30 Years! and Just Getting Started

People ask me how it is that I came to this profession. That is a story. I was in a failing business. At the end of my rope, in my nightly prayers, I asked God to help me find what it was that I was supposed to be doing successfully. To my surprise, the next morning I had a deep desire to become a massage therapist. Now this was an odd thing since I had received one demonstration massage in my life years before at a business opening. However, being the pack rat that I am, I still had the business card of that practitioner. I called the number only to find that she had moved on to her own place. The person on the other end of the line was kind enough to provide me the contact information. Before I lost my nerve, I called Carol Madsen. I told her that I wanted to study massage and asked how I might go about that. She graciously told me of the schools in the area and the cost of those programs. I felt defeated. I could not pay that tuition. When I told her this, she said, "well I've been thinking of taking on a student". She told me her weekly fee. I could do that. And so I began her program. Little did I know that she was one of the best in the area. I received great training as an apprentice. And she helped me land my first massage job. My massage practice took off and has supported me even to this day. I feel it truly was divine intervention that led me to a massage career.

Not ever being satisfied, in my 13th year of business, I wanted to be more adept. I had started Improved Performance Therapeutic and Sports Massage in 1990, about a year after giving my first professional massage. I kept hearing about this thing called the meridian system. Yet I had not found anyone in the massage realm that could explain it to me or teach it to me. I had experienced a near death event and a bout with cancer. I wanted to know how to better maintain my own health and how to help those I was serving. I kept being led back to the idea of energy medicine. Acupuncture seemed like the course to take. I didn't think I ever wanted to put needles in folks. But I did want to know about the energy system that was the precursor to the human form.

I looked in the yellow pages for an acupuncture school. And there it was. I called. Jill told me the details. The one detail regarding the tuition stopped me for the moment. It took me two years to raise the tuition. I then called again to see about acceptance. To my disappointment, the school had closed. A glimmer of hope was offered by Mr. Hackler. He said that the Doctor may take on apprentice students. I met with Doctor Duckworth. I experienced the medicine first by a student who amazed me. That story is for another article. Then I experienced the medicine at the hands of Dr. Duckworth. Now I wanted to study this art more than ever. It took me almost another year of receiving treatments and attending all the offerings by Dr. Duckworth and Mr. Hackler. I had stopped asking if he would accept me as a student. It seemed to me that he would get around to it when he was ready. One day, out of the blue, he asked if I still wanted to study the medicine. I said, "yes!". I began officially as a student in October of 2001. I received my Missouri license Jan. 2007.

I found my original Reiki teacher on the internet in early 2011 by happenstance. The Doctor had been talking to me about taking on students. This was a conversation regarding the future. I didn't feel ready to take on students of my own and he had not indicated that I should do so then. The conversation was about the medicine and how one day I would pass it on to keep it alive. It made me think about that potential and the fact that I had always been a Reiki practitioner along with my massage practice and now the medicine of Kototama/Inochi Meridian Therapy. So it might be a good idea to know how to encourage that aspect in a student of mine. Since I felt Reiki was such an important part of who I am. It had, after all, been there from the beginning. So Jeanne Greening and I set up a time in October for me to venture out to Roanoke, VA and complete my training in Reiki. That adventure I will write about later.

My thirty year mark has caused me to reflect on what the past years have nurtured. What an honor it is to practice a service that helps people. It has evolved. One on one sessions with my patients has taught me a great deal, From those sessions, the Healing Energy Blanket evolved. A tool that patients can take home to continue setting the healing environment. The energy contained in the cotton fibers of the blanket encourages anxiety reduction, lessening of pain, and better sleep. It has been cuddled with, draped over couches, and offered as a gift to loved ones in the throws of a health challenge since 2011. It can be viewed as a distance healing tool. Even though it stores the energy to be used by the recipient any time, any day, any where. It does traverse the miles bringing healing and loving intentions to serve the recipient or anyone who sees or comes in contact with our blanket.

Why would I offer these healing energy tools when I have a robust practice? I want to help as many people as is within my capacity. And there is the qualifier. I am but one "human being". My medicine practice is a physical one. So I can see only a small group each week. Now with the healing energy tools, more folks can be served. The blanket and the subscription distance healing sent daily are more akin to homeopathic dosing. Receiving a treatment is a hands on session guided by the person's unique energy pulses that address the core issues. The healing energy tools can enhance and prolong the therapy session much like the devices that I use in the acupuncture session (i.e. hinai, press pins, magrain balls, and magnets). Or they can offer a gentle vibration that helps ignite the healing mechanisms within the recipient. They can be used by a patient of mine or a person whom I have never met who would like to have assistance in their life. Please, allow me to serve. Thank you to all those who have supported me all these many years. It has been my pleasure. And I am looking forward to the next thirty years in your service.