Regardless of the modality in question, a therapist can perform a treatment by transmitting energy to the recipient, the client, without necessarily noticing or feeling what is happening in their own body and energy. Alternatively, they can work on a completely different level, where they feel how the work being done on the client and their specific issue reflects personally on them.
This reflection exists in any case, but when a therapist operates on autopilot or doesn’t fully and consciously involve themselves in the processes they’re guiding the client through, they will miss the opportunity to notice how those issues personally concern them.
This isn’t about being obligated as a therapist to feel what is happening IN the client, which is different from observing what is happening WITH the client and following their processes, but about bringing one’s own awareness into the treatment process. When a therapist allows themselves to work through their own presence and awareness, they gain new richness from their service, which they can use for personal growth and awakening.
As humans living in these bodies, it’s unlikely that we are entirely purified and enlightened. Therefore, working as therapists with clients, there will often be times when working with a client helps us become aware of our own issues that we still need to work on.
These issues may stem from our own traumas and manifest in us through feelings of fear, inadequacy, sadness, pain, and so on, but are often hidden from us. Since during a treatment the therapist is in a higher state of consciousness, this state helps uncover any unknown or hidden parts of themselves. The way these parts reveal themselves may involve recognizing physical pain or discomfort in one’s body, the emergence of uncomfortable emotions, or phases of numbness or freezing (the so-called freeze response) as a consequence of being triggered by the issues being addressed with the client. This is a mirroring system, where others serve as mirrors through which we can observe ourselves.
If we understand energies, another benefit of increased presence in working with the client is that we can sense if there is a threat or attack on our energy simply due to the fact that there are energies unhappy with our efforts to help the client become empowered, healed, and liberated. Being in awareness also serves as protection from such external attacks.
When we operate on autopilot, without a connected state of presence, the higher-level energy we channel for the client will not “nourish” us as much as it could if we were in that higher state of presence. When we are in a state of higher consciousness, our energy centers and channels are open and flowing, and we ourselves are “nourished” by the energy we are transmitting.
Notice how you react to the person who is your client. Observe what your physical body is doing: do you feel comfortable looking directly at the person, facing them head-on, or do you turn to the side? What are your hands doing: are they relaxed, or are they crossed over your chest? What are your feet doing, are they still or tapping? Can you feel unconditional love towards the client, or do they evoke feelings of anger or antagonism? Do you feel a smooth flow of energy in your body, or is the energy blocked or tense somewhere?
When we are in a state of presence, it becomes easier to receive higher spiritual guidance, which can also benefit both the client and ourselves. These are the insights that can help us in the therapeutic work with that particular client, instructions on how to proceed to help them more.
At the core of the reason someone comes to you as a therapist is the client’s need to be heard and seen. The ability to observe and see someone in their entirety expands with your own awareness when approaching the healing process through treatment. The skill of observing someone with eyes of love, tolerance, and non-judgment is a skill we gain from our higher levels of existence. When we approach others in this way, we also raise our own vibration and transcend lower levels of existence.