In mid-August, Center 615 hosted a Wellness Wednesday pop-up for our members at our Main Street Gallery event space, with the gracious Healing Touch practitioner Kim Breese. The following is the promotional blurb she gave us:
Need a relaxation break?
Sign-up or stop by for a Healing Touch session with Kim Breese and take 20-minutes for you!
Healing Touch is an Integrative Medicine Therapy that uses light or near body touch to balance physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. The techniques are designed to promote relaxation and self-healing.
Kim offered members discounted 20-minute sessions, and I was so lucky to have her offer me a free session before the pop-up ended.
To be forthright, I was skeptical about Healing Touch. Personally, aggressive deep tissue massages are more up my alley for relieving muscle tension. While I was skeptical, I was also open to receive whatever may come my way and experience it without preconception.
I came to realize, after my session, that comparing shiatsu to Healing Touch is a disservice; they’re apples and oranges. In my (limited) experience, massages are for physical relaxation; Healing Touch is for mental and spiritual relaxation.
Disclaimer: not an actual photo of the wellness pop-up
All morning, I watched members who had signed up for a session walk down to the space, and walk back up almost as if floating. As I descended from my desk into the low-lit Main Street Gallery (MSG), the delicate scent of burnt sage shepherded me to the curtained-off room where Kim had set up a massage table, pillow, and blanket.
Her calm, quiet energy relaxed me into a meditative state as she guided me through the briefed Healing Touch journey. All my focus turned inwards like a gondola ride in a colorfully lit and infinite tunnel, as I laid back and shut my eyes.
During the guided session, I kept my eyes closed, though I did feel the temptation to open them as I sensed Kim moving around the table, from one side to another.
After the 20 minute session, I slowly awoke from my shallow slumber and sat up on the table. Kim asked how I was feeling, and I informed her that I was experiencing a shooting pain in my shoulder, which occurred during the session’s deep breathing exercise. [Disclaimer: a couple days prior, I had experienced pain in my shoulder/neck] Following my comment, Kim strategically placed her hands around my shoulder head and shoulder blade and applied medium-to-light pressure, which helped alleviate the pain I was experiencing, though did not magically make it go away completely.
Once I stepped down from the table and slipped my shoes back on my feet, I sat in a fold out chair next to Kim and asked her a few questions about her practice.
Before delving into Healing Touch, Kim worked in a corporate setting, I believe in the marketing spectrum gamut. However, she felt a calling to the Healing Touch practice, studied it for 4-5 years, and then branched out to start her own practice about a year ago.
At the closing of a session, Kim recommends eating dark chocolate, to which I had no protestation. The dark chocolate is supposedly grounding, which compliments a guided relaxation. On my way out of MSG, I grabbed two individually wrapped dark chocolate squares, one of each variety she provided.
All in all, I experienced a sort of spiritual healing, a heightened sense of focus, and heightened senses in general.
If you have not tried a Healing Touch therapy session before, I would recommend giving it a go before dismissing the idea altogether. It’s probably not for everybody, but then again, what out there is?
