You may have heard of the term 'Healing Crisis', or perhaps even experienced one? Even the term sounds slightly scary, surely a holistic therapy, be it Reiki or acupuncture or a massage, shouldn't leave you in a state of crisis?

Well fear not. The Healing Crisis is all part of the natural healing process. Its fairly common to suffer from detoxification reactions when you begin a program of natural healing.  This is referred to as a Healing Crisis and basically takes place when the body is expelling toxins, it is a normal process that many will experience  on their path to well being. It occurs to the body when  it is trying to get rid of toxins faster than it can keep up with.
 
The Healing Crisis is very natural and unique for each individual.  The vast majority experience very mild symptoms while others experience severe issues.  The individual should understand that these symptoms are temporary and will subside as the body gets healthier and able to eliminate toxins more effectively.  Symptoms  may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, night sweats, hot/cold flashes, increased blood pressure, headaches, joint pain, & fatigue. They usually reduce/eliminate within 2-3 days but on rare occasions can last a few weeks. People who are already suffering from major illnesses or are quickly building disease processes may suffer from more extreme reactions.  This may explain why someone would have a brief flare-up in their condition.  On occasion the crisis will come after the individual feels at their very best.
 
So even if you feel under the weather after a holistic therapy, you are actually getting better because  the longer toxins or remain in the body the worse your health will be.
 
So after a therapy try to do the following:

• Be kind to yourself
  
• Remember why you are going through this
  
• Be positive
  
• Breathe deeply
• Enjoy gentle exercise and fresh air
• Eat well/naturally
  
• Drink plenty of water
  
• Get plenty of rest
• See this as a sign or progress, you are on the road to recovery

best wishes
Fi

x

A recent news report explains that New York teenagers are over scheduled and overstimulated, leading parents to try out reiki as a possible solution to their offspring’s stress.

Yes, its what we as parents have all known for some time. Kids, especially teenagers, struggle to cope with the overwhelming demands of life.

I have experienced this with my two boys. My youngest is super sensitive to noise,  energy and emotions, resulting in phases of wanting to just hide away in a safe place when he becomes over whelmed and anxious.  My eldest, whilst not (yet) bothered with social media, likes to socialise via his xbox gaming, resulting in him being underwhelmed with the everyday wonders of life.

With two dogs, I find that a traipse through the woods helps to ground both boys and bring them back into balance. At bed times they both enjoy using lavender & wheat bags for calming and comfort and my littlest has an aromatherapy diffuser which he enjoys using. Crystals feature heavily in their rooms, they love collecting and reading up about their qualities.

I regularly give them reiki healing and other complementary therapies such as face and indian head massages. I find that overall touch therapy works wonders for them, once I can get them on the couch and settled!

I have also provided reiki healing to a number of other children, primarily to help them cope with a variety of fears and emotional issues, the soothing and loving energy of reiki energy really does help them to chill out and find some peace.

​If you would like more information about reiki healing for children please get in touch for a chat,

I am so excited.. and I just can't hide it....  

We all love a good tune on the radio.. music has the power to relax, raise energies, stir emotions, trigger memories, to heal.

And so Sound Therapy can be used to help any illness or ailment - physical or emotional, as it works at a fundamental energetic level. 

Whilst there are many different instruments used in sound healing, because everyone reacts differently,  I have personally always loved the soothing sounds of Tibetan singing bowls. Their therapeutic tone really helps me to relax and clear my mind. Whether as part of a yoga session or a guided meditation, the sounds of singing bowls have the power to instill a trance like state of relaxation.

Sound Therapy uses musical tuning forks and singing bowls, used in a non-invasive way,  to re-align and balance the body's natural energy fields and to help clear energetic blockages.  Harmonic sound, both audible and vibrational can locate and resolve energetic disharmony.  For example, you can activate the third eye chakra, located between the eye brows , by first hitting a bowl and then gently touching the vibrating rim of the bowl at the chakra.

The beautiful and melodic tones of Sound Therapy can deeply penetrate our body, mind, and spirit and Tibetan singing bowls chakra healing powers are immense. Sound Therapy therefore supports self healing and is complementary to other therapeutic measures, in particular Reiki Healing which also works on the chakra system. It is a gentle and enjoyable method and is opening up fascinating new areas of subtle work, together Reiki and sound therapy can work wonderfully.

​Sound healing is nothing new, it is a practice that has been occurring for hundreds of thousands of years and the west is finally starting to catch onto the benefits of Tibetan Singing Bowls Chakra Healing Powers.

So, I'm pleased to say that from January 2019 I will be offering Tibetan Sound Massage Therapy. This involves using Singing Bowls, Tibetan Chimes and Tuning Forks on the Chakra System and major Acupressure points.

Initially a sound massage treatment for individual clients, I will be looking at developing sound therapy for small groups too as part of meditation sessions.

I'm a bit funny about feet sometimes, especially my own, lets face it, they don't tend to age well do they, and so it's a good job they spend a good part of the year covered up in socks, shoes, slippers and then under the duvet!

However as I have developed on my holistic pathway I've come to appreciate the special things about feet.
​

• They keep us grounded, connecting us with mother earth.
• They help us balance.
• They allow us to move forward, or to side step obstacles, both physically and mentally.
• The average person will walk around 115,000 miles in a life time, that’s more than four times around the earth!
• They carry us physically and emotionally- during an average day of walking, the total forces on your feet can total hundreds of tons, equivalent to an average of a fully loaded cement
• When walking, each time your heel lifts off the ground it forces the toes to carry one half of your body weight.
• A quarter of all the bones in the human body are down in your feet and when these bones are out of alignment, so is the rest of the body.
• They are super sensitive - ticklish toes anyone?!
  
  

Did you know that they can also tell us whats going on within our body and emotions?

​I spent an evening with holistic beauty therapist Angie Perry from Angelic Beauty Therapies where I was lucky enough to receive a wonderfully relaxing and informative reflexology treatment. Angie gave me a warm foot massage and then using specific thumb, finger and hand techniques applied pressure to zones on my feet to identify health issues and to then stimulate energy and release 'blockages' in specific areas that cause pain or illness, thus having a positive effect on ones physical and mental health.

Angie correctly picked up on some minor health concerns (menopause related), which truly amazed me! How on earth could my feet give so much away? Angie patiently explained the science behind reflexology, and I was certainly impressed by her knowledge, training and extensive experience, especially considering there are 60 zones within each foot.

As a therapy, reflexology certainly complements other therapies, such as Reiki and massage, all designed to holistically and naturally work to restore and maintain the body's natural balance to encourage the body's own self healing.

If, like me, you are ticklish and not keen on getting your feet out, I urge you to just give it a try, it was so relaxing that I fell asleep, and that's therapy in itself!

I would like to share a quick story with you, it’s a true story..

There was a man, aged about 40, family man with 3 young busy boys and a hectic job.

One weekend he tripped over his black Labrador. Luckily the dog was OK, he wasn’t. He broke his collarbone and was in agony. Consultant appointments followed, the only solution was for him to take regular doses of strong pain killers. Consultants couldn’t decide what to do for the best, hoping it would heal and an op not be needed. All the while his mobility was impacted thus affecting his capability to do what he needed to do at home and at work.

He mentioned to me that he was totally fed up with it all, which I could totally empathise with. I asked him if I could give him Reiki, half expecting him to say “What? Raki? That Greek drink, pass me the bottle now!”

Instead he said “Right now I will take whatever anyone can give me to help me get through this.”

No questions about what is Reiki, what does it involve etc, just a willingness to give it a try.

All I asked was that he had an open heart and open mind.

So, he sat still and calm for 20 mins as I provided a power Reiki healing session for him. Immediately I could feel heat at what turned out to be the exact point of injury. He in turn said he could feel coolness from my hands at that location too.

On the following Monday he came and thanked me and said that his collarbone had felt much better as a result of the healing, his pain had subsided, the swelling had reduced and his mobility had increased.

He had mentioned it to his wife, a physio, who responded “Of course Reiki helps, we use it all the time at work as a complementary therapy!”
​
So, a little bit of Reiki helped him a lot, how lovely!

As a pet owner I regularly share Reiki with my family pets; for example i have an anxious pooch who loves Reiki as it calms her her nerves, another of my dogs has been extremely poorly with a life threatening illness and Reiki healing certainly helped her recovery. On occasions, when treating Reiki clients at my home our two pet chickens are 'drawn' to the Reiki energy of the house and come and tap on the windows, the only time they do this is when I am giving Reiki healing, as you can imagine this causes much amusement!

In addition to being a holistic therapist, I am also a pet sitter, and many of my lovely furry friends are in their golden years, so I naturally send Reiki their way to help with health issues. Reiki is not a magical cure and is not an alternative to orthodox veterinary care but it is a natural, calm therapy that promotes the body’s natural process of self-healing and is enjoyed by many animals. On many occasions pet owners will tell me their cats are timid and not friendly, only for their feline family members to come straight over for a stroke and cuddle. Reiki cannot be forced upon an animal - they chose to take it for as long as they like and how they like - think of my hens!

Reiki may be given anywhere at any time – hands-on or hands-off or via distance, both of which work well for nervous animals. One session may be all that is required or a number of sessions may be necessary depending on the animals needs, my poorly pooch received intensive Reiki healing sessions over 3 weeks.

Holistic therapies for animals are gaining in popularity and no doubt soon the Reiki federations and councils will produce guidelines on what to consider when considering Reiki for your pets. In the meantime the first port of call for any animal who you thinks needs help is your vet, and then look for a Reiki therapist who is experienced in handling animals and providing animal Reiki treatments.

Recent reiki healing tasters sessions for new clients have continued to bring about spiritual awakening for recipients.

As per my previous blog post about connecting through energy, those receiving healing quite often experience wonderful physical sensations and visualisations - more often that not mirrored by me too.

Sometimes these sensations encouarge them to gently consider that there is a spiritual dimension guiding and helping them.

Everyone is different, and feels different things during a reiki healing session.

Whilst there are no hard and fast rules as to what these sensations mean, I do believe that there is a theme, and that perhaps it might be useful for you to know how reiki energy can show itself to you:

• Another presence: some clients have reported feeling another presence helping during their healing session, this is either my spiritual healing team (see my blog postabout Agna, my healing guide, a Red Cross nurse), or theirs, stepping in to help
• Phantom hands: it is quite common for you to feel hands hovering over you in a different place to where my hands are positioned, once again this is a healing team working with me
• Rumbling tummy: happens all the time! its just energy moving past blockages!
• Coughing: frequently happens as I work on the throat chakra, moving blockages to allow energy to flow freely between heart and voice, and mind and voice
• Colours and shapes: typically experienced as I boost sluggish chakras, so for example if I am giving your sacral chakra a burst of sunshine yellow to energise and brighten your emotions you may well see gorgeous bright yellows
• Heat: if my hands feel hot then this indicates that there may be inflammation or an imbalance in that area, for example a hot feeling around your throat chakra may indicate a physical issue such as a sore throat, or an emotional blockage that is stopping you from speaking freely
• Coolness: cool spots relate to old blockages and baggage that need to be addressed
• Tingling: inflamation in that area
• Whooshing: energy is starting to flow freely
• Crying/Sadness: release of an emotional blockage
• Pulsations: imbalance in your aura which is being smoothed through
• Memories and thoughts of loved ones: Visualisations can accompany sensations, during a relaxed state it is easier for loved ones and helpers in spirit to reach our minds to send message of love and comfort