WHEN MY WIFE’S FRIEND offered to be one of my first clients, I appreciated the favor. Neither one of us had any idea what a change it would bring about. She later let me know.
“I had been having a difficult time with insomnia,” she said. “I was very pleased after my session to go right to sleep, and sleep well all night. The therapy was very relaxing and seemed to stimulate some good energy after my great night of rest.” She came back for a couple of sessions and continued to sleep well.
I got interested in energy healing when our church, Bethlehem Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, started offering Healing Touch classes. The church now has a Healing Touch Ministry. Hundreds of sessions have been offered over the past few years. If you can get a Norwegian Lutheran on a massage table for energy healing, it must be good stuff!
Many forms of energy healing are out there. Healing Touch is good stuff, because it was developed by nurses. (I say that with true appreciation, being married to one.) This form of energy work is highly developed, widely used and and thoroughly researched and documented. The program’s rigorous apprenticeship curriculum includes systematic and detailed documentation on practice sessions, reports to write on an extensive list of required reading, and case studies to present. (And I thought graduate school was hard!)
One works under the guidance of a mentor and also submits a self-study to document personal growth and development as a practitioner.
As a practitioner, I set the stage for the healing encounter with a client by being fully present and conscious that my own energy is grounded, centered, balanced, aligned and attuned. I set the intention for the client’s highest good in the present moment. I listen with my hands and intuition for places in the client’s body and energy field that call for attention. The techniques I use come from disciplined study and practice. The steps I take come from compassionate, heart-centered, and spontaneous responses to my client’s energy. I touch and feel things shift, begin to clear, get stronger, become more balanced.
Here’s how a few of my clients have described their experiences with energy healing:
- “I have been in radiation treatments for a number of weeks and was feeling some fatigue and anxiety. Even one session was very helpful for both symptoms. It was a very positive experience for me.”
- “This has been a great help in my recovery from painful abdominal surgery. It takes me quickly to comfortable places where the pain is far less. The days following a session I experience noticeable recovery, strength and energy. Learning how to direct good energy into my body has been surprisingly easy and interesting.”
- “I could feel places of tension release that I didn’t know I had.”
- “I had to drag myself in here…I sure didn’t feel like I was dragging myself out!”
I can also speak to the value of energy healing as a client. As part of my practice and self-care, I experience it regularly myself. This summer, a sudden death and a serious medical condition occurred in my family. I felt like I was holding up just fine with everything going on around me, but I didn’t realize how much I was holding in. During a recent healing session, I felt a profound release of tension. It was as though a dark, dense, mass of energy deep within me began to spin rapidly and disintegrate into tiny pieces. I felt like a totally different person when I got off the table. I didn’t recognize my handwriting when I wrote the check for my session.
Four steps come to mind when I think of energy healing: relax, release, refresh and renew. Energy work is very relaxing. It helps release the way a person is holding things on a number of levels. It brings about a refreshingly new sense of being. And it helps renew a person’s vitality, sense of self, and sense of well-being as their energy field is cleared, balanced, and re-energized.
