I was in my early twenties and living at a Zen Buddhist center in Los Angeles the first time I ever met a psychic healer. She mentioned that classes in hands-on healing were offered at the healing center she worked at, but as fascinated as I was with the subject, I was convinced at the time that no one could really learn to heal unless they had a miraculous inborn gift. 

I heard about Reiki, and in 1985 took a Reiki 1 class. At the time, Reiki tended to be taught in a very bare bones way - my instructors attuned us and left shortly thereafter with a suggestion to practice on each other before we left, now that we were healers! I still felt very insecure about being able to do energy work and this approach left me as bewildered as ever.

Nonetheless, my fascination with healing continued, as did my conviction that I could never be a really good energy healer. I remembered that at the Zen Center, some very interesting Japanese shiatsu practitioners had visited at one point. I decided to look into shiatsu and discovered that simply by applying pressure to certain points on the body, you could balance out the energy field, and – a BIG plus! – you didn’t need to be able to actually feel energy to do it. Perfect! Even better – a big emphasis at Ohashi Institute is learning to perceive where there is too much energy and too little, and bringing the two areas into balance. And I did learn to sense energy within three months of classes.  This banged me over the head with the idea that even I could learn to work with energy healing!

Ever on the lookout for ways to be an even more effective healer, I was introduced to Jin Shin Jyutsu. I was delighted to find this system of acupressure-style healing that was even more profound than shiatsu. But as much as I loved (and still love!) doing Jin Shin Jyutsu, there was an inner desire that had never been quenched . . .

I still had a hankering to do what I thought of as “straight” hands-on healing, balancing the energy field through working directly with the layers of energy surrounding the body. There was no rhyme or reason to this, since I loved what I was doing and was effective with it, but there you are! And there I was. So I returned to Reiki, which had really bloomed in the meantime. There had been an explosion of rediscovered teachings and information, and I found my experience this time around much more fruitful. A year later, I became a Reiki teacher myself.

However, although I enjoyed practicing Reiki and giving attunements, I somehow felt I hadn't yet found what I was really looking for. The body/mind/spirit is a truly complex phenomenon. No one can ever predict for sure what will happen in any healing session. However, when I did a shiatsu or Jin Shin Jyutsu session, I did have a reasonable confidence that I could say, for example, “You have sciatica? There’s a very good chance I can help you with that!” I felt no such confidence with Reiki.  I could assure the client they would deeply relax, which is healing in and of itself; but I had no confidence whatsoever their sciatic pain would have actually diminished. And this seemed more the rule than the exception with other Reiki healers I knew.

I began looking for something else – I didn’t know what.   I began browsing the internet (what a marvelous thing is this Internet Age!). I found a fascinating site called www.aetw.org (James Deacon’s Reiki and All Energy-Therapies Web Site). James lists the websites of 50+ types of Reiki and 50+ types of all sorts of non-Reiki energy therapies. I immediately began clicking away on literally all of these websites, but none of them were clicking with me!  There were a few links I’d tried that hadn’t worked – so browsing through the list of sites again, I decided to try “googling” one of them, “Quantum-Touch.” 

Quantum-Touch.  Hmmm. “Move bones with a light touch?”  People healing severe burns in one or two sessions?  Scoliosis corrected or greatly diminished in a few sessions of energy healing? It sounded a bit dubious at best, but I noticed its founder was Richard Gordon, and I had loved a book of his I’d read 20 years ago about Polarity technique. And no airy-fairy mumbo-jumbo – just breathe in certain rhythms with a certain internal body awareness. And I could get complete instructions from a $12.95 book – that sealed it!

This was IT!  Exactly what I’d been looking for. I took it and ran with it, gobbling up the Interactive Video Workshops, Basic Workshops and Advanced Workshops. A year later, I became a Quantum-Touch® Instructor, and I now have the delightful privilege of sharing this outstanding work with you!

In Brief:

1985   Reiki 1 Certificate of Completion

1991   Oshasi Institute Certificate in Advanced Shiatsu

1993   Diploma in Massage Therapy from The Swedish Institute

1998   Jin Shin Jyutsu® Practitioner’s Certificate

2003   Reiki 2 Certificate from Margaret Ann Case, Reiki Arts Continuum

2004   Reiki Master Certificate from William Rand, 

            International Center for Reiki Therapy

2005   Quantum-Touch® Practitioner Certificate

          Quantum-Touch® Instructor Certificate

2007  TAT® Professional Certificate

I also developed and taught a 125-hour Shiatsu Therapy program that was offered at the Academy of Massage Therapy in Englewood, NJ and at the Institute for Therapeutic Massage in Pompton Lakes, NJ, as well as various adult education courses in couples massage and Zen Shiatsu energy exercises.