Breathwork Retreat: Four Breath Sessions in Three Days

Doing a Breathwork session every day for three consecutive days is profoundly healing. I just finished facilitating a three-day Breathwork retreat in North Fork, California. This is the first long retreat I have done, and it reminded me of how transformational daily breathwork sessions can be. Witnessing people release and resolve trauma, heal their physical bodies, and experience greater consciousness is such a joy.

The retreat was at Little Yosemite Lodge on Hoyau Creek, near North Fork, California, 25 miles from Yosemite National Park. The land is sacred. I felt so supported and experienced tangible nurturing from the earth. I felt this energy in my own body and during the group sessions. I named this retreat ACCESSING YOUR HIGHEST WISDOM, and being grounded in a beautiful place like this makes connecting with higher guidance so much easier.

Even if you can’t get away to a beautiful place like Little Yosemite Lodge for a series of Breathwork sessions, you can open the space and time in your schedule for a personal retreat. You can book your home retreat sessions with me or another breathworker, breathe online, or use a CD.

Self-care on this level is a radical political act. Our connection to our inner guidance will navigate us through these challenging times.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available Monday through Friday for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork. 

510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

Carol Kinney: A Legacy of Light

Carol and I During A Healing Touch Conference In 2015.

One of the many requirements for becoming a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner is a year-long mentorship with an experienced Practitioner. In 2000, that mentor also had to be a nurse. This mentoring process becomes a deep and uniquely special ongoing relationship. My Mentor was Carol Kinney, who made her transition from this world on June 8th, 2024.

Carol gave me so much time, encouragement, and healing in that first year. She was completely dedicated to the work and bringing healing to our medical culture and the world. Every time I give a healing, her teachings keep the session grounded and are a part of the sacred space I hold.

She took her first class with Healing Touch Founder Janet Mentgen in 1990 and was instrumental in the program’s early days and development. Carol was passionate about the work and taught hundreds of classes. She mentored many HT Practitioners in our community and around the world.

I could go on and on about Carol’s accomplishments and the other healing modalities she practiced and she taught, but for now, I will share with you her quote from The Magic Of Our Connections:

Those of us who have been in HT know we are here for the long haul. We are here to do this very important work we have come to love, we are here to keep our connections with colleagues and clients we have come to admire. We have come to rely on our HT communities that so beautifully support us, and on the members who are constantly co-creating more avenues for HT by spreading their creativity and integrating HT into the many facets of their lives. We have established incredible connections through this very heart-centered work. Healing Touch is the glue that bonds us together.

Carol Kinney RN, BSN, HNC, CHTP, HTCP/I

Carol’s obituary is here:

https://obituaries.neptune-society.com/obituaries/sacramento-ca/carolyn-kinney-11853871

Her Celebration of Life will be Saturday, September 14th, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the East Recreation Center, 7902 Oakmont Drive, Santa Rosa, CA, 95409. It is in the Oakmont retirement community.

If you are coiming, please RSVP to me, jerilawson@mac.com, so I can compile a list of attendees from of HT community for Carol’s partner of 49 years, Gail Turk.

I will be there to honor Carol, her huge legacy of light and celebrate all that she has given this world.

Thanks to Carol Kinney, Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available Monday through Friday for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork. 

510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

A Healing Question

A client once asked me, “What do you experience during a healing session?”

That short question inspired a very long answer. An answer which is very fluid and is constantly evolving with every session.

Before I begin, it might be helpful to first describe what I do as a healer and how the energy is showing up for my clients. 

My job as a healer is to hold the energetic space my client needs to self-heal. All healing is self-healing.

In my sessions at this time, I find myself doing long, slow Chakra Connections as taught in the Healing Touch Program. A Chakra Connection is a full-body technique that starts at the feet and ends above the head. It facilitates connecting, opening, and balancing all energy systems with a series of hand placements over the major energy centers of the body. I usually start at the feet and end at the top of the head.

I am primarily kinesthetic in my perception of energy. I feel color, energy moving, and blocks in the human aura with my hands. Sometimes I also see light, as well as feel and hear vibrations, tones, and other sounds. At times I may feel things in my own body that give me information about what is happening in my client’s body—like my throat will feel scratchy for about thirty seconds, or I will be aware of my ankle throbbing for a minute.

Every session is different; no two sessions have ever been alike. Clients I see every week have a different experience each time. I still find this remarkable, even after twenty-five years of having a healing practice. 

When I first started healing work, I often perceived energies moving through me and through the room. Like a stream of grounding honey/yellow energy for one client, or a wave of cooling, clear blue for another. Every so often I still perceive energy like that, but for the last eight years there has usually been a specific frequency or space that fills the whole room for each client. In this space, everything that my client needs in that moment unfolds for them. This healing space can be deeply still, yet, is never stagnant. It morphs and evolves throughout the session.

I am generally mentally clear and noting what I am experiencing during the treatment, as well as tracking how my client is doing. Yet, there are healing states that are so encompassing that I can’t find where “I” end and “they” begin. 

There are times when it feels like the whole room is underwater and my arms can only move slowly and heavily from one hand position to another. In this state, the energy feels like waves flowing through both me and the client in this weighted, fluid space. It’s like we are deep under the ocean where everything is water, and everything is connected. Even my thoughts are slow, and it feels like they take a long time to form and then dissolve.

Some sessions are so ethereal that I feel like I am healing a cloud, not another human body. I can feel the bright translucent light and once in a while see it in the room. I do not have, or have not yet opened up to the ability to communicate directly with guides and angels, yet I almost always sense other distinct healing presences in the room. These presences have always been extremely helpful. Many of my clients tell me after the healing who or what they saw, or how many sets of hands they felt.

Some healings create a very sparkly light in the room. In others, I am kinesthetically aware of a very low tone or vibration permeating everything. Occasionally I may suddenly feel intensely sleepy. That is an energetic frequency that may last most of the session, or only a few minutes. When that happens, I have to focus on my breath, sit even more upright, and stay balanced until it passes. The sleepy energy has proven to be greatly beneficial for my clients, especially when I stopped resisting it.

Sometimes the healing is mostly about balancing my client’s physical body, and I am experiencing the healing energy with my hands. I might sense the energy gently unwinding in circular patterns under my palms at each hand position. Sometimes I am very aware of my client’s cranial pulse, and that is the prominent guiding sensation for me during the session.

Once in a while the energy feels electric—like a pulse between my palms. Sometimes there is a magnetic pull throughout the session in one direction, as if through the session I am pushing my client to the right or left. Often there is a sense of expansion—like the area between my hands is filling up as if bread is rising. I have felt my hands merge with the client’s body, like there are no hands and no body, just this space where my hands should be.

I have become aware of my client’s energy field as a collection of frequencies that are subtly harmonizing. Like all the individual musicians in an orchestra tuning up before a concert. Every time I change my hand position, I sense a different tone. It’s like I am feeling sound. My clients are tuning themselves in the sacred space.

Almost all sessions move through several different energetic states in the same treatment. 

Time is usually not linear in a healing. I have to periodically check the clock, which is right by the healing table, so I know how much time I have left in the session. My subjective experience of time is not reliable at all. I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at the clock after what feels like only ten minutes and find thirty minutes have gone by.

Time can also “jump.” I will just realize one moment that I wasn’t there. That maybe both the client and I skipped out for a split second or a few minutes. I can’t be sure, since I was not there to experience it. I am still uncomfortable with suddenly not being in my healing session, even if only for a moment, but after a few years of this occurring I decided to just go with it. It appears when this kind of energy shift happens it is very, very healing for my client. 

A few times, I have sensed my client entraining with my energy field—the synchronization of their body rhythm to mine. This has only happened a handful of times and it is more of a physical connection, rather than an energetic one.

I would say energy is like water. During a session it may be hard, like ice, or misty like a fog. Sometimes it’s heavy like a milkshake, and other times it’s clear and clean like water from a spring. The energy of the session can be totally encompassing, like when the healing space suddenly feels like I am at the bottom of the ocean. Sometimes it’s moving like a large river, or even a waterfall. Then sometimes it can feel totally still. 

I could go on and on, but I think this gives you an idea of what I may be experiencing when holding a healing space for my client. Everything I have described always feels perfect during the treatment and makes so much sense in the moment—like I knew it all beforehand, or I am just remembering it as it arises. I almost always feel peaceful and grateful after each session.

Chapter One from the book “A Business Of Healing; The Direct Experience of An Energetic Practitioner.”

…

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available Monday through Friday for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork. 

510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

The Best Thing About Being A Healing Touch Practitioner

The best thing about learning Healing Touch is that you can really help your family and friends.

My mom had intermittent knee pain, enough to make it difficult for her to go on her daily walks. I talked her into some short hands-on healings. I had to be a little insistent because she didn’t want me to have to ‘work’ when I visited her. So these were super informal 20-minute Netflix-watching sessions done while we were sitting together on the couch.

Afterward, her knee almost always felt better. Sometimes, the pain returned the next day, but it has now been gone for a month.

The best thing about being a Healing Touch Practitioner is that I can help my Mom feel better. That’s what it is all about.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available Monday through Friday for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork. 

510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

Science And The False Reality Of Loneliness

In this thought-provoking video, Lisa Miller, Ph. D., discusses the epidemic levels of loneliness in our world today.

She is a clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University, Teachers College. She is also the Founder of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program in spirituality and psychology.

Professor Miller believes we are all interconnected. She states that by embracing spirituality and practicing it with intention, we can realize we are not alone. She describes in this video her experience in a Lakota healing ceremony and the transformative power of collective spiritual practices.

As a Clarity Breathworker, I have witnessed many people experience that interconnectedness—the tangible, felt sense of oneness—in their sessions. It is profoundly healing: physically, mentally, and emotionally. Breathwork is my personal path and practice of connecting with this state of consciousness. This is why I am so inspired to hold space for others to breathe.

Thank you, Lisa Miller!

Note: As a healing nerd, I was surprised to learn that Alpha frequencies were the same as Schumann’s Resonance.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available Monday through Friday for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork. 

510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

Clarity Breathwork: Thoughts about Thoughts

Have you heard this statement from a meditation teacher, or read it in a spiritual book?

“You are not your thoughts; you are the observer of your thoughts.” 

—  Amit Ray

A few weeks ago, during a Clarity Breathwork Session, a client had a very tangible experience of being separate from his thoughts. He became aware of that part of him that was observing the thoughts. He was in awe.

Often, during a Breathwork session, the experience of your thoughts as separate from you can arise. It happens quite a bit in my personal breath sessions, and I too, am still in awe every time it happens.

I LOVE Breathwork.

Yet, sometimes when oxygen energizes the brain during a breathe, there are more thoughts than ever! That initially does not seem to be meditative. I suggest to my Breathwork clients before their first breathe not to attempt to stop the thinking. Instead, just observe the thoughts coming and going. It is as if the thoughts were sticks and you are on the bank of a river watching them float by.

While researching quotes for this post, I found this cute video about thoughts. WordPress has assured me this video will go out to  subscribers when I publish it on my blog. Fingers crossed.

If there is not a video attached to this email, here is the link:

An excellent quote about thoughts from one of my favorite writers, Eckhart Tolle:

“Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.”

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork  Monday through Friday. 510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

Pema Chodron And The Human Heart

“So war and peace start in the human heart.  Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.”   

~Pema Chodron 

Take good care of yourself in these times of great change. We are all connected.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork  Monday through Friday.    510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

Clarity Breathwork: What’s In The Way Is The Way

What’s in the way is the way.

I find myself frequently repeating this statement, especially in Breathwork sessions.  Becoming conscious of what is blocking you physically, emotionally, or mentally is how you discover what you need to heal. The resistance contains the healing.

It’s natural to want to avoid pain and unpleasant emotions like shame, grief, and fear. Yet, to breath into whatever is arising – whether that is a pain in your lower back or a complex emotion – is how you come back into balance and peace.

Of course, not all healing requires a deep dive into resistance and a dramatic release. So many incredibly effective breath sessions are basically a  gentle relaxation of the nervous system. Some sessions are even a tangible experience of spirit.

As an energetic practitioner, I see this as my job: To hold a safe, grounded space for you to connect and process your greatest fears and emotions, if that comes up to be integrated or released.  To hold a space for you to find your own answers.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork  Monday through Friday. 510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com

A Workshop By Cyndi Dale: Keys to Activate & Energize Healing in 11 Dimensions

Cyndi Dale gave a two-day workshop a few weekends ago called Keys to Activate & Energize Healing in 11 Dimensions.  She taught it through The Infinity Foundation.

Cyndi is a gifted intuitive, healer and teacher.  I enthusiastically recommend taking at least one of her classes, especially if you are an energetic practitioner. She is energizing, incredibly verbal, and generous with her knowledge.

This workshop was focused on discovering the astral planes, the 8th chakra, and 11 known dimensions. The eighth chakra is particularly interesting to me because it can be used to heal across multiple dimensions and other realities. In the last few years, it has been evident that a lot of multidimensional access is happening in my client’s healing sessions.

The eighth chakra (above our head) is a silver energy center that is one of the keys to the science of the time-space continuum for transmutation.  Time and space are so fluid during sessions.  I have to have a clock in view at all times in my healing space, or I would have no idea how much time has gone by.

The initial intention for taking this class was not to learn new techniques, but to recognize what is already happening in my client’s healing sessions.  I did recognize many of the dimensions and healing spaces Cyndi talked about, and since the workshop, I am aware of new frequencies and possibilities.

All this may sound pretty woo-woo and new age, but these energies and states of consciousness are where my clients have healed headaches, chronic pain, and neuropathy. In these higher states of consciousness people have released emotional trauma and have connected with their inner guidance. Energetic healing is profoundly practical.

I have already listened to the class recording twice. There is so much information, and I am sure I will be going over this material a few times more.

Jeri Lawson has a full-time healing practice in Oakland, California. She is available for Healing Touch, Reiki, and Clarity Breathwork  Monday through Friday. 510-601-9632   jerilawson@mac.com