The other day, I was visiting with a friend who is also a healer. The conversation remained fairly light and mundane for a while as we discussed our husbands, our homes, pets, food and television shows. After a while, the conversation turned, as it inevitably does, to healing work. We somehow got onto the topic of how our work affects others, and of course that lead to the question of Ethics.

My friend, Luz (not her real name), is a Reiki Master, a Seichem Master, a Sakara Master, a Cartouche Master, and I’m sure that there’s more to her that I really can’t remember at the moment -- to me she’s just a lovely, wonderful, light and beautiful being whose company I enjoy immensely. To put it in its most simplistic terms, Luz practices a Laying On Of Hands and Gives Light to the Etheric bodies of her clients. This gets rid of the emotional garbage, which allows the body to find its way back to homeostasis – a state of equilibrium.

I am also a Reiki Master and a Cartouche Practitioner, but my job (one among many) is that of a Certified Massage Therapist. While Luz tends to work mainly on the Etheric body, my focus is primarily on the physical body, as I manipulate the soft tissues of the muscles and fascia, breaking up adhesions and relieving hyper tonicities, pain, and discomfort. Sometimes, during a massage session, I’ll stop and “breathe light” into an area where my clients are having a great deal of discomfort. I will often end a massage session with a quick bit of Reiki before making sure my clients are sufficiently grounded and sending them out into the world to assimilate the healing work that we have done together.

I don’t separate massage from my energy work; I can’t. They are both intrinsically intertwined in my healing art. I have always practiced energy work, as have at least three generations of the women in my family. There’s no way that I can separate that from the therapeutic massage that I do, because the energy work is as much a part of who I am as my basic DNA.

To the untrained eye, it appears that Luz’s work and mine are completely different, and granted, in some respects we practice very different healing modalities. However, there are also a great number of similarities:  Luz and I both are compassionate energy workers, we are both Reiki Master/Teachers, and we both Give Light to our clients.

But most importantly, we, like all healers, are bound by a code of ethics.

When traditional Western physicians take up practice, they are bound by the Hippocratic Oath. In the original version, the second article, just beneath the pledge to hold their teachers in the highest esteem are these words:

“I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.”

Let’s take a look at the last part of that sentence again:

“…never do harm to anyone.”

As a massage therapist and a card-carrying member of the American Massage Therapist’s Association (AMTA), I also have taken an oath. The very first line reads “Do No Harm.” Period. It’s not open for discussion, debate, or interpretation. We have taken an oath not to hurt our clients or cause them harm.

 It’s amazing to me that I know “professional” massage therapists who have been practicing for a year or more, and they seem to have forgotten this. In fact, I know of one in particular who revels in the physical and emotional agony that she routinely causes her clients. She actually brags and laughs about it. And when you call her on it, her standard response is an indignant, “If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not doing it right.”

 Even more amazing to me is the fact that there are a lot of energy workers out there who are almost as reckless in their treatment of their clients. These Light Workers – the so-called enlightened, caring and compassionate ones on the planet – have either forgotten, or were never told in the first place that the work that they do has consequences, and as energy workers, they have a responsibility to their clients, just as traditional Western medical doctors and massage therapists are supposed to have for their patients and clients respectively.

As energy workers, we must not only be concerned with the physical well-being of our clients, but we must also look to their emotional well-being.

Many a time have I been engaged in a Reiki session when the client on the table will experience what we call “an emotional release.” This has happened in my massage practice, as well, but seems to be more prevalent with energy work. I believe this is because many times, a seemingly physical ailment has an emotional component to it.

Let me give you an example of what I mean:

I have a massage client who periodically complains of a backache. We have worked several muscle groups in the lower back region. We have worked the erector muscles along the spine, the quadratus lumborum in the lumbar region, her gluteals, and her psoas many times. Even though we have made vast improvement in her ability to function in her daily life -- reducing the severity of pain, the hypertonicity of the muscles and improving her range of motion -- the pain tends to periodically return.

As a healer and Intuitive, when I place my hand over the site of her pain, Spirit and my guides show me a “blackness” to the muscle tissue. It’s almost as if some negative something has taken up residence there in my client’s lower back.

We could do energy work in this area and massage the muscle groups involved until the end of time; however, until she is ready to release what ever negative emotion she’s holding on to back there, I know without a doubt that she will continue to periodically have this reoccurring low back pain, and no one, no matter how great of a healer they are, will ever be able to relieve a client’s suffering until that client is ready to let it go.

… But I digress…

 If, one day when I am working on my client, she decides to let go of this emotional disturbance that is causing her pain, it will be my responsibility to see to it that her emotional release is as painless and productive as possible. In short, it is my responsibility to be there for her in any capacity that is reasonable and safe for both of us, including but not limited to hand-holding or late night tearful phone calls.

I have my massage practice in a spiritual center where people rent space for workshops. On a couple of Thursday evenings a month, someone comes in to give Diksha - a subtle transfer of the divine energy of a Guru into the heart, soul and body of a disciple. The Guru who regularly gives Diksha at “my” center is a gentle and caring human being who is available for follow up in case someone needs her after receiving Diksha.

Not too long ago, a fairly well known “Guru” (and I use the term loosely) from out of state came in and rented the space for the purpose of giving Diksha. Then she left town. She left no contact information for the attendees and would not return the phone calls from the center’s Director. It’s almost as if she dropped off the face of the planet. This is the ultimate in irresponsible energy work. One attendee had a terrible emotional release and finally ended up calling the center’s Director to get help. Luckily, the Director was able to help this poor soul work through the emotional garbage that the “Guru” had dislodged and left to fester.

As energy workers we can’t just let in the light, stir up emotional muck and then just abandon our “charges,” leaving them to figure it out on their own. Our clients come to us for help. It is up to us to make sure that they have the tools that they need to be able to assimilate their healing into their daily lives and this is true for Etheric and Physical healers, as well.

We must make sure that those who seek our assistance are safe, secure, and grounded before they ever leave our tables, let alone get behind the wheel of a car.

by Terri Posey de Man, CMT, CNMT, CRM, OM

Reprinted from The Galactic Press with permission