Practical Guidance For Healers & Lightworkers

As a practitioner in the healing profession for over 25 years, I have learned some valuable tips to be conscious of for our own health and wellbeing while we are present for others at the same time. Some of the tips and skills, I learned quickly. Others I learned through my own experiences of mistakes or missteps that happened on my journey. It isn’t about being perfect or never making a mistake but about learning about ourselves more deeply so that we can continue to accompany others on their healing path as well. (Thank you to music by Blue Dot Sessions).

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Shannon and grateful that you're joining me today.

I've been a healer for over 25 years in many different forms and modalities,

Including being a physical therapy assistant,

Being a licensed massage therapist,

A Reiki master teacher,

A craniosacral therapist,

A reflexologist,

Doing animal massage,

Being a certified spiritual director,

Being a meditation guide,

And a teacher.

To be able to be in this field full-time for so long has required learning how to care for my own energy over these many years.

As you know,

Sometimes we often learn through mistakes that we've made,

Potholes that we've fallen into,

Or problems that we've encountered along the way on our journey.

Today,

What I'd like to do is share some of those helpful tips for caring for your energy when you yourself are a healer.

And hopefully some of these tips can help you avoid some of those potholes in the road.

These tips are applicable no matter the modality that you work with,

Whether it's hands-on healing,

Remote healing,

Readings,

Being a teacher,

Being a nurse or a physician,

Being a therapist.

All of these tips help us care for our own energy when we're working with and being present for others on their healing journey.

It all comes down to being present during that exchange of energy,

And I hope you find these tips helpful today.

The first tip today is more about before you begin a session with someone or even if you're working with animals,

Still being present for yourself.

It's a good idea to scan yourself,

Your body,

Your energy to see where you are at mentally,

Physically,

Or spiritually.

Are you tired or have you gotten enough rest?

Are you hungry or are you well-fed and grounded?

Are you irritable or do you feel relaxed and calm?

Just taking time to scan yourself and know how you're doing mentally,

Physically,

Psychically,

And spiritually helps you know how much of yourself that you can give in each session or be present for others.

It also helps you recognize how you might need to care for yourself more before going into different types of sessions.

The second tip is about knowing your own limits.

This refers to your scope of practice.

So let me give you an example of scope of practice.

Maybe a client is coming in for the day to receive a massage for relaxation.

We check in before the session and it turns out that they're going through a lot emotionally,

So much so that you notice significant amounts of emotion that the person is not able to contain and you worry about their mental or emotional health after the session.

If my licensure is massage therapy,

It's important to know that if I'm not licensed as a therapist,

Or a psychologist,

Or a psychiatrist,

It's probably important at this point to make sure for the care of that particular person that I refer them for the emotional well-being of that emotional body to someone who is in a different scope of practice outside of what I can offer.

I can care for the physical body,

I can care for the energetic body,

But maybe this person is needing help with mental health.

So it's important during sessions to realize when you're out of your scope of practice so that you can refer out to other people that might be able to help the person that you're in session with.

This is not only for the health of yourself,

But also for the health of the people and animals that you're taking care of.

Recognizing your own limits as a professional and a healer will help you take care and protect your own energy,

As well as the welfare of those who you're helping.

The third tip is about responsibility.

When I talk about responsibility,

I mean taking responsibility for what you can offer as a healer to others.

There are often times where,

For an example,

If I work with a person once a month on their healing journey,

Doing spiritual direction or a Reiki session,

In between those sessions,

I can't really be responsible for the choices that others might make when we're not in session together.

Sometimes as healers,

When we sit with people and walk on the path with them,

We can see the struggles that they might encounter or be going through.

It can be challenging because we want to take care of them,

That's why they are with us,

So that we can be helpful for them on their journey.

However,

In most cases,

We don't spend a lot of extra time outside of sessions with people,

And so even if we make recommendations to them about how to care for themselves,

It's still the responsibility of that person to make informed decisions for themselves.

We can't always be there to hold their hand as they're making those choices.

If someone's going through a difficult time,

Yes,

You can be with that person,

But you're not able to make choices for others.

Now,

There are instances where I might want to just check in with someone after a session,

In between the time that I see them again,

Because I know that they are going through a lot.

Within my scope,

I can reach out to them,

Whether it's through a text or an email or a phone call,

Just following up,

Seeing how that person is doing,

Being present and listening,

And just checking in.

Sometimes as healers,

We have a hard time of detaching and letting go.

This is where trusting the process is very important.

We don't always know someone's complete journey,

And not labeling some things that people are going through or choices that they make as bad or good or right or wrong,

Or that you might have done something differently than they did.

It's important to suspend that kind of judgment so that we can just be present for where people are at in the moment.

So,

In between sessions,

Part of your responsibility could be for caring for yourself as well.

This mirrors that aspect of taking care of your energy in the hopes that someone might also take responsibility for themselves in between the healing sessions.

Now,

This next tip is about those of you who do hands-on healing or hands-on work.

For example,

With massage therapy,

If you do Reiki,

If you're a nurse or a doctor,

Where you're actually touching the person that you're working with.

There's an exchange of energy.

This tip is about asking spirit,

Our guides,

To be present with us during sessions for others.

It is not my own energy that I am offering to the person during the session.

Instead,

I'm connecting with universal energy,

Angelic energy,

Energy of higher consciousness,

To be present during the session.

That is the energy that is being offered.

One of the things that I like to imagine,

For example,

During a Reiki session,

Is that when I begin the session and I'm touching them with my hands gently,

I like to imagine that my hands are connected to and touching the energy of universe,

Of source,

Of spirit,

And gathering it up,

And then gifting it and offering it to the client,

Person,

Or animal that I'm working with.

That the energy from universe is around me,

My hands are holding it and offering it,

But I imagine that my own energy,

My own vital energy within me,

Stays and circulates inside of me,

But I don't offer my own energy so that I'm not depleted,

Because universe and spirit are infinite.

There's so much energy around us,

It'll never be depleted.

So,

If I can imagine that I'm offering this energy during the session and not my own,

Then I can just be present for what the exchange is that occurs during a session.

There are also instances where when connecting with someone else's energy,

We might begin to feel their energy moving up through our hands,

Wrists,

Arms,

And if we begin to feel this,

What we can do inside of ourselves is just gently ask it to move back down and out of our hands and re-gift it back to the person.

Not that we don't care about them,

But we don't want to take on what this person is going through.

You can care for and hold space for another without taking it on all by yourself.

That's why universe,

That's why spirit is here to help us.

Being able to set this limit with yourself about the exchange of energy allows you then to stay motivated to set boundaries with your own energy of what's being offered,

Being present for yourself while being present for another,

Allowing yourself to care for your own energy.

The next tip about working with energy and working with your own care is about sharing psychic information if you're someone who channels.

Some of us who work in the healing field are also psychic and pick up feelings or words or images about what someone is going through and those can be translated into phrases or pictures or examples.

This is one of those spaces where I made many mistakes or fell into many different potholes and have learned over time how to work with psychic information in conjunction to healing sessions that I'm doing with others.

When you're working with someone,

Not everything that you are shown psychically or hear psychically is supposed to be shared with that person.

Sometimes the body of that person or their energy share with us different information as we're working with the person,

Whether it's in an energy session or body work or therapy sessions.

Sometimes the guides of those people that we're working with might gift us with information psychically to help us better understand what that person is experiencing,

But that doesn't always mean that that's something that we're supposed to share with the person.

What I have begun to do is that when I receive psychic information,

I stop and wait,

I listen,

And then inside myself,

Not out loud since I'm in a session,

I ask inside myself,

Is this something that I'm supposed to share with the person that I'm with?

My guides will either say,

Yes,

We want you to share this,

Or no.

When they say no,

Then I know that the information coming to me is just to help me focus my intention of the session.

If they say yes,

Then I check one more time just to make sure that I'm hearing correctly.

If they say yes,

Then I wait for the right moment during the session to see how things are going,

And then I ask the person first,

I heard something that would like to be shared with you,

Are you open to receiving?

Not only did I check in with my guides to see if I should share the information,

But I also give the person who I'm doing the session with permission to say yes or no,

They'd like to hear the information.

If they say no,

Honor their decision.

If your guides have said yes,

And your client has said yes,

Then at this time,

You can share the information psychically that's been gifted to you to give to them.

Doing this helps keep the relationship of you and your client intact with boundaries.

You have the permission to share or not share,

Your client has the permission to listen or not,

And has the choice of receiving or not receiving.

The other part of this is if your guides have said yes,

And the client has said yes,

Then once you share the psychic information,

It's important to let go of the expectation of what the person might do with the information.

It might move through them and they let it go,

It might not shift anything immediately.

Give it as an offering,

And then let go of any expectations about how or what the person is supposed to do with the information.

Again,

Imagine that you are a guide on the journey,

And that the person that you're assisting is on their own journey,

And how they choose to work with the energy that's being offered is ultimately their own choice as well,

And this also helps us care for ourselves by having those boundaries.

To watch other people struggle can be hard.

This oftentimes is why we come into these practices as being healers,

Because we want to listen to,

Care for,

And help others on their journey.

It's important to distinguish the difference between walking on the path with others,

But not carrying their burdens for them.

Sometimes people have to go through those ups and downs and stumble,

But we can be there through all of the struggle,

And we can also take care of ourselves that we're honoring our own boundaries at the same time.

You can be sensitive,

And caring,

And loving,

And still set boundaries about how much you can offer to someone.

Ultimately,

You are just as important in this whole equation,

And being able to be present for others is a gift,

And it's also important to gift yourself with that presence so you know when to give,

When to pull back and take care of yourself,

When to set boundaries,

And when to allow yourself to just rest.

I'm grateful that you've spent this time with me.

I hope that some of these tips you found helpful for in being able to care for yourself as a healer,

So that you can continue this journey of offering your services,

And love,

And support in the world as your heart calls you to.

And I hope that you have an awesome and amazing day.

Namaste.