Finding the Magic: How I Got into Energy Work

I have always loved the idea of magic. I am from the generation that grew up with Harry Potter. As a child, I wanted to be like a Disney princess and talk to animals or be like Matilda and move objects with my mind. I was very disappointed when neither of those things happened. My best friend from childhood cried when she did not get a letter from Hogwarts on her 11th birthday. The let-down hit hard.

I grew up and, like many others, I became cynical of all things mysterious and invisible to the naked eye. That is, until I had some pretty powerful experiences with energy work.

For years, I struggled with PMDD – Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Basically, I would have suicidal thoughts on a regular basis and I finally figured out that the worst episodes would happen 10 days before my menstrual cycle began. My negative mood was triggered by my hormones. At one point, a male psychiatrist recommended I go on oral birth control and skip the placebo week of the pill. The logic was that if I skipped the placebo week my hormones would stabilize and I wouldn’t get my period. If I didn’t get my period, I wouldn’t get suicidal. Desperate to feel better, I complied.

A year later, I was working at a yoga studio. My boss encouraged me to experience energy work. I didn’t really buy into that, but I agreed anyway – when your boss says to try something, you try it, especially if it’s for free.

I had a session with a friend of my boss. Her name was Teresa. I honestly do not remember her last name. She had me lay on a massage table, fully-clothed. She put her hands on my body. It felt warm, soothing. She told me I need to stop eating so many processed foods – at the time I was living off of frozen food from Trader Joes. Then the real kicker came when she put her hands on my ovaries and all of sudden, I felt cramping. Like cramping that happens when you have your period. I could feel things moving in my body! It didn’t feel bad or painful, just strange. She said that I need to bleed, that by not having my period I am blocking the energy and it’s building up. After that session, my entire body felt great. My boss commented that I looked really happy. I felt – and I know this sounds incredibly corny - blissful.

Even though I was still taking the oral contraceptive and skipping the placebo, the very next day I got my period. That’s right. I started to bleed and I realized that taking the pill and skipping the placebo week wasn’t actually good for me. Skipping the placebo week was not good for my body. I had to find other ways to manage PMDD. (Thank goodness for complementary medicine -- I find acupuncture, raspberry leaf tea, yoga and therapy to work wonders!)

During this time, approximately 9-ish years ago, I also found this random website where a woman instructed people to play with their chakras (wheels of energy). We have seven primary energy centers – chakras -- along our spine. This video instructed me to bounce an imaginary ball up and down the primary chakras. It seemed silly but I was bored pet-sitting a spoiled poodle, so I tried it and found it fun. About a year later, I was teaching a yoga class and one of my students told me that some of the practices I taught reminded her of Reiki. I didn’t know much about Reiki back then. I knew someone who practiced it but I never had a real session. This student commented that when I asked everyone in class to do eye exercises and then rub their hands really quickly together to get hot, then place these warm hands over the eye sockets that it felt soothing and similar to energy work.

After several weeks of this student encouraging me to check it out, I decided to get trained in Reiki. My first training was at Beaumont Hospital. Since it was catered to medical professionals, it was super heavy with research and data, proving how this ancient practice of hands-on-healing is actually evidence-based and incredibly scientific. As someone who, according to my mother, is very “granola,” I didn’t care as much about the research compared to the nurses and medical techs in my class. What I cared about was the experiential practice. At the very end of a long day of statistics and data and science, we finally got to practice feeling energy fields. Students were put into groups of three and encouraged to practice feeling the etheric layers (energy layers) on each other. When it was my turn to practice feeling a peer’s energy field, holding my hand six inches away from their back, the energy felt thick, tingly and buzzing. As if my hand was gliding up and down an invisible wall only it was tangible. One of my partners observed, “Hannah. You can’t stop grinning!” I found my thing. I found magic, only it was real and in a hospital exam room and something that other people felt too!

About a year later, I was then introduced to a woman named Wendy Mauntel. She was the first teacher who encouraged me to utilize my intuitive abilities – abilities that everyone has, but gifts we are taught to turn off as young children. She encouraged me to slow down, ask for guidance and check in with my gut. She introduced me to her teacher, Karen Greenberg, and that experience had a domino effect on my studies of energy work. Years later, here I am.

After a handful of more energy work training courses, I started to develop the gift of reading, feeling and working with the human energy field. I make no claims to be “psychic” or serve a medium for your dead loved one – although sometimes the energy of beloved ancestors or departed friends will show up and give a message during session (usually directly to the client when they are in deep relaxation).

Since it is a vast practice, there is always more to learn and sometimes my anxiety or ego get in the way of tuning in 100%. Sometimes I am so wrong trying to read someone’s energy field it’s hysterical. Many times, I am spot on, even at a distance.

Just last week I was talking on the phone to a woman I met in an online coaching class. I do not even know her last name. She lives in Texas. I live in Michigan. We were talking about business and I told her briefly about mine. Excited, she asked if I could “read” her. When you tell people you do energy work, people ask you that a lot. “Can you read my field?” I will tell you what I always tell them. Yes, I can read you, but only with your permission. I do not read energy fields unless someone asks because that would be a huge violation of boundaries. Since she asked and therefore gave permission, I checked in with her energy.

She wanted to know if I could tell if she was left-brained or right-brained. I strongly dislike these questions that seem to be quizzes. It immediately puts the pressure on, which cranks my own anxiety up, which interferes with my gut-connection and I am not a Magic 8 Ball – despite sometimes feeling tempted to say, “Try again later.”

I took a deep breath and checked in anyway, trying to ground myself and remove the pressure to “get it right.”

The first thing that came into my awareness was that her right brain was hot, incredibly active. This made sense because we had just been discussing ideas for marketing, which would utilize the right, creative brain. I couldn’t tell if she was left-brain or right-brain dominated, but rather how her body was showing up in that moment. I suspected she was right-brain focused because we were even having this conversation. In my experience, most people who are interested in energy work tend to be right-brain dominant.

Then I noticed that she had a thick heaviness in her heart. I explained that’s where we store grief. She immediately said, “yes, I lost my brother a few years ago and I still struggle with guilt.” I continued to scan. I had a thought come in that she had a hysterectomy or major surgery in her stomach, or maybe lower body. Filtering out of fear, I said, “This is a strange question and you don’t have to answer [thinking but not saying: considering we’re total strangers and a few moments ago we were just talking about building websites and I still don’t know your last name], but have you had major surgery on your stomach or the lower half of your body?”

Yes, she had half a hysterectomy. I could feel that although the physical tissues had healed, the etheric form remained open. She was leaking energy out of her 2nd chakra, specifically on the left side of her pelvis. She was likely struggling with creativity, sexuality and gender roles. She was thrilled I could "read" her.

While I still find it fun to work with someone’s energy – and we all need guidance sometimes – I find it more rewarding to help people tap into their own energy. I prefer to “teach a man to fish” or in this case, to listen to his or her or their own body and energy field.

If you are interested in consciously connecting with the etheric world, I would love to help you on your journey. Sign up for your session today!