by Abby Wynne
Some people are born to be healers. It’s in their family, in the very fabric of their essence. They may not even be trained in a specific technique, or they may be trained in several. It doesn’t actually matter. Healers of this calibre have a filter that draws down the purest quality healing energy, regardless of how much life experience they may be carrying inside. Just being around these types of healers can create a healing transformation that is powerful and lifelong. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some people will never be great healers because it’s not in the fabric of their being. These people have the ability to be great at something else, and the world needs more skills than healing alone! Still, I believe that everyone can heal themselves with a basic framework to work from. Everyone can clear out the ‘coffee granules’ of their lives and upgrade the quality of their filters. And that includes you!
Even though we are all able to heal ourselves, there are sometimes issues in us that may need a witness in order for them to heal fully. To be in the presence of a healer when you are ready to let go of something can be much more powerful and life changing than doing it yourself. Quantum physics suggests that having an observer changes the state of a process even though we don’t fully understand why. I have experienced this with clients who have thought they had let go of something themselves, see it come back up for them in other ways, then come to me to clear it in a deeper way. Don’t be afraid to find someone to work with you. If you have your own permission to do your work, and your intention set to find a practitioner who will help you without doing damage to you, ask the universe to point you in the right direction. Watch the signs that then show up in your life that will guide you in the right direction to move forward.
What to expect during a formal healing session
Each modality will have its own way of being, and the practitioner you choose is best suited to describing what a session with him/her will be like. As for the actual energy transformations in a purely energetic healing session, you may not feel anything at all. Alternatively you may feel some amazing energy shifts, in which your energy moves from, say, heavy and slow dense energies like depression or sadness, into the lighter energy of peace. It really depends on where you are in your life’s journey and how much heavy energy you are carrying. It also depends on the fabric of your essence, the timing of the healing, and how willing you are to let go of your emotional pain.
One of the most interesting effects that people report from an Energy Healing session is the sensation of the practitioner touching their head, when they have, in fact, moved on to the feet or another part of the body. Some people fall asleep during a session, and may have lucid dreams or get an answer to a problem that they’ve been working on. Some people feel as if they leave their body during a session and can see themselves receiving the treatment. Others feel as if they come more deeply into their body. It’s a very individual experience, and each time you receive healing, even if it’s the same modality and same practitioner, it can be a completely different experience.
I cannot say this enough: the credibility and authenticity of the practitioner are the most important things when choosing who to go to for healing. If you don’t feel comfortable or safe with your practitioner the healing will not be as deep, and could even be damaging. Some healing modalities have associations or regulating bodies that create standards and guidelines for its members to follow. In this way, it upgrades the profession and clients have a system of complaint if something should happen in a session. Professional practitioner members of such associations are on a register, and you can go to the website of the regulating body to find one.
Call up the practitioner on the phone and get a feel for them from their voice. Read their website, follow them on Facebook and see if they are coming from the same space as you are. Most of all follow your intuition. If you have a deep desire to see a specific person, that person is very likely to be the one that can help you the most in that moment.
I hope that after you read this book and become more familiar with healing and with your own needs and requirements, you will be confident and secure in yourself and your ability to find a practitioner that you feel comfortable with.
My personal introduction to Energy Healing
When I was in my 20s, I knew I wanted to have children. I had a difficult childhood, and it affected how I saw the world and how I reacted to things. I got angry a lot, and it was difficult for me to control my temper. I knew the type of parent that I would be and felt that was unacceptable. I then dedicated several years to my own personal development so that I could become the best mother I could be.
I started with self-help books. I read everything I could get my hands on but began to find less and less new information in them that would help me. I wanted to get help from a person too, not just from books, but I had trouble finding a practitioner or a therapy that did it all. Counselling helped, but it didn’t change how I felt, just how I thought about things. Hypnotherapy helped me connect with my inner self, but I didn’t know what to do once I got in there! Reiki had the biggest impact on me, reducing the intensity of the emotions I carried, relaxing my body and calming my mind. I would ‘float’ out of a Reiki session and not feel angry, uptight or irritated, which at the time was very unusual for me.
After I discovered Reiki, I would go once a week to see a Reiki Master and have a full hour’s treatment, which would carry me through the week. Then life’s stresses would build up again and by the time the next week came around, I’d be more than ready for my session. My Reiki Master was also doing a PhD, and over the weeks, she became less and less available to me. Every week became every other week, and it was getting harder and harder for me to hold it all together between the sessions. I realized that I was becoming dependent on her. When she said she was taking a break to focus on her studies, I was thrown completely. I was devastated, in fact. Then she told me that I could learn Reiki for myself. Faced with this reality, it seemed like I had no other choice but to learn it.
After I trained in the first level of Reiki and created my own daily self-practice, I began to stabilize and trust that I would always have it at hand if I needed it. That was very empowering, but it still didn’t change how I was thinking about the world and the meaning of life, the universe and everything! I love going deep and picking things apart, learning how they work, so as well as continuing my studies in Reiki, I began a psychotherapy degree. It was great, but it didn’t explain how it all fits together, how the very fabric of our being is constructed. At that point, I was better able to handle my anger and the two babies I dreamt about came into my life.
I enjoyed parenting, and I continued to work in my office job at the same time. It was hard. The babies seemed to take everything I had left to give after a day in the office. To keep myself grounded and stable, I needed something that was just for me. I was beginning to understand that spirituality was the bridge between the logical and the energetic. As my questions got more and more complex, I discovered Shamanism, or should I say, Shamanism showed up in my life and scared the daylights out of me!
There are so many mythologies surrounding Shamanism, my fears were around a loss of control of myself, which deeply contrasted with the work I had already put into becoming balanced and stable. Yet there seemed to be something there pulling me in, as if all the answers I had been seeking and more were to be discovered through Shamanism. I had to know more. My babies were now old enough to be left with their dad for a short period of time so I set an intention to go gently, and travelled abroad to begin Shamanic practitioner training.
I continued my psychotherapy degree and held down an office job, now supporting my two babies and my stay-at-home husband. I also managed to travel twice a year to my Shamanic trainings and continued to do deep internal work. I became a Reiki Master Teacher. Just as I was completing my formal trainings two more babies showed up in my life! Four children! For someone who thought they would be the worst mother in the world, I took this as a remarkable
gift from the universe and testimony to all the work I had done. I trusted the universe more, and when my work contract was up I had just qualified as a psychotherapist, so instead of looking for another job, I set up my healing practice. What a risk! I was supporting four children and my husband, but it felt like the right thing to do. I was in my power, in my full potential, and the clients came. They sent me their loved ones, talked about the work I did and pretty soon I had a very large network of clients and students. I was very supported. I learned how to blend all the healing modalities together – Energy Healing, psychotherapy and Shamanism to create one seamless, timeless way to heal.
Why I believe you can heal yourself without formal training
Formal training involves explanation of theory, explanation of techniques, and then practice of those techniques. The focus can be more on the techniques than on the healing. ‘Do I put this hand there?’ ‘How long do I stay here?’ ‘What am I supposed to do next?’ That type of thing. Don’t get me wrong, formal training is wonderful and important, but you don’t need it to heal yourself. With all the new healing modalities, some people have trademarked their techniques, and everyone says their way is the best way. So there are divided loyalties, and lots of politics. I choose to step away from all of that.
All healing comes from the same source, and the quality of the healer is what makes the healing powerful. And that healer can be you.
My clients come to me in pain. We go on a journey into their pain together, and I teach them how to put the pieces back together, how to heal them. Those that commit to the work continue to heal long after our sessions have ended. Once people know the basic concepts of healing and how to apply them in a practical way, they get better.
They don’t teach healing in schools. You’ve got to start somewhere, so there are some concepts that you do need to learn, and techniques I can give you that will help you experience the concepts in a practical way. Once you have a basic framework for healing, you can go further with it yourself, with or without elaborations, with or without the bells and the whistles.
What I teach I feel doesn’t belong to me. I believe that my techniques and exercises come from the source of all things, whether you call it God, the universe, Great Spirit, or unconditional love. I don’t want to trademark, register or formalize anything. I most certainly don’t want to establish the ‘Abby Wynne School of Healing’, with accreditations and certifications. What I do want to do is to empower you to understand what healing is about. To show you the concepts and help you experience them. I want to heal the world, by teaching you how to heal yourself.
The only thing I ask is that you keep your work to the highest integrity, that you don’t force yourself to do something that you are uncomfortable with, that you don’t force healing onto someone who is not ready for it and that you don’t set yourself up as a healer after reading this book. This book is really for you alone. If you fall in love with healing while we are on this journey together, then formal practitioner training may be your next step forward.
Remember, only you can do your work, nobody can do it for you. And you cannot do someone else’s work for them. So relax, breathe and enjoy the ride!
Chapter 2
Getting started
I have written this book not only as an introduction to the practice of Energy Healing, but also as a way for you to create a path for your own personal healing process.
I want to take you on a journey where you begin to recognize the parts of yourself that you have hidden, and feel safe enough to be with them and tell them that it’s all going to be OK. Revealing aspects of yourself that need healing takes courage, and I know and trust that you will look after yourself on this journey and only go as deep as you are able.
With this book, you can make a great start. Bringing your mind, your emotions, your heart, your soul and your body on the journey makes such a difference. If you’re reading this book and are seriously thinking about stepping into your own personal healing work, that’s wonderful. But if you are afraid of it, if you are feeling the resistance in your body, don’t put the book down just yet! Hang in there – feeling resistance to your personal work is a strong indicator that something could change in your life as a result of healing. The resistance is asking you… are you ready?
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Exercise: taking time out for healing
Are you ready to heal? Take a minute to think about the differences you will see in your life when healing is happening for you.
Visualize yourself happy, imagine how great things will be and then check in with yourself. Does this feel safe?
Ask, ‘What is holding me back from my healing?’
Perhaps you would like to write down your thoughts in a journal. If big issues come up for you, you may need to consider having a witness on your journey of healing. Finding a therapist or a teacher to help you can make life much easier.
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I invite you to expect miracles to start coming into your life. Expecting miracles is part of Energy Healing too, and your thoughts around healing are also part of the healing! Energy Healing is not just about putting your hands on your body and thinking yourself better, although that can help. Energy Healing is about reconnecting to your soul, remembering who you are and allowing yourself to be yourself, more of the time.
Be authentic in your work
The key to Energy Healing is authenticity, which means being real or genuine, not being false.
Here’s the difficult bit – authenticity means not lying to yourself any more. Not pretending that everything is OK when it isn’t, or pretending that things are not OK, when they actually are. You need courage to become an authentic Energy Healer. You must question what you are saying to yourself. Ask yourself if it’s actually true, and have the strength to accept what is true and let go of what is not.
Energy Healing also means being congruent. The healed person knows what their heart feels, understands their gut instinct, and works with both of them. They don’t tear themselves apart trying to believe something that they know deep down is a lie.
Congruence: as above, so below What your brain wants, thinks, or believes is the same as your heart, your intuition and your soul.
So many of us hold ourselves back because we push ourselves too hard in the direction we think we should be going in life, and don’t stop to listen to how we feel.
Become congruent
‘Every morning I wake with a sense of dread. I don’t know what it is; it’s like everything slows down. I eat my breakfast slowly and walk to work slowly, like I’m in a movie. Then, as I turn the corner onto the road where my office is, my stomach lurches, like I want to vomit. My heart races, and I think about something else completely. It goes away eventually, usually by the time I am sitting at my desk with my morning tea, going through my emails. But I feel heavy in my body all day, and when it’s 4 p.m., it’s like the sun comes out from behind the clouds, and I look forward to getting out of there.’
Sandra’s job was making her anxious. She kept telling herself that she was suffering from anxiety, to the extent she began to believe she had depression. This is a case of someone telling themselves something that is not real so they don’t have to make a change in their lives. Sandra bore the pain of going in to a job that she really did not like, and over time it made her sick.
Being congruent is knowing that your job is making you ill instead of ignoring how you feel and forcing yourself to do what you think you need to do. That is why healing is scary, it may mean that things in your life have to change.
If you’re like Sandra and are in a situation that doesn’t resonate with you, accepting the way things are instead of pretending everything is OK is actually a better way to handle it. By pretending things were fine Sandra put her mental health at risk to the point where she began to create the symptoms of depression. After a very bad time and several panic attacks, Sandra was forced to look at what was actually going on. She came to me to get some help.<
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‘After realizing that it was being in work that was making me anxious I took a week off and rested. It was great to clear my head, do some gardening and visit friends. When my week off was coming to an end, I felt the panic coming back, so I took another week off sick and made this appointment with you. I need the money to pay the bills, I can’t quit my job – what do I do?’
I asked Sandra what she could do to make going into work easier for her while she looked around for another job. She started telling me many things, but they all came from her mind.
‘Stop a minute, breathe.’ I said. ‘Drop down into your heart – what does your heart feel about work?’
‘So heavy’, she said, ‘my heart is so heavy.’
‘What images come into your mind with this heaviness? ‘I asked her.
‘Being at the canteen, people talking, gossiping, stories. Same stories going around and around.’
She breathed with me.
‘Now, drop down into your tummy. What does your tummy feel about work?’