Sharon Robbins and the Healing Touch Worldwide Conference

This August, I attended the 2014 Healing Touch Worldwide Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois. There were over 350 Healing Touch Practitioners attending from all over the world, including Canada and Japan. There are many parts of the conference I plan to write about, but the most profound was the transition of our respected elder, leader and cherished community member, Sharon Robbins, RN, HN-BC, CCHt, HTCP.

Sharon Robbins was the Executive Director of the Healing Touch Professional Association. She started as a Holistic Nurse in private practice offering Complementary and Alternative Medical therapies to her clients. She began studying energy medicine in 1992 and became a certified Holistic Nurse and  certified Healing Touch Practitioner in 1998. Sharon was the Chair and/or Co-Chair of the HTI Business Council from 2001 to 2007 and was a Board Member of Healing Touch Worldwide Foundation, Inc. since 2006. Sharon Robbins also founded Healing Touch California with a small group of other Healing Touch practitioners.

I became aware of Sharon Robbins as soon as I realized there was this vast and supportive Healing Touch Community. I did not know Sharon well personally, yet I felt greatly supported by her work, deeply touched by her death and immensely inspired by her life.

Sharon modeled professionalism. As a healer, being professional provides the guidelines I need to bring energetic healing into the world, as well as how to present myself to our medical culture. Professionalism has brought great clarity to my work as a healer. When I had any questions about how to approach a healing situation responsibly, the first person I called was Sharon Robbins.

At the conference on Friday morning, Sharon was dressed as an angel. She brought angel wings to wear in a skit on ethics in our healing practice. She was the fairy godmother in the skit, who came down to give guidance to a beginning healer.

After breakfast on Sunday morning, Dawn Warnaca bravely and beautifully announced to all 350 of us that Sharon had made her transition overnight. When I fully realized what Dawn was saying, it felt like the floor just dropped away and the ceiling opened up. Soon there were pictures of Sharon with her angel wings, on the projection screens in front of us.

It was so surreal. Sharon was so ALIVE on Saturday. I have never experienced someone so fully engaged and present in the moment, suddenly just vanish. Sharon always had perfect blond hair that reflected light well. She was literally shining the day before.

Throughout the rest of Sunday, Cynthia Hutchinson (Healing Touch Program Director) and Lisa Mentgen-Gordon (CEO of Healing Touch and the Healing Touch founder’s daughter), shared more about Sharon and the rituals that they had honored her with early that morning. They were obviously heart-broken over losing someone they had loved and worked with so closely over the last 20 years, yet so professional and sensitive in the handling of the situation. I cannot imagine the shock and grief they felt that morning.

My heart, that Sunday, just opened up. I will never take another day in my life for granted. Even now, as I write this blog post weeks later, I can still feel the energetic shift is now a part of me. It now almost feels like a blessing. Life is so precious.

When I put all my emotions and sadness aside, I can see the beauty that in her last day on earth Sharon was surrounded by over 350 Healing Touch Practitioners and friends, celebrating what she loved.

Thank you Sharon, for all the energy, commitment and love you poured into our Healing Touch Community. I will benefit from it for the rest of my life and will do my best to carry your spirit forward in my Healing Touch work.

Photo by Cathy Andersen