By Deborah Baker
Reiki and Healing Touch therapy have made an amazing difference in my life.
As a patient at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute in 2016, I endured constant blood draws, multiple CT and PET scans, and high-dose chemotherapy to treat my Hodgkin Lymphoma, a high-grade, life-threatening cancer.
The treatments were working, but my mind and my body felt ravaged, and it was difficult to let go of my stress.
I began Reiki and Healing Touch treatment sessions through the Life Spark organization, and they were incredibly beneficial. I felt a deep calm; my breath slowed and deepened, my mind became quiet, and I felt free of fear and discomfort.
As I lay fully clothed on a massage table, the soothing light touch of another human being connected me to an indescribable yet palpably healing energy. I recognized that healing would require more than my doctors and nurses were able to provide.
When I finished chemotherapy and began to feel well again, I decided to become a Reiki practitioner. I went through quite a lot of training. Then, I decided I wanted to pay it forward, and I began volunteering for Life Spark.
Then, my life story took another sharp turn.
The tumors that would have killed me were removed, but I still suffer from the side effects of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from those surgeries. I am left with deafness, tinnitus, brain pressure, and constant fog, which won’t get better. I work every day to accept these invisible disabilities.
I credit Life Spark sessions with letting me experience a profound state of calm. Drawing on my awareness of this inwardly quiet state is one of my most valuable tools. Despite many difficulties, it has helped me endure what cannot be cured.
Western Medicine can often cure, but patients do best when they also receive support from organizations such as Life Spark to fully heal.
