What is energy work?
Every living creature requires energy to exist.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this energy is referred to as Qi or Chi. In the Japanese tradition, it is called Ki and in India it is called prana. Chi and prana can be thought of as breath but it also encompasses so much more.
In simple terms, Chi is the universal life force energy that flows in and around us.
To get more complex, the Chinese map the Chi to something called meridians which can be thought of as electric lines running throughout our body from the chest into all parts of our body back to the chest.
We obtain energy from our parents before our birth, the food we eat, the air we breathe and other energies that are formed from the previous three types of energies combined.
Good food, exercise and a healthy lifestyle affects our Chi as does emotions and their balance or lack of.
The quality and quantity of our energy affects the quality of our lives.
There are many forms of energy work such as Qi gong, reiki, breathwork, meditation, various forms of movement like yoga through to dance as well as in the use of sound through instruments or voice.
If everything is energy, what do I mean by energy work?
While my journey began in physical movement when I trained as an asana yoga teacher and then through working hands on with the muscles of the body in massage, it is the energy of the subtle body and sound that I predominantly work with and refer to in my energy work.
I was trained in the Usui/Holy Fire III reiki tradition. Reiki originates from Japan and the tradition I was taught is a new derivation of the original life force energy. As I have grounded into a daily meditation practice since doing the reiki training in June 2025, my energy healing has become more intuitive and unique to my senses and instincts.
I work by hovering my hands above the chakras — starting at the base, because when that is balanced, everything else finds alignment.
Practically, the way I practice energy work is to hover my hands above the chakras of my clients. Initially scanning all the seven chakras with my non-dominant hand, I will almost always start with the base chakra and then move up the chakras that demand attention.
Each chakra is considered an energetic wheel of life force energy in seven points of the body. They are thought to be related to various aspects of our lived experiences and through my practice, I have found this to be true.
In my work, the chakras transmit stories about a person's lives and the experiences their body has had.
Our life histories such as illnesses, traumas, and other things that have happened to us physically or physiologically may rise to my attention through this work.
It may be that something that happened years ago still shapes our belief systems and how we go about life. And thus through energy work, unconscious patterns and blocks may be surfaced.
The subtle body
The seven chakras
Base or root chakra is associated with identity, belonging, the notion of tribe and the sense of security in the world. It also tends to be related to the mother specifically.
Sacral chakra is tied to the feeling of pleasure and sensuality. This is both sexual pleasure as well as desire or enjoyment in life. For a woman it can also be about the womb, motherhood and birthing.
Solar plexus is a chakra of one's sense of self in the world, an understanding of one's place of power and what one has to offer to the world. It is about personal agency, groundedness in one's gifts and self-confidence.
Heart chakra is about the ability to love and to have compassion. This love is not just romantic love but the ability to open one's heart to other people — to forgive, to understand and to show mercy.
Throat chakra carries communication, authenticity, expression, creativity and our truth. There is also a lot of emotion associated with the throat chakra as grief, sadness, and anger can be stored there too in the things left unsaid or the ways one has been suppressed or blocked from expressing one's truth.
Third eye chakra is one of intuition, and understanding the world from a spiritual realm. Seeing things as they are even if they aren't easily seen by the layperson, feeling into vibrational frequency, being able to observe and read other people's emotional states as well as character.
Crown chakra is at the top of the head and is about how much one uses their cognition, whether one is analytical or perhaps overly-brain dominant. It is also the final chakra that opens before one becomes enlightened.
Working intuitively with the energetic field can bring information into awareness that isn't easily accessed through ordinary conversation. The energy work I do is always part of a deeper understanding of oneself, or the beginning of a life transformation towards loosening the patterns that have held a person to a way of living and being for longer than they would like.