Jan Andersen uses Healing Touch and is also a certified practitioner in Usui Reiki. Through her company, healingspace, Andersen also provides her clients with the opportunity to access her skills in energy work and as an intuitive advisor.
“Healing Touch is a specific set of techniques for energy work that emerged from the nursing world,” she explains. “Reiki is another form of energy work. Regardless of the technique, we are working with the entire living being. We are more than our physical body. We are an electrical, magnetic, biochemical, physical being. Our energy field extends beyond our physical skin and that's the primary focus of my work,” Andersen states. “If you can work with the patterns in that field to help balance, adjust and bring them into alignment, then the body has the natural ability to heal itself.”
Despite that natural ability, sometimes we need intervention. That boost to healing may include energy work, massage, medications, herbs, surgery or other types of healing. Andersen says all of these modalities may be useful in activating an individual's healing system. “I believe that physicians and other healers actually do not heal anyone,” Andersen stresses. “Each of us has this marvelous internal mechanism which enables us to heal ourselves. What doctors and practitioners provide are the tools or triggers to remind our system how to heal itself.”
A professional communications consultant and writer with a long-established career, the impetus for Andersen's outreach into her own healingspace business was a severe illness that prompted her to explore alternative health treatments in conjunction with traditional medicinal options. “As I became healthier, I discovered my own innate strengths and intuition,” she says. “My journey enabled me to understand that I have a natural gift for helping people heal themselves. I consider energy work my vocation, my service to the world.”
Andersen notes that she relies heavily on her own intuition when working with a person's energy fields. “There are set processes I use to assess where a person's problems may be, but I also pay close attention to the intuitive impressions I receive. I find I am most helpful when I do not go into a healing session with predetermined ideas of what needs to be done.” Andersen adds that her philosophy for healing is based on remaining open to what is occurring in the moment with each individual. “That's when the most lasting healing tends to happen,” she says.
Another hands-on technique that has been used for centuries is the art of reflexology, which uses pressure points in the extremities to connect to the body's vital organs and stimulate energy flow. According to Kathleen Jordan of Rose Petal Cottage in Kalamazoo, this higher form of hand/foot massage and acupressure combines to reduce stress, relieve tension and improve overall circulation. “Taking time out in your busy life to focus on your own health and well-being is one of the most important things you can do for yourself,” Jordan stresses. At Rose Petal Cottage, the reflexology offerings often include the use of essential oils or aromatherapy to heighten relaxation. “The experience is best when a person is receptive to healing and willing to take a holistic mind-body-spirit approach in their lives,” she says.
According to Jordan, there are over seven thousand nerve endings on the soles of the feet and on the palms of the hands. Reflexology uses a deep compression technique to work on relaxing any blockages or “short circuits” in the nerve pathways. A former elementary school teacher, Kathleen Jordan finds the patience and listening skills she developed over 30 years of working with young children lend themselves well to her new chosen field. “I have always enjoyed working with my hands, especially kneading bread dough for baking, so I find that this gentle hand strength is also helpful in reflexology,” she notes. Along with some holistic energy work, Jordan is currently pursuing certification in the art of healing touch.
Learn more about Healing Touch, Reiki and Reflexology by calling healingspace at 269-544-2801 or Rose Petal Cottage at 269-343-4011.
