Category: Life

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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.

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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

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Healing Touch Brings Relief to Cancer Patients

DSC_4049I would like to thank Johanna McCloy for the wonderful article,  “Healing Touch Brings Relief to Cancer Patients.” She wrote about Healing Touch, my healing practice, and how beneficial energy work can be for anyone going through Chemotherapy or Radiation.

Thank you, Johanna!

Jeri Lawson is available for Healing Touch and Clarity Breathwork sessions Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm, in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.

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More About Reiki and Better Sleep

ReikiThis post gives me another opportunity to state my world vision:

Everyone has the opportunity to learn Reiki, Healing Touch or other hands-on-healing modality, and can choose to give regular treatments to themselves, family members, and friends. Everyone has the option to use energy work to feel less anxious, more emotionally balanced and reduce pain in their physical body.

Over a year ago, I decided to give myself daily Reiki treatments. I am still amazed at the results. Reiki keeps me emotionally centered and in a state of better health, with higher energy and mental clarity.

For me, regular self-treatments also includes better and more restful sleep.

About 4 months ago, during a very busy time in my life, I found I was consistently waking up during the night. I took that time to do extra Reiki on myself. Sometimes I would fall asleep soon after starting the healing, but sometimes I would complete a full hour session while wide awake. The most interesting thing is that even when I was up for several hours at night, I was very rarely tired the next day. I found that I stopped worrying about how fatigued I was going to be the next day when I couldn’t sleep. That in itself was very, very – like phenomenally – helpful.

When doing energy work my hands sometimes get hot and sometimes they don’t. During those night sessions my hands were super hot, which felt great in the cold weather. I started really enjoying the late night healings. It was so relaxing, quiet and peaceful.

Eventually, though, I started sleeping though the night. I feel so fortunate to have such a valuable resource at my fingertips.

You can have it too.

Jeri Lawson is available for Healing Touch and Clarity Breathwork sessions Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm, in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.

 

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The Body Selectric: How The Body Moves From Flight/Fight/Freeze Back to Flow by Kathy Allan RN, HTCP/I, HNC, SEP

Kathy Allan RN, HTCP/I, HNC, SEP
Kathy Allan RN, HTCP/I, HNC, SEP

“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering”
–Peter Levine

Three weeks ago I attended Kathy Allan’s two day workshop called The Body Selectric, that combined the latest research on traumatic stress with energy healing.

Kathy is an amazing therapist and teacher and watching her work was a priceless gift. She did several demonstrations that showed how subtle, yet profoundly healing, releasing deep trauma in the body can be.

With the soft modulation of her voice, her gentle body movements, and her centered, compassionate presence, she created a safe and supportive container for the person she was working with to release and heal on a deep level. I felt like I attuned to a whole new level of energy and healing possibilities just by watching her demonstrations.

We learned about the body’s natural ability to regulate itself in a variety of traumatic situations. Kathy spoke about Post Traumatic Stress Injury (not Disorder) and how people can heal from it. Even though this workshop was about trauma it was very optimistic.

The class covered how our nervous system is continually processing information through our senses to make sure we are safe in our environment. Neuroception is a term coined by Stephen W. Porges to describe how our neural circuits distinguish what is safe, dangerous or even life-threatening to us. Neuroception takes place in the primitive parts of our brain without our conscious awareness. Before we are ever aware of danger on a cognitive level, our bodies are already gearing up to fight, flee or freeze if it perceives a threat. We can release trauma in our bodies without having to activate our nervous system by telling the story of how we were traumatized.

Talking about trauma can bring up trauma, and as Kathy said during the workshop “Everyone has trauma, we are all wounded healers.” The workshop was strategically paced so we had time to process anything that came up for us and the space was grounded and safe. I became much more aware of how my own nervous system is activated. It was slightly overwhelming at times. I decided it would be a good idea to cut back on my coffee intake.

Kathy led us in a fairly simple exercise to increase our neuroception as healers, so we could detect nervous system activation in ourselves and our clients. It was incredible how easy it was to feel the shift in another person who was all the way across the room. I thought this exercise alone was worth the price of admission.

After taking a healing workshop, I usually have to sit and process the information and techniques before using anything new in my healing sessions. Not so with this class. The next working day after the workshop I found the simple techniques created a profound release for two clients. I have since continued to be amazed at the impact this one class has had on my healing practice.

Thank you Kathy!

Jeri Lawson is available for Healing Touch and Clarity Breathwork sessions, Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm, in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.

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Testimonial: Clarity Breathwork is Phenomenal

c. Jeri Lawson 2013 All Rights ReservedJeri,

There are no words to express my gratitude for the healing breathwork session. I came to the session with and open mind and heart, but I really had no idea what it was or what it would be like.

What I experienced was phenomenal. It was a phenomenon. I have never in my 50 years experienced a more powerful healing modality. I went into the session with some emotional discomfort, grieving, and loss as well as some physical discomfort from an overuse injury. After only an hour, I had neither. I have never felt anything like the clear, sharp, calm, centered, bliss feeling I had after the session.

I have tried to describe it to people since, and it is nearly impossible. I have found that there is no way to “get it” except to experience it. I have shared it with many and those who have done a session have had similarly mind-blowing results.

It is the greatest healing gift I have experienced to date.

Forever grateful,

D.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, Distance Healings and Clarity Breathwork Monday through Friday, 10 am to 6 pm. 510-601-9632

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An Invitation To Heal

IMG_5864One of my main objectives when I started writing this blog was to encourage my readers to use energetic healing in their own lives. Healing is a gift we all inherently possess and can easily access to benefit our family, friends and, most importantly, our own well-being.

If you have any interest in hands on healing you can take a class, and start healing on a daily basis. Many of my clients have taken just one Healing Touch or Reiki class and have significantly supported friends, family members and themselves through chemotherapy and other health challenges. Healing classes are also a great place to meet other healers and start trading sessions. I’m a big advocate of developing a healing community.

I also hope to help inspire health organizations to use energetic healing – especially the modality Healing Touch and Reiki – in nursing homes, clinics, assisted living facilities, hospitals and hospice to support wellness, prevent disease, ease pain and keep us in balance.

In the future I may be writing and reflecting on the specifics of what I am experiencing in my healing sessions and I don’t want to detour anyone from their path to healing because they think they have to see auras before they can heal. You don’t have to see or feel energy to make a difference in someone’s life with a healing session.

My vision: There will come a time when every family has at least one member who enjoys doing hands-on-healing. Children will start energetic classes in grade school. People will ask for a healing before reaching for an aspirin.

Every one of us has the ability to make our lives more comfortable, healthier and, as I have experienced from my first day of Reiki, more joyful!

Go for it.

Jeri Lawson is available for Healing Touch and Clarity Breathwork sessions Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm, in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.

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“The Magic of Our Connections” By Carol Kinney

Carol Kinney, RN, BSN, HNC, HTCP/I with Cynthia Hutchison, DNSc, MSN, RN, HTCP/I
Cynthia Hutchison, DNSc, MSN, RN, HTCP/I and Carol Kinney, RN, BSN, HNC, HTCP/I

I would like to share an article written by Healing Touch Practitioner and Instructor Carol Kinney about our Healing Touch community.

I find the commitment to Healing Touch is a commitment to healing, growing and sharing. What I love about our community is the inclusiveness and respect for all healing modalities.

I am very grateful to be a part of such a beautiful community.

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Three Healers Who Write About Energetic Healing

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Since I started this blog two years ago, I have found several other healers writing about their practices and how energetic healing can enrich our lives. In this post I would like to share three of those blogs with you.

The first blog is by Judith Schutz, Judith Treating cancer with Energy Healing (including the Bengston Method and the Domancic Method): A resource on the use of bioenergy healing to treat cancer, with commentary on working with the Bengston Bioenergy Healing Method, the Domancic Method, Matrix Energetics, Quantum Touch, and Reiki.

Besides sharing her immense experience with the above energetic modalities, Judith is frequently challenging the unconscious ways in which our media and healthcare system treat cancer.

In her short, yet profound post “Some thoughts on Roger Ebert “losing his battle to cancer”  she writes:

“This metaphor of cancer as a war that is waged between the disease and the patient has got to go”.

“…We need to find a more useful metaphor, one that gives us new ways of looking at this disease, that will perhaps trigger different, and less harmful, treatments. How about the alternative where we look at the cancer cell as confused? A cell that has lost its connection to the whole that could perhaps be taught to return to normal…”

Judith currently uses all the healing modalities she has studied in the treatment of sports injuries. Click here for her Treating Sports Injuries With Bioenergy blog.

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The next blog is from Reiki Master Pamela Miles who has been doing Reiki since 1986. Pamela’s Reiki practice is in New York where she also teaches. Pamela has a wonderful website, yet I received an email from her a few weeks ago stating that she is going to redo it. Her video on Reiki is one of the best introductions I have seen on energetic healing, so I hope she keeps that on her site.

I personally have been very inspired by Pamela’s website. Her commitment, clarity, and years of healing experience make her blog an incredible resource.

There are two subjects she addresses often that I have found particularly interesting. The first one is self-care. Pamela is a big advocate of daily Reiki treatments. Check out her post The Most Important Thing. Since discovering Pamela’s blog, I have made a conscious effort to make sure I give myself daily Reiki treatments. I have really noticed a difference, especially in my emotional well-being.

Pamela also writes about describing Reiki as more of a spiritual practice instead of an energy medicine. In her post Reiki: Spiritual Practice or Energy Medicine? she states:

“As a spiritual practice, a Reiki treatment doesn’t rearrange the biofield as much as it reminds the system of its capacity to self-heal. A Reiki hand sounds the metaphorical wellness chord, the “sound” of which calls the human system to reorganize around its inherent wellness, thereby increasing consonance in the system, and reducing dissonance from within, rather than sweeping it away from outside, as is done by an energy medicine treatment. The Reiki hand may be the soft mallet that sounds the gong, but the resonance, reorganization, and healing come from within. Yes, the practitioner plays a role, but Reiki healing remains essentially self-healing.

In energy medicine, the therapist does the housecleaning, whereas through spiritual practice, we alter our state from within. Reiki is a spiritual practice that has therapeutic applications. That doesn’t make it energy medicine, but it means it can look like energy medicine.”

From this perspective, Healing Touch would then be more of an energy medicine. This is interesting to me because as an energetic practitioner I LOVE Reiki, yet call myself a Healing Touch Practitioner for a variety of reasons too long to list now. When I give myself an energetic treatment I have always felt like I was doing Reiki, so Pamela’s thoughts on this make a lot of sense to me.

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The third and last blog is from Barbara Litchfield, a Healing Touch colleague that I have yet to meet in person. Barbara has been blogging since 2007. Her writing style is heartfelt, honest and based on her own healing practice. From reading her blog, I can tell Barbara is a heart centered healer – deeply committed to helping people feel better.

Barbara’s post, Energy Therapy Changes the Energetic Pattern is nothing short of BRILLIANT. If you don’t have time to read it right now, click on the link, bookmark it and save it for later.

I hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do.

Jeri Lawson is available for Healing Touch and Clarity Breathwork sessions Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm, in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.

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We Also Serve: A Family Goes To War written by Healing Touch Practitioner Nanette Sagastume

Nanette SagastumeAt Kathy Allen’s Pre-symposium Workshop It Takes a Special Person to Be a Healer, I sat next to Nanette Sagastume, from Chico, California. I know Nanette from many years of various Healing Touch events and have always enjoyed connecting with her.

I also knew that Nanette had just published a book that I had been meaning to order. She had one copy left and I started reading it on the plane on the way home.

I am now in complete awe of Nanette Sagastume.

My jaw dropped at least once every chapter. We Also Serve: A Family Goes To War is an intimate account of how the Iraqi war affected Nanette’s marriage, family, friends and community. Besides being deeply moving, this book clearly describes how Post Traumatic Stress affects the daily lives of soldiers during and after the war and the families who live with them.

Nanette’s son Daniel graduated from Marine Corps boot camp four days before the World Trade Center Towers were hit. Daniel ended up serving in the same battalion, company and platoon that his father, Mario Sagastume, did in the Vietnam war. This book describes the effect of both wars; the similarities and the differences.

Unlike in the Vietnam war, technology such as e-mails and live video news feeds made it possible for Nanette and her family to become connected in real-time to Daniel while he was in Fallujah. Nanette talks about this in the video clip at the end of this post. In the book, Nanette writes about the phone call from Daniel right after a suicide bomber attacked his platoon. After reading this passage I really got it that the soldier’s family really does “go to war”.

The emotional complexity of this book is overwhelming, yet Nanette writes in such a straightforward and brutally honest way – like when she describes her “petty emotions” after Daniel returns home. The amount of CLARITY it must have taken to write this book is staggering, and as I said before, I really am in awe of Nanette.

Nanette is clear even about what she has not personally resolved:

“With the events of 9/11, the next four years challenged my views about the world, patriotism, non-violence, the morality of war and the will of God. Our relationships with many family and friends were fractured over the politics of war. I have yet to resolve questions of the morality of war in general – this war in particular – however, further internal debate was a luxury my heart could not afford while my son was in harm’s way. If my son’s morale was key to his well-being, I could not risk anything that might damage it.”

“…Knowing how polarizing different perspectives on the war’s merits can be, I do not wish my story to be construed as for or against the war. Rather, I believe the military family’s story’s is too important to risk it being dismissed for reasons of politics. With one percent  of American’s volunteering to serve, there is a gap in awareness – even a “disconnect” – about the military family’s experience. Instead, I ask the reader to accompany me, as I relate how our family served, and continues to serve, our county.”

Continue reading “We Also Serve: A Family Goes To War written by Healing Touch Practitioner Nanette Sagastume”

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Healing Touch California’s 7th Annual Regional Symposium on Self-Care: Post Traumatic Stress

IMG_5571I had signed up for Kathy Allan’s Pre-symposium Workshop It Takes a Special Person to Be a Healer even though I had never heard of Kathy Allan before and had no idea of what to expect. All I knew was that her class was right after Anne Day’s Journaling Your Healing Journey and just before the networking gathering and pinning ceremony.

The presentation turned out to be one of the highlights of the conference and has given me a deeper understanding of emotional and energetic release in my Healing Touch Practice.

First of all, Kathy Moray Allan is remarkable. She is a Healing Touch Certified Practitioner and Instructor as well as a Board Certified Holistic Nurse. She studied energy healing with Rosalyn Bruyere for three years, taught Integrative Imagery for Beyond Ordinary Nursing and graduated from the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute as a Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. Kathy is also on the Advisory Board of One Freedom, an organization that provides trauma education and training to the military, their families and care providers.

The focus of her workshop was on how prolonged exposure to clients who have been traumatized by natural disasters, domestic abuse, family break ups or terrorist threats can affect the healer. The Symposium was right after the Boston Marathon Bombings, so maybe that had something to do with how profound and timely this workshop felt.

Kathy talked about Practitioner Traumatization, Compassion Fatigue and old fashion Burnout. She described the symptoms healers may notice in themselves, and gave out strategies to prevent practitioner trauma.

Some of the strategies were: get Healing Touch Treatments (of course), spend time in nature, develop and nurture a sense of spiritual connection, sing, laugh and listen to Bellruth Naparstek’s Guided Imagery CD’s.

Kathy spoke about Post Traumatic Stress, a topic that is now being addressed frequently in the healing world. One reason for this being the increase of War Veterans that are now dealing with it.

Kathy’s handout stated this about Post Traumatic Stress:

“Although it is a source of tremendous distress and dysfunction, it is not an ailment or disease, but the byproduct of and instinctively instigated, altered state of consciousness.”

I also found this quote from her handouts by Peter Levine very inspirational:

“Remember, traumatized individuals had the strength to survive the experience and with a little help they can learn how to restore the wisdom of their bodies and the joy in their lives.

…Not only can trauma be healed, but with appropriate guidance and support, it can be transformative. Trauma has the potential to be one of the most significant forces for psychological, social and spiritual awakening and evolution.”

Post Traumatic Stress is not just about veterans, war and major disasters. In my healing practice I have always observed how beneficial it is for my clients to regularly release trauma from surgeries, minor car accidents, dental work and even the paralyzing effect of constant financial stress. Regular Reiki, Breathwork, Massage and Healing Touch sessions really keeps stress from accumulating in the physical body.

This short post does not give justice to the insights I gained from Kathy’s presentation. I feel like I have come back to my own healing practice with a fresh perspective and deeper awareness on how to better assist my clients.

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Here are a few more links about the Symposium and Self-Care Techniques that may be  of interest:

Self Care: Shine a Bit Brighter Each Day an article by Caroline Elliott, BScN, RN, HTPA, who was on the Symposium planning committee.

Here is an article by Anne Day called Journaling for Self-care and Development. Anne presented the pre-symposium workshop Journaling Your Healing Journey, which I attended and thoroughly enjoyed.

A free voice guided Chakra Meditation by Ellen Long.

A Huffington Post’s Healing Touch With Guided Imagery Could Help Relieve PTSD Symptoms In Soldiers, Study Suggests