When I use the word healer, I mean someone who facilitates another person's safety, peacefulness and health. This includes alternative practitioners, doctors, nurses, social workers, crisis line volunteers, firefighters, police, neighbors...anyone who offers support and care to someone in need.

The true healing power is our Life Force, and human "healers" are simply channels of this sacred energy. If a practitioner's energy is not clean, vital, and powerful, it affects the transformation that is possible during a session.

Healers can feel exhausted after sessions, or experience burn-out after a while. In many cases, this occurs because healers don't know how to maintain and nurture their own energetic fields.

What to do? There are ways to avoid burn out and remain lively while being a channel for the healing power of Love. After over twenty years of facilitating emotional clearing and as a guide for spiritual expansion, I've learned many techniques that help me to keep my personal space clear during healing sessions.

I offer the following thoughts as a way to support you in retaining your love for the healing arts, while remaining healthy, stable and open to your own ongoing spiritual journey.

Before the session

Prepare by taking time to check in with yourself. Take some deep, cleansing breaths. Remember: you, as an individual, are not the healer. The true healer is the divine Life Force that flows within everyone and every living thing.

During the session

Begin by consciously creating a sacred space - in your mind, heart, body, and in the room, and gently encourage sacred space within your client. Set a clear dedication, prayer or intention for the session and welcome the presence of any guides or saints who inspire you. At times, you will include your client in this process. At other times, you will do this part quietly within yourself.

If you find that intense and painful energies are swirling in the room, you can use the powerful image of the rose to keep your energetic field strong and clear. Imagine a rose, using any color or size you like, halfway between you and your client. You may choose to surround your body with roses, and perhaps place them in the corners of the room as well.

The rose is the symbol of the Divine Feminine, and by using it you are stating your personal boundary of beauty and strength. The rose is one of the best tools for any situation in which you become uncomfortable with negative energies.

Always breathe consciously, being aware of your inbreath and outbreath as much as possible. This will keep you grounded and calm. The extra oxygen will feed your blood, brain and heart.

If you feel tense at all, focus on your exhale and breathe out slowly, letting your awareness travel down your spine to your feet. Throughout the session, fill your torso and whole body with breath, and watch how much more present you can be as a supportive guide for your client.

End the session by completing the sacred space. You may want to ask your client to add any thoughts or prayers of gratitude, as a way to close the session with a healing vibration.

After the session

After a session, I immediately wash my hands with cold water, and I imagine that all of the details about my client are washing down the drain. In this way, I am left with only a simple feeling of love when I think of that person. This gives both of us a lot more clarity and energy that can be used for whatever is next in our lives.

If you feel tired, take a shower or a bath with Epson salts. A little lavender or sandalwood oil in the bath will help you to feel refreshed and whole again. Sometimes, clients will come to "visit" me after a session by coming into my thoughts, perhaps with the intention of asking for more of my energy. When this happens, I simply bless the client with love and compassion. If the feeling persists, I give the client a ball of light and show him or her how to get more light from within...not from me. Since divine light is free and inexhaustible, we can never run out of grace and love. In my mind, I show this truth to any "visiting" clients, and bless them on their merry way.

Ongoing Spiritual Expansion

Ongoing work on your own shadow side is absolutely essential to keep your energetic field happy, healthy and ready for service. Notice when a client is mirroring to you an aspect of life that you might fear or deny, and take some time to explore it on your own.

A practitioner's energy may become weak or congested because of an assumption that he or she is "done" with learning and growing, and that all that is left is to "heal" (i.e. fix) others. As soon as that happens, the facilitator's energetic potency begins to plummet.

So use the tools that you teach to others. Be a student yourself, and allow yourself to be vulnerable and guided, the way you invite your clients to be during a session with you. Choose your healing practioners carefully, remembering that when you make room within for deep, humble contact with those who can support you, you make room for connection with your colleagues in the healing arts community.

Whether we have put in years of in-depth study or not, we can all offer healing as we walk our collective path of awakening. May we open to more light, keeping it strong, clean and vital, so that our hearts can shine - uplifting and bringing peace to the world.