As a Healing Touch (HT) and Healing Touch for Animals (HTA) practitioner, people often ask me, what is energy work and how can it benefit me and my animals? Is it like reiki? Or a special massage technique? We will dive deep into these answers below, but first, let me tell you a little about myself and how I got here.

My name is Andrea La Fevers. I moved to Jackson in my 20s seeking outdoor adventure and change of pace for a summer, and like so many of us, I fell in love with this community and this place. But after years of doing the dance of seasonal positions and side hustles, I decided to start my own business that eventually evolved into a successful dog training and pack hiking business. It fed my passion for working with animals but somehow felt incomplete. I had long had a secret passion for health and wellness, in part spurred by my own healing journey.

As I was growing my dog business, I had the honor of meeting an open-hearted yoga teacher who told me she was beginning to offer her hands-on healing skills and invited me to do a session. I can’t say I knew exactly what I was signing myself up for, but figured it was worth a shot.

At the time I struggled with anxiety, had trouble setting and holding energetic, personal, and professional boundaries, and was actively healing some pretty severe gut issues. Working with this friend opened me up to the power of energy healing work to support me along my healing journey. I always felt a lightness and a sense of clarity when I left her office. I couldn’t explain why, but each session left me feeling deeply held, aligned in my mind and body, with a sense of clarity on the next step on my journey.

As we continued to work together and I felt the powerful effects of her energy healing work in my own life, I felt a calling to share a similar energy healing work with the people and animals I worked with daily.

In the winter of 2020, I began my studies of Healing Touch and Healing Touch for Animals. It has been a profound honor to deepen into this work, and to support people and animals in healing their physical, mental, emotional, and energetic bodies through the power of hands-on energy healing.

I have always been fascinated with the body and its power to heal itself. It is truly an honor to support animals and people to bring their bodies back into a place of health and wellness with the support of energy healing.

And now, for a little more clarity on what exactly Healing Touch and Healing Touch for Animals is, and what you can expect to experience during a session for you or your animal.

What is Healing Touch?

You could say it is similar to reiki, maybe reiki adjacent... Healing Touch (HT) is a non-invasive energy healing technique that utilizes light touch and above body techniques to clear, energize, and balance the human body’s energetic centers (chakras) and biofield (magnetic field around the body).

The energetic body and physical form are intricately connected, resulting in physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual shifts and releases throughout a treatment.

At the core of each HT session is a heart-centered and caring relationship where the client and practitioner come together to facilitate the client’s healing process and optimal well-being.

What is Healing Touch for Animals?

Healing Touch for Animals (HTA) is an energy healing modality that is very similar to Healing Touch but has been adjusted to optimally interact with the animal energy system, which is quite different from the human energy field. Similarly to HT, HTA utilizes light touch or no touch (if preferred by the animal) to clear, energize, and balance the animal's energy body and energy centers.

HTA integrates sound therapy utilizing Pair 5 tuning forks and OM tuners to clear stagnation from the energy system of the animal and their human. HTA also incorporates high-quality essential oils into certain techniques to support the healing process in an animal and person’s energy field.

What can you expect from a Healing Touch session?

Most HT sessions are held in a massage-like setting where the recipient is lying on a massage table, fully clothed, with calming music playing. We will first sit and discuss any physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual intentions for the session - whether the goal is reducing physical pain, aiding in sleep, releasing stuck emotions, supporting healing pre/post-surgery, or any other multitude of goals we can set out to achieve.

Many clients will report feeling physical sensations while receiving energy treatments such as tingling, warmth/coolness, pulsations, twitching, or a sense of fullness. Often people experience emotional releases during sessions. Others report seeing visuals of color, light, and shapes behind their closed eyes.

The most common feedback I will receive from clients is a deep sense of relaxation and calm that floods their senses during a session.

While deep relaxation may seem like a pleasant side effect of a treatment, it is often the most profound result of a session, that leads to a cascade of other physiological responses to aid the body in the healing process. Below is a graphic that explains how the physical act of relaxation triggers a healing cascade for the whole body.

What should you expect from a Healing Touch for Animals session?

All HTA sessions are either remote or happen in your home/barn to ensure the animals feel comfortable and safe in their surroundings. I arrive at your home or barn with my healing tools and take a few minutes to get set up for our session. I usually ask that you leash your dog or halter your horse and support me in facilitating the healing by guiding your animal into the optimal position to receive. If working with a cat, they will usually either willingly receive by laying in my lap, or I will project my energy in a hands-off fashion that makes them feel more comfortable. I will speak with you, the animal’s guardian, to understand what your hopes and intentions are for our session. I then assess the animal's energy field and open up to any communication from the animal, all to guide me in selecting the techniques that will support them most in their healing that day.

During the session, I will be communicating with you what I am noticing and receiving from the animal, as well as which techniques I have chosen to support the animal and why. Often the animals will show physical signs of relaxation such as yawning, passing gas, shaking, shifting their standing and head position, and “listening” to the energy with their ears.

Animals are very in tune with the energetic world, and often release and shift stuck energy more quickly than us humans. Usually, I work until it feels complete for the session, and communicate all findings and recommendations for follow-up with you. The cool thing about animal energy healing sessions is that the owner is usually sitting or standing within the animal's energy field (which is 10x larger than their body) so they also end up receiving an energy healing just by being in the animal’s field.

Wrapping it up…

Ultimately, Healing Touch and Healing Touch for Animals techniques can be used for a multitude of reasons and support you and your animals through a variety of challenges you may be facing.

I was originally drawn to the Healing Touch practice because of the immense amount of research and case studies done using this particular technique. Healing Touch is one of many powerful energy healing modalities practiced around the world - but is one of the few that is used in hospitals, including our hospital here in Teton County.

As I deepen into this practice, I learn more and more about how every person and animal can benefit from this therapeutic technique. Healing Touch is even beneficial as an energetic self-care technique, and often I will leave clients with “homework” by teaching them how to use basic meditations and easy HT/HTA techniques on themselves and their animals so they can become their own energy healers.

For more information or to book a session for you or your animal, visit my website: www.SpiritDogHealing.com or, feel free to reach out to me directly at AndreaLaFevers@gmail.com or 561-271-7342 if you have additional questions.