holistic healing

This is a hot topic amongst my friends, colleagues, students and clients.

How do we share our truth from the heart?

How do we interact as loving beings without being taken advantage of?

How do we ask for what we need and express our desires, fears and disappointments without clinging, blaming, or falling into codependency?

This is something we work on frequently in Reiki sessions. I like to link the heart and throat chakras while setting an intention for honest and kind communication. Most of us learned to do one or the other. Some are comfortable telling the truth, but might be insensitive in the process. Others are consistently kind, but rarely speak up when feelings are hurt.

Learning to stand our ground and remain considerate and compassionate is a skill that can be developed. This weekend I listened to an excellent podcast about this very thing. Rick Hanson’s Being Well Podcast: Friendly and Fearless in Relationships. I found it to be incredibly helpful.

Rick is a neuropsychologist and a Buddhist. His work is a fascinating intersection of eastern spiritual practices and the modern science of how the brain works and what we can do to maximize our potential. I’m just finishing up his year-long Growing the Good online meditation course and learning so much!

In this podcast, he and his son interview Dr. Daniel Ellenberg. “Daniel has been a practicing marriage and family therapist for over 30 years, and is the co-founder of Relationships That Work, and the founder and director of Strength With Heart men’s groups. He’s led workshops at the Esalen Institute, Spirit Rock, the Association of Humanistic Psychology, Stanford University, and, of all places, NASA, and is the co-author of Lovers for Life: Creating Lasting Passion, Trust, and True Partnership.”

(I couldn’t resist ordering this book despite the fact that I have about 30 other books waiting to be read. Perhaps it’s time to Reiki my book collecting addiction?)

If you prefer a more passive and receptive route, contact me to schedule a Reiki treatment, either in-person or long-distance, and we can use an energetic approach to upgrading your communication skills. If you’re more of a-roll-up-your-sleeves type, find yourself a Reiki class and soon you can be treating yourself on a daily basis. Or if you’d simply like some practical tips, do check out the podcast.

Communicating with Both Kindness and Honesty

This is a hot topic amongst my friends, colleagues, students and clients. How do we share…
One of my greatest joys as a massage therapist is helping people reduce or eliminate pain through a body-mind-spirit approach. When a client tells me that she hasn’t had any headaches since her two appointment two weeks ago, I get excited. When she tells me that it’s very rare for her to go that long without a migraine, let alone a “regular” headache, I’m practically jumping for joy.

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Lately I’m seeing more and more clients for headache relief, many of whom have tried all sorts of medications, various therapies, or dietary changes. This particularly client is getting Botox injections, which help but don’t eliminate her pain, and wear off weeks before her insurance company is willing to pay for the next round. Massage seems to be bridging that gap without contributing any unwanted side effects.

The best part of this story is that I’m using good ole-fashioned Swedish massage. No fancy techniques. No deep tissue. No discomfort whatsoever during a session. My goal is to activate the relaxation response, in which the body’s internal feel-good pharmacy gets triggered. Digestion and nutrient assimilation are enhanced, the immune and lymphatic systems are supported, the cardiovascular system calms, and the endocrine system is supported.

Swedish massage manually promotes the relaxation of muscles and encourages circulation and the elimination of cellular waste and toxins. It’s rather like wringing out a dirty sponge, then running it under fresh hot water. As the body adjusts to its new, less-constricted state, internal mechanisms are nudged to promote balance from within. The combination of the relaxation response and the manual “wringing out” therapy is a two-pronged strategy for reducing headaches.

Many of my clients are able to reduce frequency, duration, and/or intensity of chronic headaches with one or two massages each month. For them bodywork is a form of alternative care which prevents them from seeking medical intervention. Many others are less than satisfied with the results of their medical intervention, and get great relief from massage as a complementary therapy.

You don’t need to give up modern medicine to enjoy the benefits of massage. It might just be the key that allows you to celebrate a fortnight free of headaches. And a fortnight after that. And another and another. Why not give it a try?

Celebrating No Headaches!

One of my greatest joys as a massage therapist is helping people reduce or eliminate pain…
Reiki Master Teacher Certification & Personal Healing Quest

I’ve been working quite industriously to distill my 16 years of experience into one training. This is it! This program has been designed to deepen your connection to Reiki and your personal practice, to produce maximum benefits with minimum investment, in the most convenient package possible.

Most of the work is independent study. Six of the seven meetings will be online. You can join us from your living room in your pajamas; I plan to!

In addition to practice, practice, practice on self and others, there will be reading assignments in Penelope Quest’s The Reiki Manual. It’s the closest thing I’ve ever found to a manual I would write if I could find the time! We’ll learn how to do healing and initiation attunements, work with a crystal grid, use the spiritual healing symbol, and start a practice sharing this magical system with paying clients.

Whether you’re interested in attuning all your people, delving into spiritual healing, or simply having more oomph for your own evolution, this course offers the potential for intense transformation; if you do the work. I can’t do it for you, but I’m eager to shine some light on the path.

The fourth Thursdays, March- September, 6-8:30 pm
Inaugural class bonus: two 30 minute, one-on-one calls with me. Investment = $777. Early bird discount, $77 off, through 3/1.

Contact me to apply.

Reiki Master Teacher Certification

Reiki Master Teacher Certification & Personal Healing Quest I’ve been working quite industriously to distill my…
Recently a client told me that maybe it would be better if she just got sick so she could spend a few days in bed resting. For the past week her entire family had been fighting off one bug after another, and she was exhausted. I shared my strategy of taking time off when I feel the first hints of less-than-wellness, preferring to spend my time in bed resting without being miserable.

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It really got me thinking how we’re programmed in our culture to keep going, going, going no matter the cost to our health. We’re taught to push through discomfort and to force ourselves to carry on at any cost. In order to receive permission to take time off, from an authority figure or even ourselves, we often need to be seriously ill, oozing bodily fluids, devoid of all energy, and utterly wrung out.

Then it takes a week or more to recover when a day or two of rest might have been enough to avoid the entire episode. From a productivity point of view, it’s completely inefficient. From a wellness point of view, it’s completely bonkers!

Choosing to prioritize my health has shifted my thinking completely. I recognize the value in protecting my life-force energy and making choices that maximize my well-being. When I don’t work, I don’t get paid, which only reinforces my desire to defend my health. Taking two days off is rarely easy, yet it’s always easier than loosing a week or more of work.

My most recent bout of almost-sickness led to some serious soul-searching. What could I change to prevent a future incident? What is it that I give myself permission to do when I’m sick that I don’t have permission to do when I’m well? Is it possible to provide that without needing the threat of illness? Spending two days in bed creates its own problems in the form of stiffness and backache and isn’t the most ideal solution.

For many people it is about rest. But I fiercely guard my precious sleep, so that’s not it. For me, the answer was obvious. I’m “allowed” to do nothing and watch movies when I don’t feel well. It’s about downtime and entertainment. Pieces of the puzzle that are often missing in my daily life.

I’ve decided to upgrade my plan from resting when illness threatens to making time in my schedule every week for play and fun. Finding blocks of time that aren’t about being productive or learning or even creating (as much as I enjoy these things) is the prescription.

If I willingly give my psyche the time it needs to thrive, it won’t need to demand it through illness. Which isn’t to say that I’ll never be sick again. I wish! I’m still living in a human body, with all its frailties and imperfections. Yet I can give myself the best chance possible to prevent all preventable illness by making pro-active decisions.

And that’s really the best I can do.

Why Wait Till You’re Sick to Rest?

Recently a client told me that maybe it would be better if she just got sick…
I’ve been using Reiki to clear the energy in my home and office regularly for over a decade. It makes a huge difference how a room feels to me. Emotional residue can build up over time creating an energetic field that influences my personal field. You don’t have to be super-sensitive to pick this up- surely at some point in your life you’ve unknowingly interrupted an argument or a gossip session and felt wildly uncomfortable even if you didn’t overhear any actual words.

Recently I was hired to support a family moving from one home to another. The results exceeded everyone’s expectations by far! The intention in the new house was to clear any energy left by the previous occupants and to create a harmonious space that would foster creativity, growth, nourishment, safety, and pleasure.

Photo by Scott Webb on Pexels.com

I get occasional texts from the client reporting children writing and producing plays together and happily eating their vegetables at the dinner table. In short, parental heaven! Likely this fairy tale bliss will require periodic Reiki refreshers, but how wonderful to know that it is an attainable possibility!

In the former home, the intention was to cut any energetic ties and attract the perfect buyers who would fall in love with the house and pay a generous price. There were three offers within 24 hours of the house going on the market. Two days later, five offers, all above asking price. The next day it was under contract for $55,000 above asking price!

Now, I am certainly not claiming any credit for this; I’m just the hose through which Reiki flows. We also performed a traditional Italian ritual of planting a St. Joseph statue in the yard to assist the selling process. I’m neither Italian nor Catholic, so I can’t comment on this, but I can wholeheartedly attest to the power of ritual and belief.

We had planned to smudge the new house by burning white sage as a cleansing agent, but I got an intuitive message to instead recommend an aromatherapy spray. When I learned that the children meant to help, this made much more sense than handing a seven year old a bundle of flaming herbs! No doubt both these rituals along with the Reiki and the potency of intention combined to create the fantastic success achieved on both fronts.

Looking back, it’s clear that the moving process itself could have benefited from some Reiki mojo too. The moving truck broke down, and so did the appliance delivery truck! The family roughed it in the new home for over a week without a refrigerator, washer/dryer or heating oil. Winter weather helped in the food storage department, the fireplace saved the day in the not freezing to death department, and the memories will be cherished… eventually.

Remember the time we all lived in one room without clean clothes or home-cooked meals? Wasn’t that a grand adventure!?

This amazing experience has inspired me to offer Reiki for Homes as a service to others. Since Reiki is not limited by such silly confines as time or space, I can practice healing attunements, clearings, and releasings from afar, so it doesn’t matter where you live. All I need is an address, a few pictures, and your intentions for what you wish to create.

If you’d like to cleanse the space where you live now, a single session will likely be enough. If you have multiple teenagers, marital discord, or work a stressful job from home; maybe two. If you’re relocating, I’d recommend a package of three to include both houses and the moving process itself. $80 for one session, $150 for two, $200 for three. I think it’s quite the bargain! Mostly because I don’t have the desire to bother figuring out how to collect a commission. 🙂

Contact me to arrange your smooth and easy transition into your new home.

Reiki for Homes

I’ve been using Reiki to clear the energy in my home and office regularly for over…
Today I received a “thank you for your application, but…” email from a local non-profit group I want to volunteer for. Or at least I thought I want to volunteer. As I’ve been waiting to learn if I was in or not, I’d begun to feel anxious about the time requirements, both for the training and the monthly commitment afterwards. I’d put several other opportunities on hold to save time for this group and felt mildly resentful about that too.

So now I feel as if a burden has been lifted! Once again I didn’t know what I really wanted and chose to pursue something that wasn’t an ideal match for my needs. In fact, had I been accepted, I can now see that one of my favorite pastimes would have been irrevocably linked in my mind to volunteering and likely forever tainted by a sense of obligation .

Photo by Andre Furtado on Pexels.com

How cool is it that fate or the Universe or Divine Planning (or whatever you want to call it!) didn’t give me the thing I thought I wanted that I really didn’t? Not only that, but during my interview I was given the name of a book that actually contains the information that drove me to seek out the training in the first place. Perhaps that was the whole point!

Most magical of all, I’ve been able to see this potentially upsetting news as the gift that it really is. If it weren’t for my consistent practice of filling myself up with Reiki before getting out of bed every morning, I would have likely been sucked into a downward self-pity spiral. Instead I was able to tap into my inner resilience and wisdom.

I tell my students that Reiki always works, just not always in the ways we want it to. I had been using Reiki to support my hopes of being accepted into the program. I didn’t get what I thought I wanted, but I did get what I needed. Fortunately Reiki can see the bigger picture and has my highest good prioritized. My only job is to activate it, trust, and follow through on the steps I’m guided to take.

Whew! That’s totally doable.

Rejected. Thank Goodness!

Today I received a “thank you for your application, but…” email from a local non-profit group…
Not the greeting I typically receive from clients! But this woman has been suffering from chronic yeast and bacterial infections for the past eight years. Ugh! So she is on a mission and doesn’t beat around the bush.

One of Reiki’s superpowers is that it is activated by intention. Beginning practitioners are taught a series of hand positions to transfer the healing energy, but it’s not at all necessary to touch the area we are treating. We can hover over the area or “beam” the energy from our hands to the target, and as we gain skill it becomes easy to solely use the power of intention to focus the energy on a zone we cannot touch such as breasts, genitals, or rashes.

So it wasn’t the request that surprised me. It’s not problematic to treat the sexual organs. It was the candor of the request that really captured my attention. It got me thinking that in 16 years of practice, no one has ever said anything like this to me! It seems likely that some of my other thousands of clients suffered from some sort of vaginal distress.

Which got me thinking of how sexuality has somehow been excluded from attention in much of the holistic healing world. While it’s quite common for people to share extremely personal details about their digestive tract or emotional trauma, very rarely have I treated someone who expressed a wish to activate dormant sexual energy or experience more powerful orgasms.

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And it’s not because Reiki can’t help with these things. It totally can! Simply decreasing stress, releasing stuck emotions and improving circulation will invariable be beneficial; setting a specific intention will be even more powerful. Yet somehow the perception that our sexual health and pleasure isn’t worthy of healing or is too shameful to talk about pervades. Well, I am here to help break this pattern!

It is completely normal and perfectly acceptable to desire a happy, healthy sex life. There is nothing un-spiritual about wanting to experience greater ecstasy or more freedom and confidence in the bedroom. Or kitchen or garage… Hey, no judgment here! Regardless of the source of this seeming taboo (patriarchal, cultural, and religious conditioning; your time is up!) we can reprogram our thinking to embrace our sexuality and seek holistic health care support for maximizing our inherent ability to enjoy consensual physical union.

It may indeed be uncomfortable for you to speak to a practitioner about your goals for enhancing your libido. If it’s the first time you’re doing so, you can expect to stammer and blush. If you’ve done your homework and chosen an open-minded, progressive, and compassionate practitioner, he or she can help you get the words out. A big part of what I do is listening respectfully and guiding clients to a clear statement of intent. It’s just part of the job.

If you’re in the Philly area, I’d be delighted to schedule a treatment for you. To be 100% clear, using Reiki for sexual healing is completely non-sexual. It is simply the application of spiritually guided life-force energy for the intention of your choosing. Never ever, never ever should it include contact with the genitals; or any other area you’d prefer not to be touched for that matter.

If you’re not in my neighborhood, my long-distance Reiki package discount is available for another week. Contact me if you’re wondering if it could be a match for you and your needs.

“I need you to Reiki my vagina.”

Not the greeting I typically receive from clients! But this woman has been suffering from chronic…
Short answer? Probably!

In the past week I’ve shared Reiki for a wide array of issues. A sick cat, indigestion, misplaced libido, bladder pain, shoulder pain, low back pain, foot pain, general anxiety, travel anxiety, “ruffled edges”, depression, feelings of disconnection, worries about an upcoming difficult situation, healing of sexual trauma and all the resulting false beliefs and suppressed emotions, and stress eating.

Oh yeah, I did a healing attunement and blessing for a new home, and have since received excited reports of family harmony and children playing peaceably together and eating vegetables. That was fun. And very exciting for the parents and me too as it’s now a new service I’m keen to offer. More on this in the near future!

Reiki can be helpful for physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and circumstantial issues. It’s my go-to strategy for anything that ails me and no doubt my students get tired of hearing me ask if they Reiki’ed whatever it is that they are complaining about. I might sound like a broken record, but that’s just because it works. It works every single time! Often like magic. Not always in the ways we want it to, but it definitely works.

Here’s the thing. Reiki always supports our highest good. So when it seems like it isn’t working, often there’s a reason that we just aren’t seeing.

When Reiki wasn’t able to help me sleep past 5 am, I eventually realized that I was supposed to get my butt out of bed and make productive use of that time.

When the housing situation I desired didn’t materialize, I eventually realized there were lessons I needed to learn in my current location first. If I had just moved away, I would have taken all my problems with me. Thanks, but no thanks!

When my ankle continued to bother me for nearly 3 years, I eventually realized (with the help of a series of synchronicities and a medical intuitive session ala Laura Bruno) it was a message from my Spirit about being neither fully grounded nor moving forward as guided. I wrote more about this discovery in Reiki fail?

Reiki won’t help you find peace in an abusive relationship or soul-sucking job. It definitely won’t help you binge chocolate chip cookies without an inflammation response or ignore resentment that is festering deep inside. For sure it won’t make your mother change her diet to support better health if she isn’t interested in doing so, and it won’t make your baby niece sleep when you want her to. Trust me, I’ve tried all of these things and failed!

But the failure was mine. Reiki didn’t fail; it always had my back. None of those attempts were in my highest good. The problem is that I often don’t know what’s in my best interest. I’ve spent most of my life pursuing goals that were shiny on the outside and hollow on the inside. My limited human brain is generally unaware of my soul’s plan for sharing the gifts that are uniquely mine.

Not to worry! Reiki has an innate intelligence that is spiritually guided. It knows much, much better than I do what I need to be happy, healthy and fulfilled. Learning to trust that Reiki is 100% supportive allows me to surrender attachment to my ego’s plan and receive the gifts and guidance that flow to me.

Will Reiki help your xyz? If it’s in alignment with your highest good, for sure! If not, it will likely help you see that your thoughts are misguided and reveal the bigger picture. Either way, it will help you uncover your soul’s perfection and the unique medicine you have to share.

There’s still time to take advantage of the long-distance Reiki package special I’m offering to support you on this road of self- discovery. 10% off a series of five sessions, through 1/31/2020. Contact me if you’re wondering if this is a good match for your needs.

Will Reiki Help My…

Short answer? Probably! In the past week I’ve shared Reiki for a wide array of issues.…
“The problem I have with massage…” is not exactly the phrase I wanted to hear from a new client! (Yikes! What have I gotten myself into?!) “…is that I’m unable to verbalize when the pressure is too deep.”

“Aaaah… I can total relate! I’ve experienced this frequently myself.” (I sigh with both relief and empathy!) She went on to explain that even when the therapist invites her to speak up, she just can’t do it and ends up feeling sore for days afterward.

Many of us were not raised in an environment that supported us voicing our needs and desires. Sometimes it wasn’t safe to do so. Programming begins at a very young age, and when we receive the message that our preferences don’t matter, we might adapt by shutting down to protect ourselves. Children might learn to keep their requests quiet out of fear of upsetting the adult in charge, and choose instead a strategy of remaining silent in order to be accepted. Heartbreakingly, we might internalize the message that we don’t deserve to be comfortable or nurtured or that nobody cares what we need.

This cycle can be broken if we intervene, but many of our childhood coping mechanisms run on auto-pilot until challenged. Massage is already a tricky situation because the receiver is in a vulnerable position, both physically and emotionally. Once the relaxation response kicks in, our rational thought and speech centers are subdued. It’s easy to feel that the therapist is the authority who holds all the power, and to slip into the erroneous belief that they know what is best. We’re certainly trained to think this way by the western medicine model.

You are the authority on your body! Please remember this!

I commended this woman for her awareness and for having the courage not only to show up, but to share this with me. Given that I use a gentle pressure and am able to tune in to the nervous system’s response, I felt confident that we could successfully work together. We negotiated a new strategy in which I would ask if she’d like less pressure because she said it felt easy for her to answer “yes” if that were the case.

For the same reason, I ask if a client is feeling chilly rather than if they’re warm enough. I’ve witnessed again and again that someone will say they’re fine only to discover goose bumps moments later. Sometimes the reply is that they don’t want me to go to any trouble or to interrupt the flow. Please believe me when I say that any qualified, caring massage therapist does not want you shivering or flinching on the table!

We can all learn to be more sensitive to one anther’s needs and recognize the difficulty that many people have asking for what they want. Posing a question so that they may respond with “yes” will be helpful for those with a people pleaser coping mechanism. (There’s a lot of us out there!) I find that slowing down, listening deeply without intent to formulate a reply, and tuning in to body language is beneficial.

We can also learn to express our concerns upfront and ask for help when we have difficulty. This can be a stretch from our comfort zone for sure, but if you believe your massage therapist will not respond supportively, it’s probably a hint to find one that will. Speaking to the therapist before booking a session can shed some light on their listening skills and activating intuition can serve as a filtering process.

Massage shouldn’t hurt! (Not unless you want it to, and even then it’s debatable. That’s a discussion for another day.) I’m here to advocate for everyone everywhere to speak up for themselves and ask for what they need. If you find words are elusive in a session, try a simple “Ouch!” And if that is not respected, “STOP”. There is absolutely no need to suffer in silence on the table. Life is painful enough as it is, there’s no reason to endure more at the hands (or elbows) of a hired professional.

The problem I have with massage…

“The problem I have with massage…” is not exactly the phrase I wanted to hear from…