Alison Bowker has been running Feeling Colours since 2018. She describes herself as a guide rather than a colour consultant. In her method of colour analysis your body responds to the vibrations of colours. The outcome is a seasonal colour rating and the knowledge that you have a swatch of colours that will flatter you and make you feel fabulous.
Alison explains: "This method is going to speak to someone who is open, curious and looking for a new experience. It will feel very natural to someone who is connected to their spiritual side and loves depth.
"It's perfect for anyone on the threshold of a life change, perhaps a change in relationship, home or career, or bereavement or menopause. If you’re needing some inner orientation or alignment, Feeling Colours can really support you in meeting yourself anew and finding your centre."
How It All Started
Alison was trained in Berlin by Rita Münsterkötter, the founder of Feeling Colours. Fired up with her new knowledge, she applied it to her partner as soon as she got home, and they found he was an Autumn.
Alison had gone through the experience herself on the island of Corfu when a friend completed her own training with Rita. She explains how it felt. "My friend brought fabrics, mysteriously laid them on the bed and covered them, and then we went through a process of me feeling the colours, one at a time.
"My eyes were closed and I was both perplexed and excited. I wanted to get it right! But really you can't get it wrong. By the end of the session I discovered that I am truly a cool Summer type, rather than the Winter rating I'd previously been given by another consultant. "I was reborn, thanks to Feeling Colours."
A meeting with Rita was arranged the very next day, and after being trained Alison's company was born.
How Does Feeling Colour Differ from Traditional Colour Analysis?
Alison says the most obvious difference is the felt sense of colour. "Our minds have strong opinions about colour and the ones we love and hate. With Feeling Colours, the eyes are closed for some of the time – strange as that may sound. We are working from the inside as well as the outside. As one client joyfully declared mid-session, 'I’m just amazed that feeling a colour can make me smile and feel happy and present! This is me, connected.'"
Another difference is that the seasonal rating you're given by Feeling Colours won't change during your lifetime. It doesn’t alter as you age and your hair and skin tone change, though you may favour different colours over time within your palette.
Alison explains: "With Feeling Colours, you have been involved in the process of your season revealing itself, based on your internal responses, so you can trust it. It’s not something that is imposed. Knowing how the colours make you feel when you wear them is the guiding light."
How a Feeling Colour Session Unfolds
Says Alison: "The session is very unconventional in that, after we have met and had a cup of tea and got to know each other a little, I ask my client to close their eyes. I place the fabric swatches around their shoulders and then we see what arises. They do get to see the colours too! The invitation is to bring your trust and curiosity.
"It's a soulful process and takes around 4 hours, and sometimes longer if there’s a lot that needs space to be felt."
One of my burning questions for Alison, as someone who has had face-to-face colour analysis 3 times, was the likelihood of finding myself with yet another season and palette.
"It’s been about half and half so far. Examples that spring easily to mind are my mother and me. We both shifted from Winter, our previous rating from traditional colour analysis, to Summer when we had the Feeling Colours experience.
"The energy of the Winter colours was too strong for our systems and introduced a hardness and rigidity in how we looked and lived our lives. For my sister, though, her Winter analysis from our teenage consultation stood as the energy was a good match."
In Feeling Colours, the body and nervous system are responding to colour frequencies. Says Alison: "Warm colours read differently from cool ones so the body feels them in a different way. Sometimes people have a strong reaction to a colour. Sometimes they try to guess what the colour is. I did when I was the client, and I think it was a way to grasp at some security in the realm of the unknown!
"While it’s natural, it’s not very helpful. Feeling Colours works most smoothly when you can let go of your analytical mind and go into the body, trust what comes and let that speak."
Healing Colours
A lady who was rated as an Autumn wrote: "I suddenly realised why I’d often felt uncomfortable or ‘ugly’ when wearing certain clothes; it was not the garment itself but the colour that was affecting the way I felt about myself. I feel happier, more confident and at ease in the clothes I now wear."
This lady inadvertently referred to Alison's company as "Healing Colours," and it's not the first time this has happened.
Alison's Motivation
"I was drawn to training as a Feeling Colours guide because it brought together so many of my skills and gifts. Over the last 30 or so years I have taken trainings in many different healing modalities, NLP and coaching, yoga teacher training and embodiment through tai chi and tantra. I've also worked with spiritual teachers.
"I just love seeing people light up in their truth and their beauty, and it’s an honour to be part of the process that facilitates that.
"One of my clients said “It was a sense similar to having my [astrology] birth chart done or getting a thorough personal analysis. It encouraged me to be curious about different parts of myself and understand which colours will aid and support a more grounded, confident, self-loving and open me in the world.”
The Session and Follow-Up
The session takes between four and five hours with breaks for snacks. The cost is £350 which includes refreshments and a booklet of fabric swatches with your best colours highlighted.
Alison also sends a PDF with practical information on how to integrate what you have discovered during the session, and she is available for a follow up call to answer any questions once you've started putting your learnings into practice.
She offers a follow up session for a deep dive into your season. The aim of this, Alison says, is to fine tune your eye to look at your palette in its entirety. You'll have more time to feel more of your colours and look at combinations. Finally, she also offers her services as a shopping companion.
Contact Alison
Photos were taken by Ksenia Belash and Gaelyn Larrick
I hope you enjoyed this different slant on colour analysis, which as you may have noticed, is something that fascinates me! Other posts that may interest you:
Living her life in colour: Liddy Pereira
This sounds really interesting especially since colour says a lot about a persons mood and style.
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