more Belly Wrap sessions)
Get in touch for more information or to book yourself in.
Testimonials
“What can I say about Alexa’s closing the bones ceremony? It was wonderful. I felt held (metaphorically, and also literally held with the rebozo scarves during the massage) and totally cared for during the whole ceremony. It was wonderful to honour my body, and surrender to Alexa, allowing her to nurture me and acknowledge just what my body had been through. A rebozo scarf was wrapped around my head and removed right at the end, and I truly felt reborn as a mother. Alexa is so wise and kind, and it was a pleasure to be cared for by her. She also cared for my baby so kindly. It’s definitely one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I made it for myself, to honour myself. Highly recommend.” – Laura
Alexa, thank you so much for the closing the bones ceremony yesterday. It was such a deep and powerful experience , a real release of fears, anxieties and a letting go. A deep sense of grief for Lunas birth but then an overwhelming sense of acceptance and joy for her arriving into the world safely. I think I needed to go through the process, to confront the birth and reach an acceptance that it was all ok. Thank you for holding such a safe space for me to switch off and process the past few weeks in such a loving, nurturing way. It was such a beautiful experience and something I will treasure forever.” – Laurie
“I feel honoured to have experienced Closing the Bones from Alexa. It has made a big difference both emotionally and physically. Alexa came and therap’d my birthing body. She started by making herbs for the bath and I got in. Baby B joined me and we had a relaxing soak. Then moved onto navigating a week old babe to sleep so she could perform the Closing the Bones Massage & Ceremony on me. I adore the way she works. She is so good at what she does. I can’t just call it postnatal massage because she has so much more skill to add. With sound healing, rebozo, shiatsu, acupressure, aromatherapy, doula, healing…” – Sophie Louise Kirkham, founder of Calm Hypnobirthing
“Alexa has a wonderful calming spiritual energy. We started with a chat and I had a relaxing bath with herbs. She then gave me an abdominal massage and my body was wrapped up like a whole body hug! The wapping was from head to toes using rebozos. Alexa used drumming and singing to finish with silent meditation. I loved this time just from me. No demands on me whatsoever. I feel It honours the time that has passed, growing, birthing and feeding my girls and marks a new chapter as they are both slowly becoming more independent and I can look forward to more time just as myself as a singular body, on my own in my own space. This process literally helps “close” a mother’s body, which “opens” in so many ways, both in preparation for and during birth itself. Thank you Alexa, you are a beautiful soul” – Katie
“I was a quite anxious at first as I had a long and challenging day with the baby but as soon as Alexa arrived her calming energy worked on it’s magic on me. I chilled right out and knew I was in good hands. A truly healing ceremony. I’m so pleased I chose to start my healing process with Alexa, she has such a beautiful warm and loving, motherly energy. I felt like I was finally being nurtured after giving so much of myself to my baby. It’s even better that it happened inside my home where the rest of our healing will take place. We look forward to more treatment.” – Shelley
“It was an entirely new experience for me and a real support and marker as I am continuing to transition into motherhood and my new postnatal self” – Cecile
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