Further Reading
Quick Links to Therapy Information
Cuddle Therapy
Cuddling and loving touch is as fundamental to our well-being as eating healthy food and living in a safe environment. Touch is the first sense to develop and the communication that we transmit through touch is said to be the most powerful means of establishing human connections. The desire to experience physical closeness to another person is deeply embedded in our natural instincts and is a normal human need.
However, it has been found that many people are in fact touch-deprived and don’t receive the amount of affection or attentive touch that their bodies need in order to feel calm and safe in the world. In modern society, many people live alone, far from family or struggle with friendships / relationships and can experience devastating loneliness as a result. Many people simply do not have access to the loving embrace of a friend or partner, or have had negative experiences and therefore struggle to feel safe and trusting enough to be held by another person.
When touch is given in an attentive, loving way, such as stroking, holding hands, hugging and massage, it can have profoundly beneficial effects on the nervous system. The skin contains billions of touch receptors which perceive stimuli from its environment, which in turn sends information to the brain via neurons and neural pathways. This information then communicates with the brain a sense of safety or danger, to which the brain responds accordingly. When loving touch and cuddles are given the body is flooded with beneficial hormones such as Oxytocin, which induce a sense of warmth, calm and safety.
When the nervous system doesn’t receive regular messages of safety it can remain in a state of sympathetic arousal, which if prolonged can lead to a fight or flight response and higher levels of the hormone Cortisol (stress hormone). Cuddling and attentive touch are wonderful ways to support the nervous system to relax, to go into a state of parasympathetic arousal and therefore to come into balance in the body. Parasympathetic arousal is where the body can rest, regulate, heal, process and integrate all the stimulus it has received throughout the day.
Tiffany Field (2010) of the Touch Institute in Miami, is a leader in the study of touch. Through numerous studies her team of researchers have discovered that touch has a profound impact on the healthy functioning of the human body, that it can support people to achieve improved mental, emotional and physical health by:
- Lowering blood pressure
- Decreasing heart rate
- Decreasing cortisol levels (stress hormone)
- Supporting strong immune system
- Reducing anxiety
- Reducing pain
- Inducing a sense of calm and safety
- Increasing energy levels
- Healing from trauma
- Supporting the body’s natural healing process
- Inducing a sense of well-being
Cuddle Therapy is a new approach to remedying the barriers people may experience with touch and physical closeness. Not only will you have access to attentive touch and cuddles, but this is with a safe and trustworthy person that has been trained to hold non-judgemental space. This means you can fully relax and be exactly as you are, no matter the challenges you are currently facing. Cuddle Therapy is another one of the ways in which I can hold you with unconditional love as the arms and hands are said to be an extension of the heart. By creating a warm and safe space for you to be listened to and held in loving arms, I give you the opportunity to relax, receive care and/or process any emotions you may have.
During the cuddle sessions I will support you to bring your focus into your body with a guided meditation. We will do some exercises to encourage you to listen deeply to your body’s needs and boundaries, what is your authentic “yes” and “no”. And throughout the session I support you to gain confidence with expressing them. The sessions are entirely led by your comfort levels and the touch can be anything from a hand massage, to sitting shoulder to shoulder, to a full body cuddle. Whatever level of touch you require, I will hold you with a warm, loving embrace, exactly as you are and as you need to be.
Disclaimer – Cuddle sessions are not meant to take the place of professional counselling. Sessions are fully clothed and strictly non-sexual.
Touch for socioemotional and physical well-being – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229288769_Touch_for_socioemotional_and_physical_well-being_A_review
Touch Research Institute –
Reiki
Channelling life force energy as a method of healing has been used throughout the world since ancient times. However, the modern form of Reiki as we know it, was founded in Japan by Mikao Usui in the early Twentieth century. Usui’s system of healing (Reiki) was rooted in the spiritual teachings of Tendai Buddhism and the methods of working with energy (ki) from Shintoism.
Simply put, Reiki reduces stress and promotes relaxation which supports the healthy functioning of the body’s own healing system. The Reiki practitioner uses a method and system of laying their hands on different areas of the recipients’ body (or just above) and allows “universal energy” or “life force energy” to flow through them and into the recipient. This energy moves to areas of the body, and the energy field, that are not in alignment, and brings them back into balance.
The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words – Rei which means “the Higher Power” and Ki which is “life force energy”. So, Reiki is actually “spiritually guided life force energy.”
Reiki is said to:
- Relieve pain and fatigue
- Reduce stress, anxiety and depression
- Enhance quality of life
- Improve mood
I specialise in harmonic healing whereby I channel both spiritual energy (heavenly ki) from above AND earth energy (earthly ki) from below. These energies merge within my heart and my energy field in order to create a beautiful frequency of harmony, unity and unconditional love. This is the Harmonic Code that I share during these sessions and it’s healing power is accompanied and supported by the sounding of my voice.
This frequency can clear mental and emotional blocks as it harmonises the chakra system, bringing about a sense of balance and heart-centredness. I work with an extended chakra system from the Earth Heart Chakra, which resides in the core of the earth, to the Soul Chakra, which sits just above the head. I work to bring harmony and to restore balance to these chakras so that the Antakarana (soul stream) can anchor and flow naturally, creating a sense of belonging and expansion.
Here are a few studies about the benefits of Reiki:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24582620/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26163604/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2011/381862/
https://www.painmanagementnursing.org/article/S1524-9042(14)00152-0/fulltext
Soul Journey
The journey of the soul is intriguing, mysterious and enlightening, and is so very unique to each person. The work that I offer involves reconnecting with all parts of the soul, some of which have become fragmented and exiled into the shadow as a result of painful or traumatic experiences in life. When we experience something that is too overwhelming for our natural healing system and/or we don’t have loving support from others to help us integrate it at the time, our minds can split off or exile the part of us that experienced it. This part then remains locked away by the fears and beliefs that the mind created as a way to protect us. For example, we may have been ridiculed for having fun as a child and so to avoid further ridicule this playful, joyful part becomes exiled by the belief that it’s not safe to have fun or that being playful is wrong.
The aim of the soul journey work is to bring these exiled parts back into the loving embrace of our hearts. It is to allow that part to express all it needs to express, and to release the beliefs that are attached to it. So, there may be an inner child part that experienced harm from its caregivers and needs to express its rage, grief, disappointment or despair, and needs to release the untrue and unhelpful belief that their harsh treatment was due to being unlovable. This is just one example.
During these sessions I will guide you into your Heart Temple which sits deep within the core of your multidimensional being; it is said to be the portal to the entire universe. The Heart Temple is different to the physical heart and is not limited to the romantic type of love that we are familiar with. It is a space of unification, of unconditional love, of non-judgement, of forgiveness and of embracing all that we are. It is a place where our exiled parts and our painful parts can come to be held, healed and integrated; where they will receive the love that has been absent within them.
Reconnecting with our soul parts raises our conscious awareness in life; it anchors, embodies and expands our soul light. It means we can make choices and actions not from unresolved events that occurred in the past, or from embedded fear or shame, but from a place of responding to the present as it is, and of making choices and actions that are more aligned with our joy, our love and our evolution.
I work with the universal laws of resonance and reflection and during the session we will connect with the wisdom of these laws to uncover the emotions and beliefs that are no longer serving you. The law of reflection states that when we are “triggered” by another person or event, that this is showing us a part of ourselves that is unaligned, unresolved or exiled. It may be that our personal boundaries were intruded upon and our trigger indicates that we need to take action to protect ourselves. Or it may be that the person is displaying behaviours that exist or have existed within ourselves that we still hold judgement, fear or shame around. In this case our task is to bring this part of ourselves into the Heart Temple to receive love and forgiveness; to heal and integrate it back into wholeness.
The law of resonance states that we are very powerful beings who consciously and unconsciously create our reality based on our thoughts, beliefs, intentions, choices and actions. Everything that exists comprises of energy in various forms and vibrates at various frequencies. Each thought and action vibrate at a certain frequency and resonates out into our own energy field and that of the collective energy field. And energies that vibrate at the same frequency are attracted to each other, like attracts like; so, the frequency that you hold and the things you focus upon in your life become your reality, they become your manifestation. Therefore, when we hold unresolved trauma, unfelt pain and unhelpful beliefs, and we carry energetic blocks such as suppressed anger or grief, then this can manifest through the way we relate and interact with the people in our lives and the experiences that come towards us.
The soul journey work can be very powerful and transformational so I recommend committing to a minimum of three sessions so that we can work on a deep level, and thus bring about the shifts in your life that you so desire.
With full acknowledgement and gratitude – The soul journey work that I offer, along with the harmonic code, the heart temple and the extended chakra system mentioned above, were bought to me during 18 months of spiritual training with the Christed Essenes, via my teacher and channel, In’Easa Mabu Ishtar. The Christed Essenes are a collective of enlightened beings that have walked the earth and have mastered co-creation and unity consciousness in the physical realm, and who now support other souls along their journey of enlightenment.
