The field of energy healing is a curious one, in that only a few individuals out of hundreds of thousands of trained practitioners succeed in becoming full-time in the world. Talk to most healers and they are either still in study or have a small private practice than needs to be supplemented with other income in order to meet their financial needs. So, what does it take, to become recognized as a professional energy healer? What are the differences that lead customers towards willingly paying your profession fee for energy healing services versus passing you by for someone else?
Two words: practice, and results.
When I was studying with my Chinese Qi Gong Healing master in the Eighties he was quite clear on Qi Healer training. First, he told us, you must practice self-cultivation: you do the exercises that are known to open up the energy body. For many of us this included Chinese martial arts, in conjunction with guided practices alongside your teacher. Secondly, you had to be able feel the Qi moving, and learn to guide it using the focused intention of your mind. And thirdly, you had to have your personal “Energy Gates” opened. This last part was the vital factor of initiation, a transmission where the Sifu (Teacher) affirms and activates your potential.
Once this traditional route had been followed, results begin to arrive. My primary energy healer teacher in the US, Rosalyn L. Bruyere, clearly aligns with the Asian method. Although apparently more casual (but not any less dedicated) in her long-term approach to training students, Rev. Bruyere has her students building their personal Qi with physical exercises … and activates their potential over many week-long intensives spent with her.
But why do other Energy Healing teachers stress the spontaneous nature of healing work, and downplay discipline, or doing transformation practices? “Just follow what I do, emulate me, and the healings will happen by themselves”, they say. While it is true that such an approach can sometimes work it rarely guarantees an effective healer. That’s the point: easy-does-it healing gives inconsistent results, and consistent results are required to become a professional healer.
After many trainings and workshops are behind you, as the energy healer, the main factor that will change your work from amateur to profession is practice. Along with on-going study of your craft. The most successful healers that I know are always studying something else, always pushing themselves into new practices to open up their energy body, and are learning new skills to expand on what they already know. They spend their spare time with quality teachers, those who see their value and are willing to mentor them. Afterwards, it’s back to work practicing what you do, working weekly with client after client. One of my teachers was asked how many clients are needed before consistent results can be expected. There was a pragmatic pause, followed by the delivery of an ultimate truth: “About a thousand clients … but it depends on the healer. Maybe more than that.”
A scientist may spend decades in the research laboratory in order to make an important scientific breakthrough. An artist will endure similar time spans in giving birth to an art that is mostly ignored, until they suddenly become recognized and famous. Energy healers have to follow a similar dedication, building their effectiveness upon practice, and study. And after that, to continue to practice some more. This spiritual drive brings the healer to a place where consistent results breed success in the world, and it is this that will draw your clients towards you.
© 2013 by Dean Ramsden. All rights reserved.
Dean,
This subject has been a source of frustration for me. I’ve spent a lot of money in the process thinking that I would eventually have a healing practice. I practiced yoga and tai chi. I can say I feel I have evoked healing within my work places. I’ve learned a lot and I guess I have to trust I was where I need to be.
This is the year for some changes.
Thanks,
Susan
Great blog, Dean. I wholeheartedly agree that a healer needs a consistent practice to open their energy bodies, release habitual patterns and uplevel their frequency. It’s beyond self-care (which implies restoring to a previous healthy condition); it’s more about actively engaging the impulse to evolve. Even though yoga is my method of choice, it’s really not the method-it’s the mindset. Then, learn from the best. if you’re not getting the rsults you want, find another teacher.
Much Love,
Elizabeth
Like many sensitive and intuitive people, I was drawn to massage and energy work. What I have uncovered is a need to build my personal power and presence consistently to maintain a therapeutic presence. This is a major life lesson and requires a new way of being! I realized how much easier it had always been to focus on someone else. Now, I invest in more learning and daily practice to be present to myself, first. Things are moving, but I really desire a mentor. Every time I find a practitioner I admire, I can only afford one session a month at their regular rate. I value their time of course, but there has to be a better way. A crammed weekend of CEU classes leaves me overwhelmed and unsupported. It is hard waiting to be noticed by a teacher, who is most often working to make their own way.
What about the gift healer who has no teacher, who feels alone and isolated in a world that not many people trust or understands it… I been told and I know I am just that… I have no teacher! (ok the guy up stairs he is the one who give me this!) What I channel is not mine what I do is not me. I have been to courses but haven’t learn anything that I did not already knew. My gift is just there available and I can’t even feel it!!! People do! Just recently I started feeling the intensity of the energy in my 3rd eye.
I want to be up there help and touch people, but I don’t know how… I feel alone!! Plus I have issues with charging when I don’t fit with conventional healers who stay with client for 1h or more. I need 10-15m. What I need is to see people for a period of time at regular bases. Any suggestions???
Thanks. Love and light to all.
Hello Maria,
“What about the gift healer who has no teacher, who feels alone and isolated in a world that not many people trust or understands it..” Yes, many people begin to explore energy healing like this, but cannot talk to others about what it means. But usually anyone who is open to it will be happy if you give them a free hands-on healing session. You should take every opportunity to practice doing just that.
“Plus I have issues with charging when I don’t fit with conventional healers who stay with client for 1h or more. I need 10-15m. What I need is to see people for a period of time at regular bases. Any suggestions?”. You should not feel obligated to do what others are doing, as long as you maintain healthy boundaries with your client, including not taking advantage of them. Ten minutes or more is just fine, for an hands-on session. Especially so, since you don’t want to charge them for your helping them, which is fine. Daskalos (Stylianos Atteschlis) never took any payment for his healing work with people.
I recommend you follow your inner intuition, and try different approaches, different teachers. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to study this work, now that so much is available on the internet. But eventually, if you want to really deepen into your healing work, you will benefit greatly from an experienced teacher. And that teacher will be very clear to you, and you will know who it is.
I send you my support, and best wishes, for your journey as a healer.
Sincerely,
- Dean
Thank you so much Dean for you beautiful warm response
For a long time I was overwhelmed by the responsibility I felt I had in having a gift I asked for as a child but could not really believe I had.
and who can inspire me and I might learn from. So once again thank you. Love and light to you,Maria x
Years have past and a more mature me has now chosen to be open to use it more often (I never said no if a friend needed help) and always that an opportunity arises. I stop asking questions and wanting to know the whys… but still I feel I don’t have much or anyone to learn from or explore my experiences. That is why this year I made the intention I need to Network! and that is why I am here talking… and I come here through Justin Bonnet who I kind of started talking with in facebook. I feel this is a good way and maybe this way I will connect with some great people who ‘speak my language’
Hello again, Maria,
I’m happy to read your response. And I encourage you (and anyone reading this) to network, research, explore, ask questions, about energy healing. Energy work is not simply a “New Age” fad; it is an ancient system of knowledge, although much obscured, that leads all us closer towards our true nature as energy beings. And it is a vital way you can help others both heal and get closer towards their own awakening. And with the Internet you can read or reach out globally to all those who are like you.
Good luck!
- Dean
Hi, All!
What I’ve loved most about my journey into healing practice was the beginning. I’m apprenticeship-trained and feel blessed that my teacher had a ‘know-thyself’ philosophy at her core. She encouraged me to first learn my own energetic terrain – to learn how I inherently heal, how my energetic system feels/operates/cries out/thrives. The next step was to select the tools/skills/practices that resonated most with who I am. Even now, every time I entertain a new training or modality, I’m guided by what fits best with how I already heal.
I love what Dean said about reaching out to those who are most like you. My teacher said, “Find someone who does what you (inherently) do. And ask to learn from them.”
Wishing You Well,
Heather
http://www.facebook.com/SoulBodyIntegration
Dear Mr. Ramsden,
Stumbled upon your blog and wanted to share some comments. You are truly dead on with your suggestions; especially practice practice…….and keep learning! Having worked as an energy healer for 14 years now, I cannot remember going more than 24 months without studying under another healer or seeking out new knowledge and trying new methods. I work on about 125 clients a year now, but it wasn’t until I had hit 800 or so, around 2005, when I really got my legs. Since then, I have made it a special point to read up on all new energy healing modalities as well as to study the more ancient onces. Next Summer I will be travelling down to South America to continue my learning. Keep learning…keep practicing!!! The rest follows…………….Kurt