I’m pleased to announce that I will begin facilitating Reiki Birth workshops.  As a maternal health advocate who sees pregnant women in my practice, and works closely with health care providers, childbirth educators and doulas to educate women on caring for their bodies during pregnancy, it was important for me to find a way to share and teach the benefits of Reiki in a course that was designed specifically for the expectant couple.

Reiki Birth is designed to teach mothers-to-be and their birth partners to utilize gentle, hands-on Reiki energy healing for a healthy and centered journey through pregnancy, birth and post-partum.    Both the mother-to-be and her birth partner will learn how to channel Reiki for physical and emotional balance, as well as to deepen their energetic connection to each other and their baby. 

During this workshop, participants will learn:

• History of Reiki and how it is used today
• Hand positions for relieving pregnancy and labor discomfort
• Post-partum wellness with Reiki
• Partnering using Reiki to enhance and deepen your emotional connection
• Soothing and nurturing your baby with Reiki

During the workshops, participants will receive a beautiful energetic attunement, and have the opportunity to do hands-on practice on themselves and each other in a supportive environment. 

Participants will receive a manual, certificate of completion and ongoing teacher support as needed.

Cost: $ 275 per couple

Date: October 17, 2010 (12 PM – 6 PM)

Location: Candler Park Chiropractic

Reiki is a healing art from Japan that uses light touch on or just above the body to help facilitate deep relaxation, balance energy levels and promote an optimal state of well-being.  The gentle nature of this bodywork is especially beneficial for expectant and new mothers because it helps prepare women for the physical, emotional and spiritual changes necessary for a “centered” pregnancy, labor and post-partum recovery experience.

Reiki healing is especially useful for relieving the physical discomforts of pregnancy.  The hormones associated with pregnancy – human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and estrogen — contributes to gastric distress. Reiki relaxes the gastrointestinal walls and can reduce or alleviate the sensation of nausea.  It also provides relief from round ligament pain, as well as hip, back and nerve-based pain (sciatica and carpal tunnel are two common conditions) typically experienced as pregnancy progresses.  Reiki can be so deeply relaxing that people often drift off into asleep – and as any pregnant woman knows, sleep is a valuable commodity! 

Many pregnant women are juggling demands associated with careers, expectations from their families, changes in their relationships with their partners, and of course, in their bodies. These factors can exacerbate fatigue and mood swings.  Reiki can help expectant mothers reduce stress and remain more grounded emotionally.  A Reiki treatment is, first and foremost, time for women to reorient themselves and their bodies during a time when they may no longer feel like it belongs to them.  Reiki, along with other supportive practices such as chiropractic, prenatal massage and prenatal yoga, can have great benefits for a mother-to-be and her developing baby.

The soothing energy of Reiki provides a non-invasive comfort measure, relieving pain from contractions and reducing anxiety during labor.  The use of Reiki may reduce or eliminate the need for an epidural or other pharmaceutical pain relief.  Spouses, partners, doulas and other childbirth professionals trained in Reiki can be a valuable source of support for laboring women:

The birth partner has the very specific role during labor, delivery and post-birth of giving the mother and the baby Reiki, creating that Reiki space of peaceful, deep relaxation that assists the mother in flowing with her body and the baby throughout labor. – “Reiki and Sacred Childbirth”, Summer 2010 issue of Reiki News Magazine 

Assisting a laboring mother with Reiki can provide the space and support for her to experience a centered, empowered birth experience. It can be tremendously gratifying for the spouse or partner to be able to provide an additional source of loving and energetic support, creating a deep shared connection between the couple.

Reiki is also helpful for post-partum recovery.  Women’s bodies undergo tremendous change to support the new life growing inside them; it takes a while for the body’s organs and processes to return to a normal non-pregnancy state.  Healing is still occurring inside a mother’s body after her baby is born, even after an easy or uncomplicated birth. Reiki can help new mothers maintain energetic and emotional balance during those first weeks of adjustment.  This is especially important for the percentage of women who may experience post-partum depression. 

For those women who had a difficult labor, or had a cesarean birth, Reiki can help facilitate healing on physical and emotional levels.  Recent clinical studies show Reiki to be effective for reducing anxiety and post-surgical pain in hospitalized patients.  Women recovering from surgery or birth trauma can certainly benefit from this additional source of compassionate, palliative support. The medications used to relieve post-surgical pain often have unpleasant side effects, and the discomfort from the incision can make it difficult for women to hold or breastfeed their babies.  Reiki augments the physical healing process, enabling women to get back on their feet sooner.  Energy-based therapies, such as Reiki, emit extra low-frequency (ELF) signals, which have been shown to stimulate tissue repair and nerve regeneration:

[Dr. John] Zimmerman found that the pulsing field produced by the hands of practitioners is not steady in frequency, but varies from moment to moment.  The frequency sweeps up and down through the very same range of frequencies in the ELF band that medical researchers have identified as being effective for jump starting the healing process in the various tissues. –  Science and the Human Energy Field, Oschman, James L. Ph.D

Reiki also works on emotional levels, helping women integrate their experience, alleviate PTSD symptoms and allowing them to experience wholeness and well-being again.

Reiki honors the women we are: our bodies, our emotions and the spirit within that give us strength and purpose.  Please contact me if you are expecting a baby, and would like to find out more how Reiki can help support you in a healthy, happy and centered pregnancy. 

 Photo credit: Storyvillegirl

Summer is here and the time is right…for a change!

With the change of seasons comes a perfect opportunity to receive a Reiki energy healing session to relax and recharge mind, body and spirit.  By the time people go on a scheduled vacation, they find themselves feeling run-down or even sick as a result of dealing with constant stress.  Reiki is a great way to restore your body’s energy balance for positive well-being.  That in and of itself is a good change!

Or perhaps you’re looking to spark bigger movement forward in your life for personal or professional reasons and are interested in receiving personalized coaching to help you assess a new direction to take, as well as those first important steps to take on the path towards life transformation.

For the month of June, I am offering the following pricing specials:

• Two 60 minute Reiki sessions: $100 ($20 off regular pricing)
• Moms only! One 60 minute Reiki session: $45 (good through June 30)
• 60 minute life coaching session: $60 ($15 off regular pricing)
• 30 minute session for $30 (weekends only – please contact me for availability)

…and lest you thought I forgot about the Dads here…a Father’s Day gift certificate for one 60 minute Reiki session is only $45 (must purchase by June 19.)

Please contact me to set up your Reiki and/or life coaching session soon!

*photo of Orange Beach, AL (the beautiful Gulf Coast) copyright Dana L. Young.

As a Reiki healer, coach and a mother, one of the issues I advocate for is maternal health.  A recent study published by Amnesty International has brought to light that the U.S. is experiencing a maternal health care crisis: too many women are dying as a result of pregnancy-related causes.  A recent article in Time magazine shares some shocking statistics:

Every day in the U.S., more than two women die of pregnancy-related causes, with the maternal mortality ratio doubling from 6.6 deaths per 100,000 births in 1987 to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006. (And as shocking as these figures are, Amnesty notes that the actual number of maternal deaths in the U.S. may be a lot higher, since there are no federal requirements to report these outcomes and since data collection at the state and local levels needs to be improved.) “In the U.S., we spend more than any country on health care, yet American women are at greater risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes than in 40 other countries,” says Nan Strauss, the report’s co-author, who spent two years investigating the issue of maternal mortality worldwide.

There are a number of reasons cited for this failure of our health care system, including difficulties in accessing quality care and overuse of interventions during labor, including induction and cesarean sections.  There are also many women who experience traumatic and life-threatening complications as a result of either inadequate medical care during labor or consequences of cesarean sections, which is major abdominal surgery.  A number of women who do deliver vaginally may also experience physical complications and birth trauma.  Far too often, their stories do not get told because they do eventually recover enough to where the focus then shifts to caring for their babies and families.  These women tend to suffer from bouts of post-partum depression (PPD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as other physical issues, including nerve pain, numbness and adhesions from their surgical procedures.  We are a baby-obsessed culture, but we do a poor job of caring for and providing proper support for the women who carry, deliver and care for our babies. 

Why am I sharing all of this? Because I am one of those women.  I experienced a near-fatal, undetected post-partum hemorrhage after my daughter was delivered via c-section.  I narrowly escaped a life-saving hysterectomy.  I spent a week in the hospital, very weak, in excruciating pain and confined to bed.  Once I returned home, it was a slow physical and emotional recovery.  I live with low-level PTSD, although the PPD cleared up within 6 months of my daughter’s birth.  I was fortunate to find the International Cesarean Awareness Network, an organization whose mission is to “improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and promoting Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).” My c-section was medically necessary, but there were many things about the hospital experience, as well as the lack of support afterward, that the medical professionals in whom I entrusted my care, should have provided. The information and support I received from ICAN helped my recovery, and I am proud that Dragonfly Reiki is a professional supporter.  My birth story was featured this past month on the ICAN site.  I wanted them to publish it (as hard as it was to write) so that hopefully no other woman has to endure what I did in order to survive the birth process and care for her baby. 

I talk quite a bit about building your healing toolkit. I was very fortunate to have already been practicing Reiki prior to my daughter’s birth (I did Reiki quite often during pregnancy) but initially I was not strong enough physically or mentally to do the frequent self-treatments I needed to facilitate my recovery.  I am grateful to my Reiki teacher and one of my close friends, who provided me with Reiki during my recovery period.  Reiki continues to be my daily choice for self-treatment and has helped me tremendously with my PTSD symptoms, because I don’t tolerate anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications very well.  I have also regained all of the sensation in my lower abdomen and upper left thigh by doing a combination of Reiki and scar tissue massage.

The Reiki Precepts, which advocate “Just for today, do not be angry, do not worry and be filled with gratitude” have become important touchstones on the difficult days, when I flash back to my experience or feel sadness or anger about what I experienced or what I missed.  And best of all, practicing Reiki has allowed me to maintain a special connection to my daughter. She received Reiki in-utero and I used to it soothe her when she was fussy or gassy as an infant (which I talk about in an article on Reiki for pregnancy and post-partum.)  Now that she is 3 years old, she actually asks me to do Reiki on her at bedtime! The umbilical cord connecting us may no longer be there, but the spiritual cord created through Reiki is ever-present.

There were other things in my healing toolkit: psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, yoga, meditation, and the loving support of family, friends and the women of ICAN. As time goes on, I feel more healed and at peace.  Reiki is the foundation of my healing, because the daily self-practice (and healing sessions provided by others) centers me in my body and connects me to the endless wellspring of spirit.  I am still here for a reason, beyond just being able to mother my beautiful little girl. I am here to share my story, help others on their healing journeys and advocate for better maternal health care choices for the women who are bringing forth our future generations. For this, I am especially grateful.

Would you like to receive Reiki more regularly, but are tight on time or funds? I am now offering 30 minute “Reiki Recharge” sessions for $30 each by appointment on the weekends only.  These are very similar to the mini sessions I offer at the monthly Reiki donation clinic, but you can schedule them at your convenience. 

I am offering this option for people on a budget who want to incorporate more complementary healing into their life, as well as for existing clients who may want to alternate between a longer 60 or 90 minute session with a shorter one for maintenance. This is also great for people who have never received Reiki and want to see what energy healing is like before committing to a series of longer sessions, or potential students who are interested in learning how to do Reiki for their own self-healing.   A longer minute session is optimal, but you can still experience many benefits, including stress relief, with a 30 minute session.

As always, part of my mission with Dragonfly Reiki is to provide flexible, affordable options for people who would like to include Reiki as part of their overall approach to wellness.  It’s all part of what I call “building your healing toolkit.”  Please contact me to get recharged with Reiki!

I was putting my 3 year old daughter to bed tonight and as I was tucking her in, she kept pointing to her lower back and asked for Tai Chi. I thought that was a little odd, since as far as I knew, she didn’t even know what Tai Chi was. It soon dawned on me that she was asking for Reiki! That just made my day! I have been giving her Reiki since she was in-utero, and she has indicated before that she liked it but this is the first time she has actually asked for me to do Reiki on her. I don’t do anything complicated: I just place my hand on her low back, near her sacrum. She likes the warmth that radiates from my hand when Reiki starts flowing and it helps relax her. It was very effective when she was an infant and had difficulty settling down if she was overstimulated or was gassy.  It also has helped me connect to and bond with her in a really special way.  There’s nothing quite like holding your baby (or sitting with your toddler) and feeling this loving energy flow between you.

I enjoy sharing Reiki with children. In fact, the first person (other than my teacher) that I faciliated Reiki with was my stepson. I had just gotten home from Reiki training and he was curled up in bed with terrible stomach pains. I asked him to close his eyes and focus his attention on what I was doing. I felt a very strong sensation of energy moving through me and within several minutes, his body relaxed completely and he fell asleep. I have also given him Reiki when he has had migraines. It’s terrible watching a child suffer with a migraine. If we are out and about and a headache starts to come on, Reiki helps ease the pain until we can get home and he can rest. If we are at home, Reiki helps him relax so he can sleep off the symptoms of the migraine.

One of my favorite times administering Reiki was with a boy of about two years old with a blood disorder. I would go to his house and his mom would put a cartoon on or have some toys out for him to play with, since it can be difficult to get a toddler to sit still very long to receive Reiki. I would sit next to him while he was watching TV or playing and gently place a hand at different places along his body. When the Reiki started flowing, he would suddenly sit very still and get the sweetest smile on his face – he could definitely feel it! When he had enough, he would gently push my hand away. Children always instinctively know what they need.

I also did some Reiki on a infant of about 8 or 9 months old who had taken quite a tumble and hit her head. Her parents felt Reiki would help her recover from the trauma of the fall, but one of the things they noticed was that the days they brought her in to receive Reiki were the days where she fell asleep easily – and stayed asleep for most of the night. After one of the sessions, they sent me a text on my phone with a photo of their daughter sound asleep with the message “Thank You!”

Children generally do not require long Reiki sessions. Their bodies naturally respond to Reiki and easily take in the energy in a short period of time. They are sensitive to what they are experiencing and will let you know when they have received all they need. If you think your child might benefit from receiving Reiki, or you are a parent and would like to learn Reiki to help soothe your little ones’ bumps, bruises and bellyaches, please contact me for more information.

Another recent clinical study, conducted by doctors at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, demonstrates that complementary therapies that elicit the relaxation response, which include acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy, healing touch (such as Reiki), reflexology and others, provided pain relief and reduced discomfort in up to 50% of hospitalized patients. 

Patients who receive complementary therapies may be able to reduce the amount of pain medication they’re taking, as well as cope better with the often strong side effects associated with opioid medications.  In my experience having facilitated Reiki treatments to people in the clinical setting, I have seen patients drift off comfortably to sleep, and they have reported to me that they felt significantly less pain and improved sense of well-being, which is critical to a good recovery. 

If you or someone you know is undergoing a medical procedure, I suggest seeing if the hospital has someone who can provide these complementary therapies through a patient wellness program, or contact someone who is practicing professionally who can make a hospital visit.  Reiki is a good choice, because hands-on contact is very gentle, but it can be done without direct contact if the patient is sensitive to touch following surgery.   However, any of these complementary therapies will provide benefit to the patient, depending on their personal preference.

I will be at Candler Park Chiropractic on Sunday, March 21 from 12-3 p.m. to provide Reiki on a donation-only basis. Participants will receive a 20-25 minute mini Reiki session in a soothing setting with music and aromatherapy.

If you’ve never had energy work done, this is a great opportunity to experience it, while being mindful of your budget. I offer a low-cost Reiki healing clinic in the Atlanta area once a month as part of my mission to make energy healing more accessible and affordable to the public. 

Space for the Reiki clinic is limited. To sign up for a time slot, contact me via email or by phone: 678-640-6146.

Candler Park Chiropractic is located in the Candler Park Connection complex adjacent to the Edgewood-Candler Park MARTA station:

1522 Dekalb Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30307

I appreciate that Reiki Master Pamela Miles took the time to put together this thoughtful guide, Recipe for Reiki Credibility,  to assist someone who may be new to Reiki and aid in the process of determining whether or not a particular practitioner is a good fit – either for facilitating sessions or for teaching classes.  Ms. Miles herself is a very credible source, having pioneered the use of Reiki in conventional medicine as well as authored the book, Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide, which is an indispensable guidebook for Reiki practice and application. 

What I liked about the questions Ms. Miles lays out for us is that there is a good balance between the Reiki practitioner’s commitment to practice, their ability explain in layman’s terms what Reiki is (differentiating between the spiritual and practical aspects), what its benefits are, as well as the amount of experience a practitioner has gained by working on others.  These are the questions I asked when I sought out a Reiki teacher for my classes, and is also the criteria by which I hold myself accountable. 

The only things I would add to her list is to ask if the Reiki practitioner/teacher is still committed to learning and supporting others.  Receiving the certification is only the beginning of the journey.  A qualified Reiki practitioner will not only seek to deepen their spiritual understanding and practice, but are also likely to want to learn more about traditional and complementary medicine, biology, psychology and a bit of physics.  A Reiki teacher should not just seek to teach classes with the intent of making money or establishing themselves as an “authority.”  They should be committed to providing guidance and support for both their students and other Reiki practitioners who may have questions, either informally (telephone, email) or by holding Reiki shares.

There is certainly nothing wrong with receiving Reiki from a friend or volunteer who is just starting out.  You will still receive healing and they gain valuable experience.  However, if you are paying good money for a full treatment or are taking a class from a Reiki Master Teacher, you will get more out of it if the practitioner/teacher conducts themselves professionally and commits to Reiki on a daily basis in their personal life.

Ultimately, you will know if you found the right Reiki practitioner/teacher for you, because that person will be able to speak to you in a way that resonates with your core beliefs, as well as help you move forward on your own healing journey.

Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome is a urinary bladder disease that causes chronic inflammation of the bladder wall lining.  The inflammation causes pain, urinary frequency, urgency and pressure in the bladder and surrounding pelvic region.  The origin of IC/PBS is still unknown; the Interstitial Cystitis Network  states that “various research studies have explored the possibility that infection, epithelial links, epithelial permeability, mast cells, heredity and neuroinflammation may play a role in IC but, to date, there is no single cause that we can attribute to causing IC in ALL patients. Rather, it may be that IC has several different variations.”

I know a lot about IC because I suffered from it for years.  In my case, I believe it originally developed as a result of trauma to my bladder from a catheter that was forcibly inserted during cholecystectomy (gallbladder) surgery in 1997.  Within a year, I experienced a kidney infection followed by a cycle of recurrent urinary tract infections.  This was unusual because I had not had a urinary tract infection since I was in my early teens.  The infections usually cleared up with a course of antibiotics, but even when the infections were not active, I was still experiencing pain, pressure, urinary frequency and urgency. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom or at the urologist’s office.

In 1999, I had exploratory surgery performed on my bladder to pinpoint the cause of my symptoms.  I was diagnosed with neurogenic bladder and a congenital urethral stenosis, which was corrected with surgery.  However, neither of those conditions – which I had had my entire life – were causing the majority of my symptoms.  The cystoscopy/hydrodistention (procedure to examine the bladder wall lining and stretch the membrane) was inconclusive, despite obvious signs of chronic inflammation.

It took nearly four years before I was properly diagnosed with IC and by then, I was experiencing regular and near-debilitating flare-ups that were interfering with my ability to live a normal life.  I was fortunate to have a job that allowed me to telecommute when I needed to because the level of discomfort, lack of sleep and perpetual bathroom trips made it difficult for me to function when I was in the middle of a flare-up.  The resulting inflammation from IC also caused gynecological problems, since the pelvic region shares similar nerve pathways and tissue structure.  It was a very difficult, painful and depressing period of my life. 

In 2003, I finally found a urologist who felt certain, as I did, that I was living with IC.  I began medical treatment (Elmiron, Elavil, Urised and Detrol) as well as a modified diet, because certain food and drink can irritate the bladder.  Over time, I did see improvement in my symptoms, but I still dealt with occasional flare-ups, as well as the unpleasant side effects from the medications themselves.  Still, after being in pain for years, I was grateful for any relief.  I had been taking the medications about three years when I went on a business trip to India at the beginning of 2006 for two weeks.  This was actually my third trip there (and we won’t talk about what it’s like to have a bladder condition and have to fly halfway around the world) but this time was different.  I experienced energy healing for the first time and it was what led me to Reiki.

The energy healing I received that day actually eliminated my neck and shoulder pain from the long flight, which was my immediate concern.  It was such a remarkable experience that once I returned to the U.S., I immediately sought out someone to train me in energy healing.  It totally changed my perspective on what “healing” means.  The interesting thing was, after practicing Reiki for a while, I realized that my bladder wasn’t bothering me at all.  I had weaned down my medications around the time I went to India because I was seeing improvement and was concerned about my liver enzyme levels, but still took a maintenance dosage.  So, I decided to wean myself off to see what would happen.  Days, then weeks went by.  I felt fine.  I haven’t taken any medication since. 

I  got pregnant in the summer of 2006 and aside from the normal discomforts associated with pregnancy, had few issues with my bladder.  I was concerned that after my pregnancy, all of my IC symptoms would come back full force – and they didn’t.  The true testament of my healing revealed itself after my emergency c-section.  I was catheterized for a week due to post-surgical complications, but still experienced no bladder-related issues.  I do have some pelvic floor tightness that pops up from time to time but  that is likely a residual issue from the surgery, and is alleviated with regular chiropractic adjustments and yoga.  Every now and then, I’ll have a day where my bladder is irritated for some reason, but it is mildly annoying and resolves by the next day.  The other thing that I should mention is that the vulvodynia I was also experiencing is no longer active either. 

The site owners of Healthy IC Recipes invited me to write an article on Reiki, entitled Spiritual Healing Through Reiki.  Writing the article is what inspired me to tell my story in more detail.  It meant a lot to me to be able to share how energy healing can be beneficial for people living with chronic health conditions like IC.  Our bodies are capable of healing themselves, but often need some assistance with the process.  Reiki is a gentle, effective complementary therapy that can help people manage their symptoms, improve the quality of their life and in some cases, faciliate much deeper healing. 

Please contact me if you would like to learn more about how Reiki can help you on your healing journey.