Solihull Healing Group

Articles

Healing Energies

Eamonn Downey – Heart and Soul in Union

Why do people come for healing?

Who comes to a healing centre?

Creating visualisations: A Probationer Healers insight

My pathway to healing

How wrong can you be!

A Sponsors Tale

101 Ladies Luncheon Club, Solihull

Where is the strangest place you have ever given healing?

Healing Research

Healing energies

On November 3rd 2007 I went along to the NFSH stand at the Mind, Body, Spirit Faire at the Clarendon Suite in Birmingham to do healing. It was the first time I’d been to this location as a healer. It was very busy, noisy and congested. Our stand was in a corner and, as is often the case, with not much room to manoeuvre. This, to me, is not an ideal situation for healing, I prefer a peaceful atmosphere. However, I was there to help anyone who needed help.

My first patient had not had healing before, but she said that she experienced a nice warm energy around her. I felt the same warm energy. The next person was an elderly gentleman, who had cancer. He asked many questions, most of which, fortunately, I was able to answer. He became very emotional. He said that the healing was very powerful and remarked, “You are a very powerful healer!” It transpired that he, too, was a healer.
My next five patients all felt a lot of energy. Two of them were amazed at what they felt and another person, also a healer, was lost for words. I, too, felt all this energy. The last person was a young lady who had not had healing before. With her the healing was very different, just like a summer breeze, very gentle. She had a heart murmur and was being considered for surgery. She now comes to me regularly for healing and the energy is gradually getting stronger.

Then on November 21st I was on the NFSH stand at the Nursing in Practice exhibition at the NEC. Again, it was very busy and for most of the time, noisy. As always we had very limited space. We were also being watched by people sitting at the table eating lunch, having coffee etc, and knowing nurses – they were very noisy! Again the energy was very strong, often felt by the healee as well as myself and there were some very good results. I also felt very strong energy, varying a little with each patient.

This has illustrated to me even more strongly, that I am no the healer, only the channel and that the spirit healers are very well aware of what each person needs. It does not matter how we work or what we want to achieve, we are in the hands of a far greater power – the power of love and a very high energy.

Enid Marshall

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Eamonn Downey – Heart and Soul in Union

This workshop was held at Rushall on Dec 1st 2007. There were 12 participants on the course. Eamonn is a teacher who is very committed to the work he does in spreading the message that we can all heal and help others. He says that often when healing, once into the process he only experiences the patient as energy patters, the physical ‘disappears’.

The day started with Eamonn talking us through his attunement technique and the healing technique he would be teaching us. The attunement technique he calls ‘sacred breathing’ and attunes the body energy to the soul level, and the healee’s energies. To me it feels very similar to the result of the NFSH technique of attunement but the link seems stronger to the heart whilst the NFSH link seems stronger to the crown.

He then went round the room giving each of us a quick treatment. Whilst doing this, he gave a short assessment of where each participant was with respect to their energies and gave everyone encouragement to follow their path. He then paired us for the practical session, this done from his energy assessment of us.

The Healing technique Eamonn demonstrated and wished the participants to follow, whilst ‘sacred breathing, involves using two fingers of one hand to energetically link with the patients heart centre from the back and allow the energies to work whilst ‘watching’ the progress. The hand is then taken away from the body and the palm aligned to continue the flow of energy whilst continuing to monitor. Finally observation of involuntary movement of the hand is used to determine the effect the treatment has had.

Each pair of participants had two practical sessions on one another. There was feedback to the group after each session and the feeling around the room was of quite significant experiences. I was quite moved by the changes possible in such a short time.

It was time now for a delayed lunch, general discussion and personal review. As usual with these events a degree of networking and development of friendships carries on at this time. After lunch Eamonn commented on the level of energy he ‘saw’ in the morning session. He then had us join together to experience the bring the energy in and experience the ‘portal’ (his word) where this enters the group. This was done so that we can all bring in the universal energy at any time.

He finally gave healing to one of the group with the express purpose of making the aura more visible. In this he succeeded to an extent as all participants managed to observe the healing energies and most saw the aura at some point. Thus we were all given more confidence in our developing abilities.

I felt this was a most uplifting day and left feeling much more spiritually confident and much lighter at heart.

Peter Hockley

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Why do people come for healing?
 

As a recent recruit to the ranks of healers, I am still a probationer, so I have few regular ‘clients’. But I think that the person who I describe below and his experience shows some glimpse of the wider effects of Healing.

This person, I shall call him Jason, comes for a healing session approximately once a month to ‘get his head in order’. After a session he says that ‘the ducks are all in a row again’. He has a pressured job which involves many meetings in different places to a strict timescale, together with much paperwork and demanding targets. He came to me originally for the relief of repetitive strain injury of a wrist associated with overuse of computer keyboard and mouse. To minimise further damage he had to wear a wrist splint most of the time but this did not prevent considerable pain. This pain reduced after the first healing session and improved with following treatments so that after six treatments the splint was kept for emergencies only. Now after 12 treatments it is virtually redundant.

But this is not the point of this report. We had a lengthy discussion of the other effects that the healing has had on Jason’s view of the world. He is now feeling much more at ease with himself and the rest of the world. Before healing if anyone suggested that he had made a mistake he would attack the person, system etc., etc., quite strongly. If fact it could turn into quite a row. Now he is more likely to accept the fact of making a mistake and then use it as a learning experience, make the point that no one is perfect and use it as an example of how not to do things to a trainee. He also recognises that before healing he was angry all the time. This caused driving to be very stressful as everyone was out to get him and anyone who got in his way was subject to some unsavoury language and threats of undefined vengeance. Now he is far more likely to let impatient drivers through and smile at their obvious tension. He says that although he is at least as busy as ever because he is more at ease with himself life is more enjoyable.

So does healing reach the parts that other treatments fail to reach?

Peter Hockley

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Who comes to a healing centre?

Critics of complementary therapies often cite the lack of statistical analysis and robust research to negate claims for positive outcomes from that therapy. We don’t have access to large research grants or qualified researchers to engage in in-depth analysis with those people who attend our healing centres. What we do have is a wonderful resource of individual enthusiasm and goodwill. What we present below is a very simple analysis and commentary relating to our healing centre where we offer a service to our local community. The findings are interesting and hopefully will inform those who wish to develop other services.

Solihull Healing Group have been offering chair healing to members of the public for a two hour session on a monthly basis for the past fourteen years or so, but analysable records are not available for the entire period. Healing has been offered from a variety of premises with varying degrees of popularity. The numbers of people attending were very low for several years, but recent increased regular publicity is encouraging larger numbers. For the past six months, attendances have ranged from 8-17 people with between three and six healers available at any one time.

For the last four years, healing has been offered on a Saturday morning in the community rooms of the Touchwood Shopping Centre. Statistics have been taken from the past fifteen months – January 2006 to March 2007

In total, 65 people came for healing over 15 months, of which 55 (85%) were women and 10 (15%) were men. Ages ranged from eleven months to 87 years old.  The majority of people attending were over 40 years old with the largest cohort coming from the 41-50 ages group, followed by people aged 61-70. Eleven percent of people attending came from ethnic minorities.

The total number of healing sessions offered were 110. Healees came for a range of 1-7 sessions, with an average number for all reasons for attending being 2. The top ten reasons for attending the healing centre in descending order were:-

Arthritis

Stress

Neck

Emotional needs e.g. grief/depression

General healing

Hip problems

Back problems

Cancer

Low energy

Head

The majority of people travelled to the centre from a ten mile radius including Birmingham (15%), Solihull (40%), Shirley (25%), North Solihull (5%), rural Solihull (8%). People who travelled further came from Redditch, Coventry, Kenilworth and Dorset.

Commentary

It has been difficult to notice long term changes amongst the people who attend Solihull Healing Centre because they only come to us for a relatively short period. Most people comment about the deep sense of relaxation they find and the soothing energy felt during the healing. We have had one lady able to move her hand freely having previously been crippled with arthritis. This improvement has been sustained and other painful areas are now being addressed.

It is interesting to note the prevalence of skeletal difficulties amongst our “healees”, but that may be due to the age of those attending. Stress and emotional needs cover a much wider age range and may arise from underlying illness, work issues or unresolved grief. Everyone who comes appears to leave in a more peaceful and calm frame of mind than when they arrived and they are always very grateful.

Sarah Head

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Creating Visualisations: A Probationer Healer’s Insight
 

As part of our development at the Solihull Healers Group we had a session of creating visualisations. During the NFSH course guided visualisations were covered so this was not a new concept to me as a Probationer Healer.
There are many uses for doing visualisations, too many to list here. Apart from the obvious relaxation they provide, they can be a very useful tool in preparing a patient for healing. It is for that reason one of the most important things I learnt during the session is that you have to be very careful in what you say.

The visualisation should therefore have a structured format so that the listener feels safe and secure in the process. To practice this we were split into three groups of three or four people. We had to between us create a visualisation that one of us would then carry out on the rest of the group. It was very interesting to find that all the groups came up with visualisations that had many common threads running through them. The main reason for this is obviously that there are general principles that need to be followed. We needed to come up with experiences, sights and sounds that would indeed make people feel relaxed rather than anxious or stressed.

Whilst experiencing the visualisation it makes you realise how important it is to give descriptions of everything you are talking about. Read the two samples below which shows what I learnt about this aspect of creating a visualisation:-

“You are walking down a lane and you come to a gate, walk through the gate into a field. At the other side of the field you see flowers and a bridge, cross the bridge and enter the woodland that is just ahead ….”

“You are walking down a lane, there is a gentle breeze blowing through your hair and the trees lining the lane are swaying like they are dancing. You hear birds singing in the trees enjoying the sunshine that is streaming through. You come upon a gate to your left and decide to walk through the gate to the field. As you stroll across the field you can smell the freshly mown grass and feel the soft carpet of grass beneath your feet. As you reach the other side of the field there is a blanket of bluebells lining the hedgerow and you are overcome by the sheer beauty of the blue/purple haze they project. You see a bridge through the hedgerow and hear the babbling brook as it makes its way underneath the bridge …..”

Our group felt this was all very well and good when we tried it out on another group. However, it was interesting to note that one lady suffers from hay fever and felt uncomfortable with the smell of freshly mown grass. Another lady was not comfortable with crossing bridges as she had a fear of water and couldn’t swim. A good lesson was learnt therefore that when carrying out a visualisation for a healing patient it is most important that we find out some information before simply carrying out a visualisation we have created. Do they have any particular phobias and fears that you need to take into consideration? On a group basis it is clearly more difficult because there could always be someone who is not comfortable with one particular aspect of your visualisation whereas others may find it stimulating. Keeping it simple is the best solution.

The final lesson I learnt was an “eye opener” (to say the least)! I was chosen to be the person talking a group through the visualisation we had created. I duly talked them through the visualisation remembering the importance of bringing them back to where they started. I then sat there for what seemed like several minutes waiting for the group to open their eyes as I had brought them back. It was only then my Sponsor Healer pointed out that I hadn’t asked them to open their eyes at the end and that is why they were all still sitting there with their eyes shut for so long – an interesting little point to remember for the future!

Jenny Malone

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My Pathway To Healing
 

It all started when I was about seven years old and occasionally used to attend Spiritualist Church with my parents. My grandmother was a medium so I pretty much grew up with the spiritualist "belief" from an early age. On and off over the years I attended Spiritualist Churches and used to wish that I had the gift to give people hope and comfort through messages. Not having grown up with any "natural" gift of clairvoyance I assumed for many years that I wouldn’t be able to do it.

At the age of 30 having recently been widowed through the sudden unexpected death of my husband and being pregnant at the time I naturally turned my thoughts back to spiritualism and the comfort and help it had given me on and off over the years, usually at other times of trouble. It was then I re-attended Church on a regular basis and sought many private readings some of which gave me further proof of the afterlife. It was during some of these readings that I was encouraged to develop my own clairvoyance and that I could help others and that the best way forward to do this would be to attend a development circle.

So there I was, 35 years of age, sitting in my first circle and, quite frankly, I never looked back. The knowledge I started acquiring opened my eyes like never before and within a few months I was giving readings to others in the circle and have gone on to start working on the rostrum and giving private readings to friends. Not only that but to give something back, I got more and more involved in the work of Hall Green Independent Spiritualist Church and have been their Treasurer now for the past two years.

Approaching my 40th birthday some six months ago I had had the feeling for some months that something was missing even with all that I had been doing. Also, whilst giving readings to some people I realised that they would benefit greatly from some healing. Not able to offer it to them myself (other than by sending my thoughts to spirit to help them) I started to realise that that was what was missing. I could suggest they tried healing (and did to a couple of them) but wanted to be able to offer that healing myself.

Unfortunately, there was nobody "qualified" to teach me amongst the healers at our Church. Although our head of healing has been a healer for many, many years, and would probably make a wonderful teacher and could certainly impart his expert knowledge to me, I wanted to make sure I did it "properly" and receive qualified training. The good old internet search gave me information on various methods and training courses but it was the NFSH that caught my eye almost straight away. Having read their literature and principles I knew straight away that I had been drawn to them as the best way forward.

Luckily the first Introductory part of the course was being held about a month later in February of this year so it was with trepidation that I booked and went along to see what it was all about. The trepidation dissipated within minutes of walking through the door and for one of the first times in my life I knew without a doubt I was in the right place at the right time! Natasha Bell and Jane, held my course and I was spellbound from start to finish and knew as I left that I would definitely be back for Part 1 in April. The group of people on the course all bonded really well and it was if we had all known each other for years. Upon completion of my Part 1 I am now registered as a Probationary Healer with Part 2 coming up in August.

In the meantime, I look forward to the monthly meetings of my support group, Solihull Healer Development Group, they can’t come round quick enough. Again, what a wonderful group of people. I hope that, with the support of Enid and Sarah (who run the group and have agreed to be my sponsors), I become a Healer worthy of NFSH status. More importantly than that I am looking forward to many years of providing healing in the hope of improving people’s well-being. I know I have much to learn (and practice) first and know that the NFSH will support me throughout.

Jenny Malone

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How wrong can you be!
 

Recently, we, the Solihull Healers, were invited to represent our group at a World Mental Health Day Event at a local church hall. It was short notice and a daytime event, but four of us were able to attend, three healers and one probationer. We chose a corner situation for our stand next to the platform (where refreshments were laid out!) and quite a lot of room for healing. There were about twelve stands, of various help available and once we were all settled we awaited the arrival of the public. Sad to say it was very poorly attended, probably due to poor advertisement by the organisers. However, we seemed to attract a lot of attention from the participants. We had lots of enquiries and did fifteen healings.

After we had settled ourselves, I decided to approach some of the other stands to introduce our group and also to see what sort of reaction we would get to the introduction of “Spiritual Healing”. At the first stand – Age Concern- there were two ladies. After asking about their work I then introduced our work, One lady was very interested and asked many questions but the other lady reacted differently - a mask seemed to cover her face and she retreated a little. After talking to a few more people who showed varying reactions and degrees of interest I went back to our stand to have a sandwich. I commented to Phil – one of our healers, that there was one lady who definitely wouldn’t be “coming to see us!” How wrong I was!

Whilst I was eating my sandwich this lady came to the stand and started looking at the display. Surprised, I asked if I could help her, and she showed great interest. She asked about help for her son – he really does need help – and then said some of her “aged persons” would probably find great benefit, but she was concerned as to how she would be able to get them to the healing sessions. I asked if they met as a group and she said that they did, so I said that if they would it, we would be prepared to visit their group to give healing. She was delighted and said that she would approach them about it. Later I saw that Phil was giving her healing and he said she was very impressed.

Enid Marshall, Chairman SHG

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A Sponsor’s Tale
 

As a new probationer in 1994 with parts 1/2&3 under my belt, I viewed my surroundings with rose coloured specs, I was a healer, I was going to do wonderful things for people. Then I came down to earth with a big bump. How, where, where were these people going to come from. I had made the rounds of all my friends and family to practice on during my training, and they were rarely ill. I made enquiries about where the nearest NFSH group operated. I lived in Solihull at this time, the two nearest were Warwick, and Kenilworth.

My friend who had been on the same courses with me and I tried Warwick first, this was in a large Quaker building, I have a hearing problem, and every word said disappeared into the walls, no good to listen to what the visitors were saying to me. We then went to Kenilworth, about a 40 mile round trip, we received a lovely warm welcome and felt very much at home there. We continued regular twice monthly meetings until we were persuaded to open our own group in Solihull. The rest is history. It wasn’t quite as difficult in those days to get a sponsor, as they didn’t have to do so much but I was grateful to those good souls at Kenilworth for being there for me.

Much later when I was attending a Region 8 conference, open question time was mainly from new probationers, desperate to find sponsors, being turned down by those given to them by the NFSH. I resolved at that meeting to do something about it. I immediately put to work my plans to open a probationer support group alongside our normal group. I have willingly sponsored all those that have approached me, and have been delighted to receive the news that they had "passed". It is not hard work, remember you were a probationer yourself and were grateful for help, all you are doing is giving that back.

Try it, It gives its own rewards. Incidentally Solihull Probationer Group continues to grow without my involvement as I moved from the area 3 years ago. I am so proud of the achievements of all the members as I still get regular updates.

Margaret Lloyd

Margaret Lloyd, together with Enid Marshall, successfully sponsored five full healer members between 2000 and 2003

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101 Ladies Luncheon Club, Solihull
 

Solihull Healing Group has advertised in Community Sections of local papers for the last twelve months. Sometimes they bring enquiries from new healers and sometimes from people who want healing.

Early in the New Year, I was contacted by a marketing firm, who wondered if I would speak on healing to the local ladies lunch club in May. I agreed because it seemed a long time away. At the end of April they asked me what I’d be talking about, so I emailed a few sentences. A week later they sent me the press release to approve and I began to get butterflies!

A week before the event, I emailed my contact to ask exactly how many ladies I would be talking to. Fifty-one came back the reply; I decided I was going to go and hide in a cupboard somewhere or develop laryngitis!

On the day, I prepared 51 packs of information to take with me and set forth to face the crowd! I was met by a local photographer who insisted on taking Anita Walker (who was attending the lunch as a guest but who agreed to act as my “healee”) & myself into the garden for photos. The lunch was excellent, I told them lots of stories about healing and how I use it in my work, both paid & voluntary and they asked lots of questions. All in all a very successful event!

Sarah Head

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Where is the strangest place you have ever given healing?
 

Five years ago, I was invited to lunch at a Ladies Luncheon Club at an hotel in Solihull. As I entered the dining room, I saw two ladies, one of whom was holding her right wrist. As soon as they saw me, one lady – Jean- said, “This lady is a healer, she will give you some healing!” Marjorie, the lady holding her wrist, had just fallen over and was in some pain. Jean had been present at a talk on healing I had given to a Ladies Luncheon Club in Dorridge a few weeks before. I gave Marjorie healing, which helped her to enjoy her meal. Afterward, she went off to hospital, where it was found that a small bone in her wrist was broken. Marjorie and I have been very good friends since then and I regularly give her healing.

Enid Marshall
 

We all offer healing wherever we find ourselves and I’ve done my share in tents, bars and gardens. I have also been known to engineer unusual situations. A friend of mine was very sceptical about healing and refused my offers to show him what it was like for many months. He’s an ex-rugby player and coaches teams from 7-15 year olds, so has several areas of longstanding aches and pains.

One day we were meeting for lunch in a local village. Afterwards we entered the church and spent a happy hour exploring the architecture. Eventually I led him down into the crypt, which used to be processional reliquary. The atmosphere there is amazing and we sat peacefully looking at the medieval stars painted on the ceiling above the altar.

Eventually I asked my friend if he would allow me to give him healing and he agreed. It was a very profound and moving experience for both of us. He said he felt very relaxed and was impressed by the specific knowledge of past injuries I was able to detect during the healing.

For me, it was wonderful being able to offer healing in such a sacred place and enable someone initially sceptical, to experience the energy of love and light.

Sarah Head

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HEALING RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION

One of the criticisms levelled at complementary therapies by allopathic medicine is that there is a paucity of good quality research to prove that efficacy is evidence based. Very few people who become healers have a research background or have access to the time and resources of qualified researchers to investigate the benefits that healing can bring. This article is a very quick and simple analysis of the patients I have been healing since I joined the National Federation of Spiritual Healers in April 2000, which has allowed me to reflect on my caseload.

FINDINGS

Over the two year period from July 2000 to July 2002 I have seen twenty five different people on an individual basis without supervision and given them forty-six episodes of healing. As my confidence and competence has grown, so the number of healings within a given period has increased. In the last six months of 2000, I gave healing to five people. This increased to thirteen people during 2001, but during the first seven months of 2002 I have given healing to 28 people, some weeks seeing up to four clients outside the regular Solihull Healing Group public sessions and monthly Probationer meetings.

The place of healing has alternated between the client's home or office, my home or office or the place in which we have found ourselves. Many of my colleagues have expressed an interest in receiving healing and some have been happy to experience it in the lounge or empty bar of the hotel we happen to be staying in at the time for meetings or training courses.

As I work in the health service, many of my "patients" have been colleagues who are health service managers, psychologists, social workers  or nurses. I have also been able to offer healing to a few of my own clients, who are going through the NHS complaints system and I have started to receive referrals of clients from other colleagues who feel they might benefit from spiritual healing. One of my hopes is to develop a spiritual healing service for clients of the new Independent Complaints Advocacy Service which I am piloting for residents in South and East Birmingham and Solihull and will be launched at the beginning of October this year.

ANALYSIS

Far more of my "patients" have been women than men. (17:8) This is probably more to do with the fact that the majority of my colleagues and friends are women than any real gender bias.

Table 1

Less than a quarter of my patients (24%) had received some form of energy healing before. Table One shows the distribution of the number of healings received by patients. The majority of patients (60%) only received one episode of healing, either because they did not wish to have it again or, more likely, because they live a long way away from me and would find a more local healer for themselves. Some of those who have only received one healing session will be returning to me in the future but have not yet found the time or opportunity to do so. A small group of patients (40%) are returning regularly to receive something they value as a beneficial experience.

The types of problems brought for healing can be seen in Table 2 below.

Table 2

Many of my patients have sought healing for stress brought on by their work environment or from finding themselves bereaved. Others have found that stress has manifested itself in back problems or irritable bowel syndrome. Others found relief from painful joints by receiving the healing energy. Two patients came to me following major surgery. One of these was subsequently found earlier this year to have an aggressive terminal cancer and had only three weeks from diagnosis until passing over to come to terms with his condition. It was a great privilege to be able to visit him in hospital and offer healing by the bedside as well as distant healing. I am keeping in touch with his widow to offer what support I can when she is ready.

It has been fascinating to discover how effective a short burst of healing can be when people are in severe pain from spinal problems or pulled back muscles. I have had three occasions recently when there has not been time for a full healing, but I have been able to place my hands above the painful area for five to ten minutes. All three people have experienced a degree of relief from their symptoms, much to their surprise and they have returned at a later stage for a "full" healing. It would be useful to do a short piece of research with a double blind trial to see what the extent of the placebo effect might be.

A few people have not "felt" anything during the healing process and have not wanted anything more to do with it. Two of these people were very sceptical about the reality of healing energy and could not believe that it might be efficacious. Another person, although experiencing pain relief from an inflamed knee for the first time in weeks after receiving healing, convinced herself subsequently that she had fallen asleep and that relaxation had provided the pain reduction.

DISTANT HEALING

Although I have engaged in distant healing on many occasions, it has been difficult to ascertain how effective the healing has been, especially when the people being sent healing live in other parts of the world. One notable exception happened recently when my mother tripped and sprained her foot the day before I was due to go and stay with her. She was very anxious that the foot would not heal for several months, as this had been her previous experience. I visualised giving her healing during the hour-long journey to her house and then sent distant healing again that night after we had both gone to bed. The next morning she was amazed how much her foot had improved and asked if I had "done anything" to assist the recovery. She had no further discomfort.

CONCLUSION

It has been a privilege to be able to offer healing to so many people over such a short period of time and to incorporate it into my working environment. I have been struck by the degree of genuine interest in learning about healing and the willingness of individuals to experience it for themselves. Once they have seen the efficacy of the healing energy, they have asked for help on subsequent occasions and have referred others when they feel that they could benefit. My work and other commitments mean that I have limited time to give to healing and I am now referring clients to the Solihull Healing Group and to other healers for continuing support through difficult situations.

Sarah J Head

July 2002

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