Energy Healing for Horses - Full Body Realignment & Psoas Release
Last week I attended another CPD in person training day at Rose Holistic Therapies & Training.
This day course was led by Lucy Yeomans who I did Equine Acupressure training with earlier in the year. Lucy works with horses & dogs very much energetically. This was something I took some interest in during the Acupressure training and wanted to learn more about. And I was also very interested to learn how this type of work can be used to realign & rebalance a horse’s body and also release the Psoas muscles.
I have written in detail about the Psoas region in a previous blog, you can read that here.
In short the Psoas muscles are the deep pelvic muscles which are flexors of the hip, they are deep inside the pelvis, helping to connect the hindlimb and pelvis to the spine and also help to support the sacroiliac joint.
Because the Psoas muscle group is so deep within the horse it is impossible as a manual therapist to directly feel and palpate the Psoas muscles. In previous training I have learnt how to influence the Psoas muscles using indirect techniques with the hind limbs, tail etc. But I was excited to learn what more I could do to help horses in this region.
I feel like over the past few years as I have evolved as a therapist, developing my feel, my knowledge and skills, I have become more open to the idea of working with energy. This also fits nicely with the style of horse training I do with my own horses in which thought and energy are the first cues we use before touch. Although I have known about energy techniques including Reiki for a long time, and have even visited a Reiki professional for treatment myself many times, it’s only now that I felt ready to explore this further as a therapist myself.
So I went off to this day with a very open mind. And it was refreshing that a number of the other participants on the day were Massage therapists and Veterinary Physiotherapists that were also new to this type of work.
Lucy is a Quantum Touch Practitioner, Advanced Theta Healing Practitioner & Reiki Master. She began the day by explaining to us how she got into energy healing. After sustaining a back injury following a riding accident, Lucy had multiple treatments with manual therapists such as Osteopathy, Chiropractic & Massage and was still having pain and was about to resign herself to the fact that she would always have back pain and need regular treatment. Then one day a therapist asked if they could try a new technique on her that they had been learning. This was Quantum Touch therapy. Lucy said after a couple of treatments she couldn’t believe the difference in how she felt, and the pain did not return. She was then keen to learn this skill herself so that she could help others and that was where it all began for her.
Before the course Lucy sent us a comprehensive manual covering anatomy and physiology of the horse and also the dog (this was an Equine and Canine training day - which was cool cause it meant I could take me dogs with me for the day!).
Although the Equine information was mainly revision for me, I was impressed with the detail the manual went into about the anatomy of the skeleton, skeletal muscles and of course the pelvic limb/psoas muscles.
The manual also explained that knowledge of anatomy is not essential to using energy healing techniques however, to be most effective it can help to have a mental picture of specific places that as a therapist you want to send energy to, or heal, in order to focus your intent, as energy follows intent.
One of the aims of the day was to learn how to channel this energy to realign the skeletal structure and work with muscles, tendons, ligaments & fascia to release tension, relieve inflammation and improve joint function, thereby reducing pain and increasing mobility.
We started with the attunement. Every person is an energy being, so the energies we are trying to connect to are already part of us. So the attunement is to help you remember the energies rather than technically connect with them.
The attunement process helps us to remember these energies and more easily activate them in the future as we have been reminded of their frequencies.
For the attunement we were asked to close our eyes while Lucy talked us through a mental exercise.
I can’t deny I was a little apprehensive and perhaps still a little sceptical as to whether I would be able to really feel or access anything, plus it’s unusual to sit in a room of strangers with your eyes closed and not feel a little awkward or even vunerable.
But soon I forgot about any of the other people in the room, and I could feel things and see the colours and visualisations as we went through the exercise, it was actually a really cool experience.
After the attunement I felt really cold, and needed a hot drink to warm up! Lucy assured me that this was in fact very normal.
Lucy also gave us a healing symbol for the frequency of energy she had attuned us to. This symbol can be used to help us access the energy at any time by drawing it in our mind 3 times. As this is all new to me I wondered if I would ever use this symbol, but actually having used energy work on some horses since the course I do find the symbol really useful, it helps the healing to start to work for me.
The next thing we looked at was Kinesiology or Muscle Testing.
I actually think this deserves it’s very own blog post, so that’s my intention, to write about this for my next blog. But the reason we learnt this powerful technique was to enable us to connect with the horse or dog we were working on to find out where their bodies were out of alignment, giving us a clear idea of where to direct our healing.
Once we had all had a practice of muscle testing it was time to connect with a horse and test our new skills, finding out where they were out of alignment and then directing our healing energy to that part of the body to facilitate the body to realign to the best of it’s ability. It is of course true that the body can only become as balanced and in alignment as the physics of the body will allow. And also that a full alignment is not always possible in once session, especially if the horse has been out of balance and alignment for a prolonged period of time.
It was amazing to find the muscle testing really working for me and the others on the course and also to see the physical and emotional responses from the horses using the very gentle touch of the healing and energy work. Considering how gentle the physical touch is, the results are very powerful, I also found the work actually quite tiring mentally, but I hope this will become better for me once I have had more practice.
One of the things we learnt was the importance of protecting yourself from the energy of others, and making a habit of doing this each day. And also the importance of ‘disconnecting’ from an animal once you have completed a healing. As otherwise you can leave yourself susceptible to external detrimental forces which can affect you mentally but also physically.
Lucy also showed us on the horses how to work around the pelvic region, directing our energy and intent at the psoas region and how this will help to release the region. I am excited to include this in some of my client sessions and see what responses I am able to achieve, as fatigue, tension & over use injuries are so common in this area. And seeing the responses from the horses we worked on during the course day, including whole body relaxation, swaying from side to side, sighing, licking, yawning, I am certain this technique will be useful.
And as Lucy said during the day, at worse you change nothing and have no effect. This work can do no harm. But, it can be very powerful and we should be able to help the horses or dogs make significant changes.
During the afternoon we also worked with the dogs. 2 of the other participants in the course, both of which were veterinary physiotherapists worked with my dogs Vera & Elsie.
As you can see from the picture of Elsie, she was lapping up the treatment, both dogs absolutely loved it. It is unusual for either of them to relax so much in the company of unknown humans without me or my husband being right next to them, so this was really cool to see.
I really enjoyed this day of learning, I left exhausted but also with a sense of calm and well being. And it has actually inspired me to strive for more wellness in life.
As I said above I have already had the chance to use the energy technique with a few horses and I do feel I have had some great responses. I look forward to integrating this into my practice further where appropriate, it will not replace the other therapies I provide but I think will be a useful addition in some cases. I also have plans for Reiki attunement in November this year so that I can develop this further.
I look forward to becoming more confident with it, especially in the muscle testing which I think will be really useful, but more to come on that!
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Jess