Energy Healing

What is Energy Healing?


In the broadest sense, Energy Healing is any practice that connects with the inherent healing potential of the body by restoring balance to the energy systems.   The energy of the body, often called chi, qi or prana, is the life force that animates mind, body and spirit. 

This same energy animates all of life - plants, animals, water, air, etc. - all organic matter has energy.  Our bodies are constantly cleansing and re-energizing by taking in fresh energy from the environment and releasing stale and stagnant energy. 

Energy Healing can pose a challenge to conventional ways of thinking, because it involves working on something that can't be seen or easily felt by most people.  An open mind is helpful, but not necessary in order to benefit from Energy Healing work.

In fact, many people are surprised to find that they do feel energy in healing sessions, and experience physical and emotional changes even if they don't believe that it exists!
For optimal health, it is imperative that life force energy be able to move freely, be regularly restored with fresh energy, and remain balanced in the different energy systems of the body. 
  
​These interwoven systems and their various levels and dimensions are where mind, body and spirit connect!

Different forms of Energy Healing

There are a variety of therapeutic modalities in the field of Energy Healing.  If you are new to the field and trying to determine if a certain modality is right for you, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the myriad of options available.  I'll explain a bit more below about how Energy Healing works and list a few therapies you may have heard of, but first, let me answer the question I am most often asked - "Is Energy Healing like massage?"   No, it is not.  Energy Healing is not like massage.  

In Energy Healing, the practitioner is working on specific energy systems, flows, or patterns, or the overall energy body.  There is no manipulation of soft tissue (as in massage), and clients are fully clothed.  Energy Healing may be a hands-on affair, or it may not involve any touch at all.  Some of the most powerful Energy Healing I've experienced was completely hands-off and practiced from a distance.

How can this be??  It's simple - an advanced Energy Healing practitioner can connect to the energy body of an individual with intention because energy exists in a non-linear, non-local form, much like consciousness, which is also energy.  This is how distance healing is accomplished.  These are not new techniques, shamans around the globe have been doing this for millennia.  

The modality I practice is Eden Energy Medicine.  For information on what actually happens in a session, how it can help you, and how it's different from other Energy Healing therapies, see my Eden Energy Medicine page. 

Energy Psychology techniques also fall under the umbrella of Energy Healing, and are also not bodywork therapies, though sometimes a practitioner may tap on a client's acupoints.  This is often referred to as Energy Tapping, or by the specific name of the therapy, such as EFT (probably the most well-known Energy Psychology technique).  

Some Common Energy Healing Therapies

Is Energy Healing psychosomatic?

It is in Energy Healing that I see a direct connection between emotional/mental health and physical health. When I work with my clients, I feel the emotions that are held in the body, and in blockages within the energy systems, these usually correlate to the physical problem, either by location or by the organ or system that is being affected.  Often these relate to past traumas, or emotionally challenging experiences, that have not been fully processed. 

​When these blockages persist over time, they can become physical problems, because the systems and organs of the body are not receiving the healthy flow of energy needed to support them.  

As you move blocked energy and clear unprocessed emotions, allowing them to fully process and integrate to become part of your growth, the stuck areas of your life that were affected by these trapped emotions begin to change.  Sometimes the changes happen slowly and can be quite subtle, and at other times they can feel like an awakening or epiphany.  Either way, it is a beautiful process!
When undertaken with consistency and commitment, Energy Healing becomes a transformative process, initiating a slow unfolding of the true self, and leading to increased overall wellbeing, connection to a higher purpose, soul-level growth, and a deep sense of  satisfaction with life!

Who should choose Energy Healing?


​Anyone can benefit from Energy Healing, whether they have an identified problem or not.  It is a gentle way of maintaining the optimal health of body, mind and spirit. It is preventive care at its best!

Those who do have an identified problem can use energy healing as a complement to traditional western medical care, or as a treatment plan in itself.  Energy Healing is effective for resolving many physical, emotional and spiritual problems.

All conditions of physical and emotional imbalance have an underlying energetic imbalance.  When you address the problem at the energetic level you stop treating symptoms and begin healing at the point of origin.  Often with Energy Healing you can improve on issues that have not progressed with other therapies.


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The many benefits of Energy Healing


​The benefits of Energy Healing include, but are not limited to:
  • Increased overall vitality and stamina
  • Increased sense of overall wellness, feeling that "life is good' and "all is well"  reflected in both physical and emotional wellness
  • Lessening and/or resolution of physical problems
  • Lessening and/or resolution of emotional problems
  • Increased sense of spiritual connection
  • Greater sense of aliveness
  • Relief from emotional burden of traumas, often accompanied by significant shifts in perspective
  • Deep shifts and transformation 
  • Greater satisfaction with life and with oneself
  • A feeling of empowerment in relation to one's physical and emotional health
  • Connection to one's higher self, and a sense of the purpose and meaning of one's life
For more information about my work, listen to this short 8 minute interview

How Energy Healing therapies fix problems that other therapies haven't

The answer to this is in how the the body's energy systems hold habits and patterns.   At it's foundation, Energy Healing is about changing the habits and patterns in your energy field from patterns of imbalance that don't support health, to patterns of harmony and balance that do support optimal health.  It's really that simple.  What is required to change the patterns may not be simple in terms of identifying where the energy isn't flowing properly or where blocks need to be removed, but habits in the energy field can be changed with your persistence and commitment.

For example, changing unwanted habits in the energy systems is no different than changing the time you wake up in the morning.  If you've been waking at the same time every day for years, and you decide to start getting up earlier, it will take some time for your body to adjust, but with consistent repetitive practice, your body will eventually adjust to the change and the new habit will take the place of the old one.

What causes energetic imbalances?

Trauma and stress are the biggest causes of imbalance in the energy systems.  It's important to remember that trauma is subjective, and what may be traumatic to one person may not affect another person at all.  Traumas may be acute, or a person may suffer a period of trauma, or a period of high stress.  Trauma may occur at any point in life and have an impact on your energies.  Often childhood trauma is at the root of long-term or chronic imbalances in the system. 

Why does trauma have such a powerful effect on your energy system?  It has to do with your survival response, aka your stress response, which is governed by the Triple Warmer meridian.  Triple Warmer pulls energy from the rest of your system when stress is high, in order to rally the forces needed for your survival in the moment of perceived threat.  This causes an immediate state of imbalance in the rest of the meridian system.  Excess energy being held in one meridian means that other meridians will be at less than optimal capacity.  

This is a natural stress response, and in a perfect world your body's energy would return to a state of balance once the perceived threat has passed.  However, because we live high stress lives, in high stress environments, it can be challenging for your Triple Warmer meridian to maintain optimal balance in the first place, which means you are more susceptible to developing chronic imbalances.

Energy Healing FAQS

What is Energy medicine?
Energy Medicine is a kind of Energy Healing, in which Energy is the medicine and the patient.  The word medicine is not used to denote western medicine, but instead in the way it was used before the advent of western medicine, to identify something that heals. In this case, it is energy that is doing the healing, but it is also energy that is being healed!

is Energy Medicine like reiki?
Reiki is one form of Energy Healing.  Reiki and Energy Medicine are very different modalities. Reiki is a laying on of hands that balances the body by bringing in universal energies.  Energy Medicine is an assessment-based approach that uses extensive biofeedback methods to identify and correct specific areas of imbalance across nine energy systems.  Reiki can often be learned in a weekend course, whereas Energy Medicine training is a much more extensive affair.  Eden Energy Medicine, for example, requires a minimum two year training to become a practitioner, with an additional third and fourth year to obtain advanced status.
How does Energy Healing work?
In Energy Healing, the practitioner uses a variety of techniques, depending on the modality and the sensitivity of the practitioner. I have a very limited set of actual tools that include a crystal, magnets, and some stones.  My hands are my primary tools, and techniques include holding acupoints, connecting energy points to achieve a certain result, clearing energies, etc.  For more on techniques I use, go to the Eden Energy Medicine page. ​
Is Energy Healing like massage?
No.  Massage is defined as the manipulation of soft tissue.  Energy Healing does not involve the manipulation of soft tissue.  Clients in Energy Healing sessions remain fully clothed.  Touch is light, and usually involves holding energy points.  Points may occasionally be rubbed or tapped to stimulate the flow of energy.
Is Energy the same as Chi, qi and Prana?
Yes!  Chi, Qi and Prana are words you often see used to describe the energy of the body and the energy that sustains all life.  Chi Gong and Tai Chi are two practices that many people have heard of that reference energy with the word Chi.  In Chinese Medicine, you often hear the word Chi or Qi used, while in yogic practices you will hear the word Prana, which is the Sanskrit word for "life force." 
​WHO COMES TO SEE YOU?
All kinds of people with all kinds of issues!  Many of my clients have physical or emotional problems that western medicine has not been able to resolve, and they come to me as a last resort.  I also have many people who struggle with depression or anxiety and don't want to be on medications.  Then there are those who are curious about alternative health options and come to explore something new, and finally, those who want to explore the self-discovery and spiritual aspects of Energy Healing like soul-level healing.
"In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy."

--Albert Szent-Györgyi, MD, Nobel Laureate in Medicine