Energy Healing for a Broken Heart

This week I want to talk about one of the common uses of Reiki. I’ve found so often that what I’m doing with this type of energy work is helping grief move through the body.  There are so many forms of grief and they all hang out in our body and clog our energy fields.  

You might notice a certain ache or pain that seems to come up whenever you’re aware of a certain sadness.  Maybe you notice that ache or pain started right after a significant loss. Maybe you notice a certain ache or pain in your body whenever youargue with your partner.

Sometimes we even see grief in our posture.  Maybe we have the sensation that our shoulders are slumped forward or we are finding ourselves with very closed body language whenever someone asks how we are.  This can look like crossing your arms across your chest or hugging yourself like you got a sudden chill whenever someone offers you the opportunity to talk about what you have been through.

When I talk about heartbreak, I’m not just talking about romantic relationships ending, I’m talking about a lot of different types of heartbreak.  Maybe you have ended a relationship with an employer, a family member, or maybe someone passed away.  You might have even had  a bad argument or disagreement with your partner that feels like you have a broken heart.  Heart break isn’t always about endings.

Heartbreak is about us integrating a lesson and allowing ourselves to sit with the pain of losing who we were before, in exchange for stepping into the new version of ourselves. Maybe it’s the version of you that has one less parent, a new career, or more time alone

So how can Reiki help?  Reiki helps to hold space and time for the grieving that you may or may not be aware of. Heartbreak always brings its own dose of grief.  Sometimes we are very aware of its presence and it feels all-consuming.  If this is your experience, Reiki may help you shift some of that weight off of your heart and move you forward towards acceptance.  

If you are less aware of that grief, it could help you confront what you’ve been avoiding.  Clients who fall into this camp often find themselves suddenly in tears at the beginning of the session when I am just doing a check in to see how they are feeling.  Often, we don’t even realize grief until we pause and it has a chance to catch up to us.

A good energy work session is like coming home to yourself.  It resets you back to your baseline.  That is where we find clarity and direction.  

So processing that grief can actually help us see the future more clearly and open our hearts to new possibilities and support that we need to move towards those possibilities.  Grief acts like a kind of fog. When we are grieving, it can feel a bit like slogging through molasses; everything requires more effort.  You might be dealing with brain fog or exhaustion.  This is all very normal.

Our culture is particularly bad with dealing with grief and we often try to rush people through their sadness because it makes us uncomfortable.  I hear clients often express that they “should” be farther along in their grieving process.  “I should be over it by now.”  “I should have moved on already.”

These are sentiments I hear echoed over and over. The truth is that we just need a little more time and space to process.  Grief moves at our pace, not the pace of the world.

Reiki takes that pressure off and is great at moving the grief sensations through the body.  In a session, I give time and recognition to the grief and allow the client to feel it in a safe and controlled environment.  Usually just that recognition is enough to allow the grief to start to move out of the body.  I’ve had clients who have come back after one session amazed at how quickly they felt better.

If you are working through grief or any other emotion and would like to schedule a distance Reiki session, I would love to work with you. You can book a session here.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved

What Happens During a Reiki Session?

I get this question a lot.  Most people don’t quite understand what Reiki is and to be honest, even at the Master teacher level it can be a challenge to put words to what the experience is really like.

Every session is a little bit different but I have a general format that I follow with new clients.  My first-time client session is usually around 90 minutes.

When clients book they fill out an intake form that has questions about their health history and any current symptoms or issues they are dealing with.  I always review this information before the session so I know what to expect.

When the client comes in I start by having a conversation with them about their current energy level, mood, sleep, and emotional well-being.  From there, we talk about any goals the client might have for their session. Sometimes these are simple things like managing anxiety, or helping with better sleep.

Other times, they are more complex like dealing with anxiety from complex childhood trauma, or working through IVF and fertility issues.  The conversation we have at the beginning of the session sets the tone. From there the client gets on the table (just a massage table).

I take a moment to clear my energy and the room.  One of the hazards of being a medium is that I have to clear the energy in the room when I’m doing any work.  Then I put up extra energetic protection so that I don’t have spirits walking in and out of my space while I’m working.

(Fun sidenote: When I first got certified after my Reiki II attunement I described the feeling of spirits walking in and out of the room thinking that this was normal.  That was one of the signs that made it obvious to him that I was a medium but I was totally oblivious. He didn’t tell me any of this until I came around to the realization on my own because he didn’t want to freak me out and he could see I was already on edge enough)

This energetic shield that I create will allow healing energy in as well as any guides, angels, or ancestors of mine or my client’s.  It will also keep out any looky-loo spirits that are just curious about what’s going on. (yes, this is a serious thing that happens)

Then I start by scanning the clients aura with my hands.  Auras are the energetic field around the body and can be really big but usually they are most concentrated within 8 inches of the body.  As I scan my hands along sometimes I will notice some sticky spots. All practitioners describe this differently, but to me it usually feels like when you have a little chip in your finger nail and it keeps snagging on fabrics.  It’s the same sensation.

Then, I check in on each of the chakras.  These are the seven main energy centers of the body.  There are many more chakras, but those are the main seven I deal with from the root through the crown.  As a society we tend to live between our heart chakra and our crown. We are constantly looking at things – computers, phones, the TV.  We spend a lot of time in our heads. We spend less time walking, moving our bodies, and being active. Even those of us who live active lifestyles typically still have sedentary jobs.

So usually I work to help balance the energy from the upper chakras and bring some of that excess energy down into the sacral and root chakras.

Then I go through a combination of Kundalini and Usui Reiki treatments.  I describe Usui Reiki as healing for the physical body, the emotional body, and issues from this lifetime.  Kundalini Reiki is more of karmic healing, so it deals with issues of identity, karmic ties, behavior patterns, and past lifetimes.

Once I feel like I’ve dealt with the physical and emotional issues coming up for the client, I will do a treatment called Past Life Reiki.

Two years ago when I started with this treatment I could feel the energy moving and was aware that things were shifting but I was never completely aware of what was happening.  However, after a few months of doing it I started to see people’s past lifetimes almost like watching a movie.  

Now I just let these lifetimes come up and watch them from start to finish, describing what I see with clients.  At the end of each lifetime I will do a prayer for separating the client from that lifetime and sending healing and forgiveness back to the client in the lifetime.  This can bring about very emotional and sometimes even physical reactions from the client as any trauma or pain is released. Then, I wait to see if there is another lifetime.  In any given session I might see between two and four lifetimes. (I will do another blog more about past lifetimes.)

Once we’ve gone through this healing I will move on to healing any karmic ties they might have.  This treatment is usually informed by the past life treatment. So typically there is a theme to the lifetimes that came up that is frequently present in their current lifetime as well.  This treatment help to heal karmic ties to certain people, certain roles in life, and certain behaviors including addictions.

Finally, I will go back through each chakra and see how the energy is moving through their field.  Once I’m certain everything is balanced, I will do one final blessing, inviting in any ancestral or angelic blessings to close out the session.

I also keep notes on my clients, particularly their past lifetimes so we can keep track of their progress over time.

I feel so fortunate and lucky to be doing this work and of all the things I do, reiki seems the most like home to me.  I took to it very naturally, as if I had been doing it forever. I love seeing how my clients feel after a session. I’ve had clients who have made major emotional leaps and strides. I’ve worked with a lot of women dealing with fertility issues who were struggling with anxiety and guilt and who were able to overcome and get pregnant.  

I feel like this work is what I was meant to do and I love seeing people make peace with their past and ease their anxiety.  For me, Reiki has been such rewarding work and I love doing it. I’m hoping to start teaching this year and I’ve recently opened up my distance Reiki offerings as well.


Hopefully that gives you a little more insight on what to expect.  If you want to schedule a session you can pop over to my booking page to schedule here.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved