*Editor’s Note: This website is not designed to, and should not be construed to, provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion or treatment to you or any other individual, and is not intended as a substitute for medical or professional care and treatment. Always consult a health professional about health care changes before trying out alternative therapies.

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When first asked about my childhood on my crystal therapist’s couch in January of 2012, I replied with a smile, “It was amazing.”

And I believed that, with every fiber of my 26-year-old heart. Sure, I’d had some challenges, but who didn’t, and why on earth would you rehash all of that stuff anyway?

It’s gone, it’s passed and there’s no point in crying over it. Have a drink, smoke a cigarette and find someone or something to escape into.

An hour later, I was sobbing in the fetal position, with the realization that it was not perfect after all. In fact, it was devastatingly f**ked up.

Three days later, I stopped a 20 a day, 10-year-old smoking habit, without warning and never went back. A few months later, after another crystal healing session, I found the balls to break up with the man who I had never been able to leave before.

I was a convert.

In the years since, I have experienced Crystal Healing, Chakra Balance, Aura Balance, Prana Healing, Life Alignment, Astrological Counselling, Kinesiology, Soul Retrieval, Reflexology and Hypnotherapy. I was finally giving myself the love and care I had never in my life received. Better yet, I was actually working through my issues and I had a trained behavioral psychologist on my side helping me unpack the things I uncovered in my sessions.

In case you are thinking it—yes—I am a hypochondriac with a tendency to become codependent. I am also a compulsive addict with a tendency to escape into anything that presents itself. This, I also learned through all the therapies I experienced, and I found excellent therapists who made me aware of this and helped me to learn how to walk on my own.

I want to share the great gift I have been given and debunk the myths behind what most people think is hocus pocus hippy sh*t.

Without the support of these therapies, I would have continued to systematically destroy myself and I would have never started on the road to recovery toward consciousness.

These are all tools to unblock trapped experiences, release them and help us become more aware of what is holding us back.

So without further ado—a description of the most life changing and common therapies I received. (Note: Healing therapies can differ from practitioner to practitioner, and there may be variations from one to the other.)

1. Crystal Healing:

There is a Vedic belief that placing crystals on the body removes past life karma. The healer will place the crystals all over the body at strategic locations on the skin directly (they are warmed beforehand) in color coded grids and either proceed to lead you into a guided visualization or keep silent as they move and unblock the energy. I always had visions that made no sense but worked on a deep, subconscious level to alter or let go of deeply buried belief patterns. Crying or shaking often accompanied the visions, although this lessened as I had more sessions.

2. Chakra and Aura Balance; Prana Healing:

This is quieter work than Crystal Healing. The healer can make use of smudging tools (such as sage or frankincense) and often a dowsing pendulum to check that the chakras are spinning correctly and in balance. The healer also checks your aura for holes, tears and entities. Inevitably, I would leave these sessions balanced and as if I’d been “put back” together. We often don’t realize the “baggage” we pick up (especially those of us who are more empathetic) and as much as I tried to meditate and clear my own energy, it’s almost impossible to do so perfectly by yourself.

3. Life Alignment:

This modality has picked up in popularity over the last few years. The patient is asked to lie down, and the healer uses a pendulum to draw pertinent words (they seem to come randomly and mean nothing at the time) during the session. The healer then begins to ask questions, seemingly of no one, and ask you, the patient, what occurred at a certain age using the words they received. It takes a huge amount of work (and patience), but eventually they get to a point in the patient’s life when something devastating and traumatic happened and that takes the patient deep into the feelings of that moment in order to release it forever and unblock the energy. It is intense work. The healer gives guidance after the session to help you in your recovery.

4. Kinesiology:

Kinesiology is the most accessible for “non believers.” It is a very physical and complicated process in which the healer tests muscles by tapping, testing, talking, listening and determining the blocks, and then sets out to correct them through various techniques that involve pulling the limbs this way and that, using the finger to check the brain’s signals through eye movements and more. These sessions uncovered depression held in my body going back far into my family line amongst other things such as long-held belief patterns that the healer could not have possibly known about.

5. Hypnotherapy:

It took me a long time to go to Hypnotherapy. I was always hesitant and had the idea that they would try and “control my mind” somehow or implant ideas that were not mine. But my two sessions were the deepest work I had ever done. It works similarly to most modalities, in which the healer takes you deep into a forgotten memory and allows you to experience it all over again, and find a way to resolve it through letting in “safe” people and creating new, healing connections. It can be very traumatic, and leave you quite shaken, but you have full control the entire way through the work and you can stop whenever you like.

I have slowed down considerably on most of my healing, as much has been unpacked and put where it all belongs. Many issues have been resolved, and I find myself able to move through life’s challenges more quickly. The patterns still come up but I no longer buy into them. Best of all, I have let go of many of my addictions and beliefs that kept me a slave to my compulsive self-destruction.

For anyone considering an alternative healing session, find a recommended healer in your area and go ahead and don’t look back. The gift of self-salvation is never one that goes to waste.

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Relephant:

3 Secrets Energy Healers Know.

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Author: Margarita Stoffberg

Editor: Caitlin Oriel

Image: William Vroman/Wikimedia Commons, Florida Yoga Cade