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Energy Work
What is Reiki?
Reiki is an ancient healing practice revitalized in 1920’s Japan. It’s a non-invasive “do no harm” energy work that creates feelings of well-being, security and relaxation. Anecdotal evidence abounds of Reiki helping the body to heal itself quickly, without possibly toxic medications or interventions where the side effects are nearly as detrimental as the initial complaint.
The beauty of doing Reiki with horses is there is no placebo effect. Animals love the work, yawning, licking, chewing and obviously relaxing into the experience. If done in a herd, it’s common to find a small line-up of horses waiting patiently for a turn. They are naturally attracted to the energy.
Reiki, long considered an alternative healing modality, is becoming more accepted and promoted within the mainstream. Dr. Mehmet Oz, famous cardiologist and medical talk show host, has announced on his program that the one thing every viewer should do for their own wellness is to try a Reiki treatment. Dr. Oz’s wife is a Reiki master, and he credits her for being the sole remedy for his migraine headaches.
More recently, there are now insurance companies within Canada that offer Reiki as a paid benefit in their extended health care packages (for humans). Palliative care and residential/extended care facilities are also beginning to utilize Reiki practitioners to provide comfort to their patients.
Reiki is an important part of the therapy work. It helps the horse to stay calm, relax and trust the practitioner, relieve soreness, and increase healing.
PSYCH-K®: Energy work with its roots in neuroscience
For people and horses
What is PSYCH-K?
PSYCH-K is a unique and direct way to change subconscious beliefs that perpetuate old habits of thinking and behaving that you would like to change. It is a simple process that helps communication with the subconscious mind, popularly characterized as a spiritual process with psychological benefits. While “psych” is often used as an abbreviation for “psychology,” in our case it is used as a variant spelling of the word psyche, meaning “mind,” “soul,” or “spirit.” The overall goal of PSYCH-K is to help you free your mind from limiting beliefs.
How can it help me?
We’re all the product of our own personal history. Moving through life, experiences sock themselves away into our subconscious – and the more emotion or trauma involved, the more deeply ingrained these experiences become, effecting reactions, behaviors and perceptions of our world.
As riders and horse people, many have either witnessed or had traumatic accidents, returned to riding after long layoffs for children or careers, or have accumulated a life-time of experiences that may begin to have us questioning our abilities or courage when working with powerful prey animals.
With PSYCH-K, trauma is quickly and easily transformed, releasing the emotion around an event, while leaving the memory and learning intact. It can help you establish meaningful goals and truly believe in your ability to reach them.
It also works with the mind/body connection around health and wellness. Dr. Bruce Lipton, author of “The Biology of Belief” discusses how our brain chemistry reacts to our emotions, sending cascades of neurochemicals coursing through the body. Negative thoughts and emotions and stress produce adrenaline, cortisol and other destructive substances, creating a state of anxiety with adverse health consequences. Positive thoughts and emotions create the opposite, a state of well-being and health with the influx of endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine. This natural chemical soup instills a sense of well-being, bonding and achievement, and is hugely desirable in creating healthy mind/body/spirit. Our beliefs create our response to life events, shaping thoughts and emotions. In the revised version of his book, Dr. Lipton has declared PSYCH-K as the most effective method for changing subconscious beliefs.
Neuroscientists have used brain mapping technology during PSYCH-K sessions, showing that the brain lights up in similar ways as it does through meditation. When it comes to health and living the life you dream of, the brain and power of belief are your best friends.
Some areas people choose to work on for their personal growth beyond equestrian skills: health and body, prosperity, self-esteem, spirituality, grief and loss, relationships, and personal power.
So how does this help horses?
Perception is everything. When we approach our equine partner with a limiting belief or judgement about that animal, or in anticipation of things going wrong, it’s most likely that horse will live up to the expectation. Helping riders flip limiting beliefs around their horses and riding allows the animal to live up to the bar we’ve set for them, whether it be as simple as not crowding while leading or getting past that spooky object on the trail. If you believe he can he will.
Horses also carry their lifetimes of experiences and interactions; they are often labelled, seemingly harmlessly, as lazy, stupid, nervous, reactive (which may have its roots in pain), stubborn, dangerous or _____ fill in the blank. Releasing labels or transforming trauma energetically allows the horse to come into the truth of who he is, not our coloured version of him. And most horses just want to get along.
How does it work with horses?
Quite simply, by tapping into what Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, Oxford educated biologist, calls the morphogenetic field. At the quantum level, we are all connected, we are all energetic beings. By connecting to the powers of the conscious, subconscious and superconscious minds, anything is possible. Using PSYCH-K, the practitioner can easily work with the horse on an energetic plane, utilizing muscle testing techniques to ask simple yes/no questions. But where horses are different to people – there’s sure not a lot of chat! The work is quick, clean, effective and often profound.
A few equine examples:
The abused horse that would wrap himself around a tree and shake when he saw people. Creating a new belief for him around “I am safe.” changed his life. He can now be caught, handled and groomed. He’s finally able to be trimmed and vetted without sedation.
The mare that would freak out at any new situation, over react and usually throw her rider. Her owner kept saying, “It’s like she just can’t do it.” Limiting belief: “I can’t”. When flipped to “I can” the horse became a trail superstar, able to manage her concerns whenever new situations popped up.
The elegant gelding suffering from 6 weeks of hives, despite many vet visits, husbandry changes and holistic remedies. PSYCH-K allowed the horse to receive the subconscious message in the dis-ease and release the condition. The next day his hives were completely cleared up. What was the message? No idea. That was between the horse and his creator. Interestingly, as the session wrapped up, the owner who’d been holding her horse and receiving as much healing energy as he did, literally fell over. There were some powerful forces at work!
The imported gelding who would panic and bolt seemingly without provocation. His owner adores him, despite frequent hospital visits. Body work helped this horse, but also learning to stand his ground in that split second before bolting changed everything. This horse had been labelled his entire life as dangerous, and couldn’t bear to have more than one person near him at a time. With PSYCH-K and a few equine therapy sessions, he became so much more relaxed, he could stand at the hitching rail with children, adults, dogs and other horses milling around, and fall asleep. A few days later, he saw his first bear on a trail ride; his owner nearly had a heart attack, but the horse held his ground, stood still and watched the bear cross his path.
PSYCH-K sessions work best when both horse and person are partners in the process; working together exponentially increases the power of the change. Your subconscious beliefs establish the limits of what can be achieved.
What would you change if you could?
