The Empathic Healer

The Empathic Healer  

Silver of Silver Horse Retreat an empathic healer. Photo by Sara Fancy

Silver of Silver Horse Retreat an empathic healer. Photo by Sara Fancy

While researching material for this blog I came across this informative article which explains thirty traits of an empath. If you suspect you are one, I highly suggest giving this a read.

In 1999, I found out I was an empath after enrolling into the Polarity Healing Arts School in Topanga CA. In one of our first classes, the teacher performed a table demonstration on a student. This man had grown up in a war environment and as a child had been subjected to random bombings and attacks. This childhood trauma was buried in his system. The teacher was able to locate the energy of his trauma by tuning into his para sympathetic nervous system. The teacher asked those of us watching, how we were doing.

Tears were streaming down my face and when I described how I'd suddenly become emotional, the man yelled at me saying he didn’t want me to pity him. Yet, when I tuned in to see where the emotion was coming from, I understood it to be a reaction from his system to mine; triggered by my own childhood experiences. It had nothing to do with me pitying him. 

This initial experience was a pivotal revelation, motivating me to learn how to master my own empathic nature and not be a victim of it. In my healing practice, which I’ve developed over a period of sixteen years, I’m able to use my empathy constructively, in order to go to unknown places to reveal and help heal unconscious wounds. This means locating past, ancestral, other lives or present wounds. Once the session is over I detach from my client with the  understanding of what is mine and what's theirs.

Empaths make excellent healers yet many pay a heavy price. By not being ‘trained’, empathic healers can quickly become overwhelmed and sometimes physically ill by taking on the energy of their clients. Being grounded, aligned, neutral and healthy is essential for empaths when  facilitating sessions.

In my practice, I screen potential clients to decide if it's in our highest good to work together. My methods are extremely unorthodox, and for those who don’t believe in the effectiveness of my work, as the practitioner, it can have a negative impact. Sometimes it happens, that when after seeing a client who is skeptical, I become debilitated. It’s as if my system experiences a short circuit and the session ‘back fires’. This happened to me recently and I was out for two weeks with chronic back pain. Needless to say it was a strong reminder for me to take my self care seriously. This means regular clearings, sessions from other practitioners, time off and setting a clear intention in having a healthy reciprocal relationship with my clients.

written by Sara Fancy of Silver Horse Retreat

part one of a trilogy of blogs around Empathy