One of my gifts, something I am endowed with, but also what I can bestow upon this world in which I live, is healing work.
Recognition of this gift did not come immediately but rather in my early thirties. By that time, I had been working in the legal profession for about seven years. Considering that I had maintained my own practice of meditation, yoga, and breathwork for several years, a clear and persistent inner message started emerging during my meditations: “engage in healing work.” Although direct and unambiguous, my ego, especially the negative one, cast doubts on that message. It told me I was not good enough to delve into such matters, that I had no clue, and that it was an unrealistic idea since I had never received any energy healing treatments or knew how it should look like. Looking at it through worldly eyes, I was essentially starting from scratch. Despite my efforts to shake off such thoughts, the idea of engaging in healing work kept appearing, so I decided to heed the call.
I did not find healing; it found me because everything I did to start and engage in this work, looking back over the past ten years, was carefully laid out before me. From suitable exercises, people, and opportunities presented to me, to the realization that my years-long meditation practice was invaluable. The silence of meditation often brought universal knowledge and guidance on how to conduct healing work. Regarding opportunities, a significant turning point was the renewed high school friendship with my friend, now partner, with whom I run a yoga studio and a holistic therapy studio. Working in the studio provided me with a wealth of experience in dealing with a larger number of people and conducting healing through yoga therapy, pranayama, and guided meditations. The opportunity to work with meditation was the carrot that persuaded me to step into the studio in front of a group and teach classes. On the other hand, insights gained through meditation or during treatments in direct contact with recipients were a direct reception of universal knowledge related to healing work. Exploring what I learned, either on the internet or in literature, I realized that there was nothing new that I could invent, as energy medicine is one of the oldest existing practices on this planet, rooted in all ancient cultures. I share this not for promotion but as a profoundly personal experience. I prefer not to be viewed as “the weird one” because I am a grounded person capable of managing my life and navigating the system in which we live. Nevertheless, the system continually keeps us within certain boundaries that need to be transcended to truly understand how to express our full potential as individuals living this life, as souls aspiring to fulfill their calling, and as powerful eternal beings of light that we truly are.
I write this article for many of you who feel the potential and calling within yourselves for work that supports the betterment, well-being, and health of this society!
If, during the time when I was grappling with whether to engage in healing work, someone had placed an article like this in front of me, it would have spared me numerous struggles and perhaps shortened the growing pains of the transformation I needed to undergo.
At the same time, I had to overcome certain prejudices imposed on us.
Some of the prejudices I encountered are:
Prejudice: Only an Enlightened/Realized Person Can Engage in Energy/Therapeutic Work
Waiting for a sufficient number of us to become enlightened before we can start engaging in therapeutic work would be an endless waiting game. We could wait for another millennium to gather enough people who meet the criteria of an open heart, a sense of compassion and empathy, and acceptance of working modalities with others – a calling that naturally arises within us. The richness one can offer to others by sharing their therapeutic gift, being genuine and pure, is immeasurable and surpasses all human flaws of one’s personality.
Prejudice: Only Those Initiated in a Specific Technique Can Engage in Energy/Therapeutic Work
I understand this is a delicate area because, of course, we live in a world where there are charlatans and frauds. However, the mere fact that someone attended a course or seminar does not always guarantee that the person engaged in such work is motivated by the right reasons – to shape their gift towards helping people, animals, or the planet. Yes, knowledge and understanding of what we do are necessary, but the societal conditioning that a certain type of work is only possible with an appropriate diploma scares many away. It discourages them from following their intuition, inner guidance, and receiving universal knowledge. When aligned with our inner spiritual guidance, it will also show us what knowledge we (truly) need, which courses or education are necessary. Not everything in the market is needed for us and our path. Each profession has its fundamentals and systematized knowledge that should be mastered if we engage in it. Still, we should not underestimate the importance of practice and the ability to use intuition.
Prejudice: Energy/Therapeutic Work Should Be Given for Free
There is a notion that if it is our inner calling and the energy we work with is universal and comes from God or Source, such work should be free. Sometimes the natural desire to help others, especially in response to their suffering, leads us to share our gift without expecting anything in return. While the continuous impulse to help others could make every therapist poor, it is fair that there is an equal exchange of energy, which may or may not be monetary. To provide what a therapist gives, one must invest personal time. Moreover, the person receiving the treatment sees only the final product of the session, not the entire background—every moment the therapist invested in enriching their skills through education, personal spiritual work, and ascetic practices.
Prejudice: Treatments of All Kinds Are a Luxury Affordable Only by the Wealthy
Seeking and receiving treatment should not be a life luxury; it should be a natural and common means of establishing our own balance and well-being. Reflecting on this without criticizing the consumerist society we live in is challenging. Be honest and admit how much money goes into financing some unhealthy habits or addictions and how people rush to a doctor for help only when it’s almost too late. A society that cultivates and produces healthy habits would be, on a global scale, healthier. Just as every profession has its knowledge, many things we wouldn’t think of doing ourselves without experts, so is the field that supports health. Ask professionals and afford yourself treatments; over time, your life will be better and healthier!
Prejudice: There Are Already Too Many Healers/Therapists in the Market
The existence of competition among therapists is an illusion created by the ego, as there are too few therapists compared to the real needs of society. From my experience, another false belief emerged—a culmination of various fears, such as the fear of not being good enough and the belief that energy therapists are everywhere. How can my presence mean anything or be of help to anyone? I was so wrong!
I cannot emphasize enough how much our society and every individual yearn for healing, how much is upside down and unnatural in our society, out of sync with nature, the natural rhythms, the true nature of our being, soaked in traumas—both collective, ancestral, and personal from this and past lives. Do we have too many therapists? No, there are too few. Another reason to connect, unite, share, and exchange knowledge and experiences.
My approach to therapeutic work has a predominantly spiritual and energetic perspective, and these are some of the important lessons I have learned (often without having read them somewhere first):
A Therapist Must Learn to Know Their Own Energy and Take Care of It
A therapist cannot give what they do not recognize in themselves. This understanding gives a greater depth to therapeutic work, emphasizing the importance of understanding the energetic level of the work, whether the therapist focuses only on hands-on work or not. Every human interaction, including the interaction between a therapist and a recipient, is an energetic transaction, and the therapist must be aware of this. To be aware of the energetic level of the treatment, the therapist has a duty to recognize themselves at that level, work on themselves energetically, and be able to distinguish between their own energy and the recipient’s energy during the interaction. This allows the therapist to objectively help the recipient with their issues.
A therapist who does not take care of themselves cannot adequately help others, and the advice shared by the therapist does not hold water unless they follow and apply it in their own life.
The Holy Trinity of Therapeutic Work: Grounding, Centering, and Energetically Protecting Oneself
Continuing on the energetic background of therapeutic work, which many do not know or learn, the basics are the alphabet of energy. Each therapist should master grounding, which allows them to consciously connect with the energy of the Earth. Centering involves drawing awareness into one’s body instead of being scattered, while energetic protection is necessary because we live on this planet with a very low level of consciousness. Furthermore, even “just” hands-on work with others never stays at that level; it inevitably touches and influences other levels of existence.
(Spiritual) Self-Work Never Ends
Any work with one’s talent or calling does not have a given or final state; it never reaches its ceiling. While our talent may give us a head start, dedication to developing our skills and spiritual self-work will provide true expansion. Over time, this process can only enrich and shape us into individuals and therapists who know what they can give and understand who their people, clients, are, where their uniqueness as therapists lies, and how they can help others. This ensures that they do not waste their time and energy on work that is not meant for them. It is also crucial to learn to say no, refuse clients seeking something beyond the therapist’s abilities or with issues not aligned with the therapist’s initial calling. Refusing to play the role of a miracle worker is essential. If a therapist is engaged in their spiritual self-work, they will know their motives for engaging in such work and what the sincere calling of their soul is.
We Are Given as Much as We Can Handle in the Given Moment
This understanding is of a truly spiritual level because situations, clients, and the outcome of our work cannot be different from how we vibrate, from what we agreed to experience on a spiritual level, and from the consequences of our karma and spiritual development.
Believing in Our Own Spiritual Power, We Will See How Our Path Is Carefully Crafted and Planned
Returning to the moment when the only tangible thing I had was guidance to engage in healing work, I truly did not know where and how it would lead me to where I am now. However, looking back over these ten years of my journey, I can notice that it was carefully planned and brought me everything I needed. This journey allowed me to learn not only how to conduct healing and therapeutic work but also to grow, awaken, and heal myself as a soul.
Recognizing One’s Gift Is Not About Comparing With Others
The society we live in genuinely makes it difficult for us because the program of comparison with others is deeply rooted in our systems, starting from education. The competitiveness program is equally harmful for recognizing and supporting our unique gifts. We will recognize our own gift by listening to our individual path, following our inner guidance, our own pace of progress, which is then the only correct one for us. As important as recognizing one’s gift is, opening up to it is equally important. Then our gift will develop in the direction of our inherent abilities, and we will be able to shape it as an action within the earthly realm. For example, your ability will always develop in the direction of those abilities that are inherent to you, whether you are a good listener, an empath, a person catalyzing others’ gifts or connecting others, using the mind more or using intuition more, inclined towards working with the Earth’s energy, working with plants, the body, movement, sound, or through visual arts…
All of the above leads me to the motivation to speak, write, and organize workshops on these topics—I can no longer wait for someone else to do it! I am the one who wants to talk and read about such topics, and I am the one who wants healing to be directed not only to the therapist-recipient relationship but to be a therapist who knows that everything starts with the individual, how their own healing and the healing of the society in which we live and the systems we operate in, which is the higher purpose of therapeutic work in the times we live in!