Energy Healing: MODALITIES

What It Is and What It Does Energy healing is energy medicine or energy therapy. It's an emerging form of complementary and alternative medicine. It's not a modern concept or approach. The origins are found throughout the ancient world. This form of healing is noted in Christianity, as well as other Western and Eastern religions.

Energy work was part of many early approaches to medicine. Early medical practitioners believed that when the energy within the body was out of balance, people became ill. In Asian countries, medical people felt the only way to a healthy body lay in correcting this imbalance. China and Japan, for example, developed a medical system based upon energy levels within the body.

Yet, the belief in the role of energy is not restricted to the physical. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners have always perceived this energy (Chi), as having a holistic impact. In other words, the quality and amount of energy found circulating within your body affects your emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being. It is not restricted to your physical health.

What is Energy Healing? In its different forms, energy healing is defined as an aspect of alternative and complementary medicine. Energy medicine employs diverse methods to modify and manipulate the flow of energy within the body. The intent is to realign, replenish or stabilize the amount  and the quality of energy within the human body.

Types of Energy Healing Today, we can draw upon the skill of various schools. The list has been expanding. Below, I've listed just some of the better-known schools or approaches:

• Reiki
• Qigong
• Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
• Biofield energy
• Therapeutic Touch (TT)
• Spiritual Healing – generally secular or at least non-denominational
• Faith Healing – tends to be Christian-based
• Acupuncture/acupressure
• Yoga
• Sufi dancing
• Polarity Therapy
• Feldenkreis work
• Meditation – certain forms
• Visualization techniques
• Chakra balancing

Depending upon both the practitioner and the specific type of energy work, this type of healing can also be divided into methods. These include:

• Hands-on approach, e.g. acupuncture/acupressure and faith healing
• Hands-off method, e.g. Reiki, one such means of manipulating energy. The practitioner does not need to touch the client at all.

One more method of spiritual and physical healing is possible. This is the at-a-distance type. The client and the practitioner are not in the same place. They might never even meet.

How Does It Work? Ted Andrews writes in The Healer’s Manual, “The human body is an energy system … imbalance on any level will ultimately manifest itself into the physical…”

Energy work is based on this. It also relies on the client belief in the ability of the practitioner to channel energy into him or her. TCM and other forms of physical, mental and spiritual healing hold that the practitioner is able to add or subtract energy in the body’s channels (meridians). In doing so, energy comes back into balance.

Energy in Balance The use of energy to restore health – physical, mental and spiritual, is a component of alternative and complementary medicine. Practitioners can utilize many different approaches. Yet, the purpose is the same – to heal by channeling the energy from one individual into another. This will reduce or increase the levels within to achieve a balance.

Scientific research still questions the ability of energy work to heal. Nevertheless, some methods, such as Reiki and TT are accepted as viable in many modern medical practices.

Learn more on the following pages:

The Power of Energy Medicine 

Also known as energy healing or energy therapy, this technique is found in a variety of different branches of complementary and alternative medicine practices.

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