The Healing Touch, Reiki and Clarity Breathwork Practice of Jeri Lawson
“Reiki Offering” by Nadama & Shastro
There is a bell chime about every three minutes signaling Reiki practitioners to change hand positions. I hope you enjoy this music as much as I do for meditation and healing sessions.
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.
510-601-9632
In my healing practice I have watched Healing Touch sessions make a remarkable and dramatic difference in the lives of my clients who were going through chemotherapy and radiation. Because of this, I would like to see every person with a cancer diagnosis have access to Healing Touch treatments.
That’s why I have been a volunteer at the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic in Oakland since 2008.
The Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic (CMCC) is a state licensed primary care clinic and a community of healthcare practitioners dedicated to bringing low-income women alternative healthcare. Designed to work alongside the services of a primary care physician, CMCC is also a center where women with a cancer diagnosis can find consistent physical, emotional and spiritual support through healing modalities.
The Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic was named after social worker Charlotte Maxwell, who died of ovarian cancer in 1988. Charlotte was an extraordinary woman who found that complementary therapies greatly enhanced the quality of her life, especially in the final months. Her healthcare practitioners were so inspired by her spirit that they founded The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic. They wanted to make acupuncture, energy work and other complementary modalities accessible to women who otherwise would not be able to afford them.
Navigating our healthcare system, even with insurance and a strong emotional and financial support system, can be overwhelming. Navigating our healthcare system without insurance can be devastating. At CMCC, it is so rewarding to see a women who looked fatigued and exhausted, walk out or her Healing Touch session with a smile on her face so much more relaxed.
At CMCC I have worked with women of all ages and diverse cultural backgrounds. I find it so exciting to work in a clinic where the value of complementary modalities is understood and put into action in the community. The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic is a working model of how people with cancer are benefiting from alternative medicine in our healthcare system.
Volunteering at CMCC is a rewarding experience. As a volunteer, I received a weekend of orientation and training, and was then scheduled for one shift a month with clients. I see three clients during my shift. I get there thirty minutes before my first client to look over the medical charts. Everything about the client is in the charts: when she was diagnosed, what kind of cancer she has or had, what Western treatments she is currently going through, and any contraindications. I can look at what modalities or treatments the client has had in the past and read the notes from those practitioners. If the woman doesn’t speak English, that is also in the file and the clinic usually provides a translator.
Sessions with clients are 50 minutes each. At the end of each shift all practitioners and staff support gather to check in. Check-ins have been extremely educational for me. I have learned so much more about cancer and the current Western medical therapies. By listening to the other practitioners, I have also learned the amazing benefits of other complementary modalities such as Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Therapeutic Imagery, Feldenkrais and Western Herbs.
At the check-in, if circumstances warrant it, practitioners can write referrals for their clients to the CMCC staff. This could be for a woman who needs special preparation before an upcoming surgery or a client who needs special care due to an infection. Appropriate staff members will then call the client and make sure the client is taken care of.
The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic also has presentations and workshops for volunteers on each modality the clinic offers and lectures on topics such as “The Basics of the Biology of Cancer.” I attended two separate talks on chemotherapy by oncology nurses from the Bay Area that have been extremely helpful while working at the clinic and in my private practice.
Since volunteering at The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic I can picture how our healthcare system can integrate Healing Touch and other complementary modalities into our medical culture. It is inspiring to work in a community with so many caring and committed women coming together to help each other. Working at Charlotte Maxwell gives me the hope to believe we can change our healthcare system to a culture where everyone is cared for emotionally, physically and energetically.
The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic has an office in San Francisco and an office in Oakland, California. To find out more and to support the work of CMCC click here.
Jeri Lawson is a Healing Touch Practitioner and Clarity Breathworker in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.
Reiki and Healing Touch are two hands-on-healing modalities that complement each other beautifully.
I am a Healing Touch Practitioner and a Reiki Master. I call my sessions Healing Touch treatments even though I use Reiki all the time in my sessions. Many clients have come to me asking for Reiki and I love giving them Reiki treatments.
Reiki is universal life force energy that heals the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Reiki can “do no harm” and always works for the highest good. Reiki does not require the practitioner to guide the energy. Reiki flows to the client and goes where it’s needed.
Reiki is an ancient healing art that was rediscovered by Dr. Mikao Usui after years of searching and twenty-one days of meditation and fasting. In a deeply altered state he experienced a light entering him, initiating him with the Reiki healing energy. He also received the knowledge and ability to attune others to this energy.
The ability to give a Reiki treatment is acquired by receiving a series of attunements. In the Usui system there are three levels: First Degree, Second Degree and Master Degree. The Reiki Master you choose to attune you to become a Reiki Master is then part of your lineage. All Reiki Masters can trace their lineage back to Dr. Usui. There are now many lineages, Reiki styles, and schools. All are honored.
One difference between Healing Touch and Reiki is how they are taught. Healing Touch has a very structured certification program that takes at least two years to complete, while Reiki is taught many different ways, depending on the individual teaching style of the Reiki Master. Some Reiki Masters teach all three Reiki levels in one weekend. Some follow the more structured Usui system and recommend that you wait at least a year between each series of attunements.
Reiki has a sequence of hand positions similar to a Healing Touch technique called the “Chakra Connection.” The Reiki healing usually starts at the head, while Healing Touch’s “Chakra Connection” begins at the feet. I personally prefer starting at my client’s feet when balancing my client’s field, yet when I receive a Reiki healing, I love it when the practitioner starts at the head.
Healing Touch has many techniques to use depending on what the practitioner finds when accessing the client’s energy field; Reiki has only one basic hand sequence. I find the simplicity of Reiki is also its strength.
Reiki is a wonderful way to learn how to do hands-on-healing. People can learn Reiki to heal themselves when they are going through difficult life transitions. Reiki is also wonderful for healing pets, plants and energizing food before you eat.
Reiki has been a powerful self-healing and meditation practice for me. I use Reiki on myself to prepare for a day of sessions and before I go to sleep at night.
In the Second Degree Reiki class, I received symbols that gave me the ability to increase the strength of the Reiki energy, to work directly on the mental and emotional fields and to send healing at a distance.
The Distant Healing Symbol is a powerful way to send energy. When I hear something on the radio, such as an earthquake or natural disaster, I can send Reiki to the situation, people, and place to work for the highest possible good for all. This process of sending healing energies to others also helps me to release any judgments, blocks or resistance I may have to what is present in the moment. This is a very profound and beautiful healing practice I use often.
Healing Touch has a technique called “Mind Clearing” which is used to calm and balance the mind. I often use the Reiki Mental symbol when doing the “Mind Clearing.”
I give Reiki attunements when asked by my clients, yet I feel learning Reiki in a class has many benefits. One of those benefits is meeting people you can trade Reiki sessions with. Another benefit is just being in the energy that a group of healers generates.
As a Reiki and Healing Touch Practitioner, I have always wanted to see the auras of my clients. I mean physically “see” the colors, chakras and energy flow of the field. I thought that if I could see the energy that would make me a better healer.
For the first ten years of my Healing Touch practice, I focused my eyes on the energy field of every person I worked with hoping that someday I would finally “see.” I studied the Barbara Brennan books, I studied The Chakras by C.W. Leadbeater, and I studied every other energy book I could find. I read about other people’s experiences of seeing and opening up to the energy. I also painted my healing room a light blue, because certain colors seemed to bring out more activity around my client’s heads.
Then finally, one day in 2010, I was looking at the illustrations in the book The Path of The Dream Healer. Adam McLeod‘s illustrations of auras showed human bodies surrounded by soft, glowing colors. Instantly I realized I had been seeing energy fields all along. I had been looking for the illustrations in the Barbara Brennan books – and not really perceiving what was really in front of me. It was an incredible moment. I could now see auras and even show other people how to do the same. It was so profound for me it felt a little surreal. A paradigm shift. What else was I not perceiving?
I have also found that learning to “see” has not instantly made me a better healer. I still primarily get information about my client’s energy by feeling the aura with my hands and by just “knowing” what I need to do in the session.
Now that I actually perceive more of what I see, I find I see things differently than the experiences I have read about. I frequently see tiny orbs of light fade in and out in my client’s fields. These lights are mostly neon blue and white, but sometimes I see orange, red and black. I have no idea what these lights are, yet I always feel very relaxed and peaceful when I notice them. Then again, I usually feel relaxed and peaceful in my healing sessions and I do not always notice them.
In my first Healing Touch class, my teacher and mentor Carol Kinney said that she could not feel energy for the first two years of doing Healing Touch. It was the glowing reports from her healee’s that inspired her do Healing Touch until she could feel the energy herself. I found this inspiring and incredibly interesting. I know that I am aware of only a small percentage of what is happening in my sessions, even after 10 years of doing the work. And I learn something new every day, and really, in every healing.
Our healing gifts and perceptual abilities are as unique and specialized as we are. I realized just how unique and specific while listening to a radio show called Seeing Beyond a few years back. I was in my healing room preparing for my next session while James Van Praagh was talking with Bonnie Coleen about spiritual house cleaning. James Van Praagh is a spiritual medium that has written many books including Ghosts Among Us, Talking to Heaven, and Reaching to Heaven.
He was describing how he and Mary Ann Winkowski were energetically clearing houses. Mary Ann Winkowski is also a medium and wrote a book about her life, abilities and paranormal experiences called When Ghosts Speak. Van Praagh stated that Winkowski could see spirits when they were earthbound and he could communicate with them only after they had crossed over. I had always thought a medium would be able to communicate with anyone that had left his or her body. It’s as if everyone has their own bandwidth they can tune into.
I feel like I am on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to perceiving reality, or more specifically, my bandwidth of reality. I find the stories of other healers, psychics, artists, and intuitive people incredibly inspiring. I know my ability to perceive energy has greatly increased over the years and with every healing I will continue to expand my awareness.
If you have any stories of how you perceive energy as a healer, please feel free to share them!