by Colleen M. Quinn

Anyone who’s spent time in high school science class learning about atoms, Einstein, and various scientific theories knows that energy has a lot to do with our lives and world as we know them. Everything, from the Earth’s movement around the sun to grass growing, involves energy in some way. It’s no surprise then that energy is equally vital to our bodies and our very being.

Because energy is intrinsically linked to our mental and emotional wellbeing, in addition to our physical health, it’s extremely important to care for our energetic state of being. For Liz Ann Fischer of Denver, Colorado, being a practitioner of energy work is a way to help others care for themselves through energy work and healing. “Everything around us affects our energetic bodies,” she says, emphasizing the value of caring for one’s energetic state.

As an energy practitioner, Liz Ann primarily uses one of two types of energy work to help her clients with a number of issues, including relieving stress and reducing physical pains. After getting to know her clients and their needs, Liz Ann uses either Reiki or Reconnective Healing to help clients achieve healing and empowerment. These kinds of energy work are similar in some ways, but two very distinct methods of improving someone’s personal energy.

Reconnective Healing was developed in the 1990s by Dr. Eric Pearl, an experienced chiropractor who began working with energy in a unique way. He found that he was able to help his clients through “reconnecting” them to their energetic selves, with great and positive results. Such healing is becoming more widely used by energy practitioners across the country.

Reconnective Healing deals with high-vibration energy delivered to the body by the practitioner’s hands through a light touch, or holding the hands above the body. It is based on the concept that a person’s energies can be mapped out in lines along the body, similar to the idea of meridians (although lines and meridians are not the same). Over time, physical or emotional experiences can disrupt the body’s actual connection to these lines of energy. Reconnective Healing reconnects the body to this original and natural blueprint, and many kinds of healing inherently take place.

Practitioners like Liz Ann do Reconnective Healing primarily in an energy healing session. A person lies fully clothed on a table with their hands gently on the person or above them. The practitioner then may become familiar with the energy that surrounds the body. Depending on what is sensed, either a blockage of some kind or an area that just needs attention, the practitioner actively moves the energy as needed. Liz Ann says that this is one of the main differences between Reiki and Reconnective Healing.

“The practitioner is very much present in Reconnection,” she says. “A practitioner senses and works directly with the energy. That’s how it differs from Reiki, where the practitioner is more of a pipeline or channel.”

Reconnective Healing can also be used according to a defined set of procedures developed by Dr. Pearl to achieve what is called The Reconnection. This is a specific process of hand movements and placements above the body. This literally reconnects the body with its original blueprint of energy lines. The practitioner works from one end of the body to the other, moving the energy along the energetic lines of the body. This is normally done in two sessions, although it can differ from person to person.

According to Dr. Pearl’s website, www.thereconnection.com, the difference between a Reconnective Healing session and The Reconnection is basically intent. While a healing session is to heal in some specific aspect, The Reconnection is meant to bring the body’s energy back in connection with its natural lines. As Dr. Pearl writes, this in turn brings the person “into the fullness of our inherent connection with the universe.”

Another type of energy healing, Reiki is a practice that was created in Japan in the 1920s by a man named Mikao Usui. He developed Reiki with the idea that there is an energetic life force inherent in the universe, and a person’s body and mind not only need it but can be positively helped by it.

On the surface, Reiki seems uncomplicated but its effects may be profound. During a Reiki session, a client lies down on a table fully clothed. Using either a light touch or their hands a couple inches from the body, the practitioner’s hands essentially become a conduit for the energy to flow through the person’s body. A practitioner often uses a defined set of hand positions, moving from the person’s head down to their feet, or if they sense that a certain area of the body needs more attention, they focus on that, as well.

In a few ways, Reiki is similar to Reconnective Healing as both contribute to the flow of energy in a person’s body. Yet Reiki differs in that a Reiki practitioner serves as a channel through which the energy flows, and the practitioner does not interact with the energy at all. In a Reiki session, a person’s body still naturally takes in the energy and distributes it in the areas that it is needed. In this way, Reiki also only positively affects a person, allowing healing in physical and emotional aspects, as well as relieving stress and physical pain.

In either Reiki or Reconnective healing, a person’s body naturally takes energy where it is needed. “The body’s wisdom will use energy where it needs to be,” Liz Ann explains. She says that because of this, energy work can never do any harm at all. “The energy always works for the individual’s best and highest goo,” she says. “Energy won’t do anything they don’t want or allow it to do, either consciously or subconsciously.”

These two energy therapies do only good for a person’s mind and body – there is no such thing as a negative side effect. Some of the most common and deeply felt results are alleviation of stress, relaxing of muscles, and relief from chronic pain. Liz Ann has used either Reiki or Reconnective Healing to help her clients with joint pain and chronic headaches as well. She says that for some people, another outcome can be a resolution to emotional issues that have proven hard to get past.

Liz Ann explains that there is an intrinsic tie between physical and emotional wellbeing. For example, when a physical aspect is healed, often an emotional healing happens as well, or vise versa. “When the emotional heals, the physical can follow,” she says. “The two are very much linked.”

She says that we are subconsciously aware of this, and the awareness even turns up in our language through phrases like “pain in the neck.” Anyone who’s suffered from a broken heart will understand the vital relationship between the emotional and physical. This is a prime example of how a person’s energy is so important to their overall health. “Quantum physics is now beginning to understand what the ancients have intuitively known. Human beings are vibrating energy,” says Liz Ann.

Liz Ann uses the analogy of a river to describe how energy acts within us. Fluid and active energy is always circulating, but there are things that may slow or stop that flow. Like a beaver’s dam that slows the currents, a blockage reduces energy flow, equally an excess of energy interferes with the flow. These blockages come from either physical or emotional trauma, resulting in negative side effects. In essence, the goal of these energy practices is to make the energetic currents within us move freely, without obstructions or excesses.

For someone who’s trying out energy work for the first time, Liz Ann recommends simply taking a few deep breaths and trying to quiet the mind. It’s also important that you trust your practitioner and realize that nothing negative can come from energy work. She points out that the practitioner is not controlling any energy, but is either a channel for the working energy or a guide for it. “Nothing will happen that is not in your best interest,” she says.

For her part, Liz Ann ensures her clients feel as comfortable and relaxed as possible when they work with her. This includes creating a safe and trusting atmosphere for clients. Especially in an initial session, Liz Ann asks questions about why they’re there, what issues they’re dealing with, and what they would like to gain from a session. Their answers help her better understand what they need and how she can best help them, but they are also completely confidential. “This is their time, for me to listen to their concerns and establish that relationship,” she says.

One very important aspect to remember in any healing session is that the practitioner is not actively healing the client. “I’m not the source of healing,” says Liz Ann. “I have skills that I bring to the table, but I do not create healing.” That, she says, is something that can only be done by the client, through being relaxed and having a positive attitude. As said before, a person’s body will only take energy when and where it is needed. In other words, a person’s body is already ready to heal and a healing session provides it the opportunity to do so.

Although her background is in business, Liz Ann has been practicing energy healing for 13 years, which is her true passion and calling in life. Liz Ann always has had an intuitive nature, but her first introduction to energy healing came when she heard about a practice called Reiki from a church she attended in Atlanta, Georgia. Although she couldn’t explain why at the time, she says. “It was 100% compelling that I go to this talk about Reiki. I learned a little there, and have been working with it ever since.” She is a Usui Reiki Master, and has used her skills to help cancer patients in Georgia.

Liz Ann added to her range of skills when she heard about another type of energy healing in early 2007, a practice called Reconnective Healing. She went to see a talk and demonstration given by Reconnective Healing’s founder Dr. Eric Pearl, and realized, “I had been doing this intuitively, and that my practice had been evolving like that already.” She went on to study personally with Dr. Pearl and is now a Level III Reconnection Healing Practitioner as well.

In the town of Rome, Georgia, Liz Ann owned a healing center called Circle of Health and worked as a Reiki therapist for cancer patients. She also teaches Reiki to others which she says is one of her most favorite aspects of energy healing. She teaches both adults and children this valuable practice, as well as working with family pets that also benefit from energy healing. In 2007, Liz Ann relocated to Denver and is currently helping clients around her with her healing skills. Information about her work can be found at www.energyhealingwithlizann.com.

The significance of energy work is a part of Liz Ann’s life, both in the way that she can help others and the fulfillment she gets through her work. “It’s a very humbling experience,” she says. “I’m always amazed at my clients … it’s just a gift to be able to help!” It’s a unique and great experience that she hopes others will explore, and one that she is more than happy to assist with. “If you’re in a stressful time in your life, or you can’t break out of a pattern,” Liz Ann says. “Energy work can certainly help out with that!”

Colleen Quinn graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communication. A writer for most of her life, she has been writing for Whisperingtree.net for over two years. In that time, she’s had the opportunity to meet with many practitioners and masters of the healing arts. Using her years of customer service experience and time as an intern reporter, Colleen provides a unique means of expression for each practitioner she meets. She believes that honest interest and open ears are paramount for learning and understanding the world around us. Through her writing, Colleen offers readers a valuable insight into the work of those who are doing so much to help others.