Cedar Rapids therapist heals animals with massage and reiki - The Gazette: Eastern Iowa...

[massage]

Healing energy

Feb 7, 2016 at 9:30 am | Print View

Gina Hamilton, a licensed massage therapist and spiritual healer, has a special bond with animals.

She is able to communicate with animals by “merging” with their “universal energy,” she believes.

When she connects with their energy, she “sees the world through their eyes,” and uses the visions to help her determine where to concentrate healing energy because “so much is non-verbal,” she explained.

“They can’t tell you what’s wrong,” she said. “I find where they’re hurting and ask to help.”

She uses a Japanese healing technique called reiki. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, reiki is a complementary health approach that involves practitioners placing their hands on or above a person — or animal in this case — to transfer healing energy to treat pain, anxiety, fatigue and depression, among other issues.

According to the International Center for Reiki Training, the technique is based on the idea that everything has an “unseen life force energy,” and if someone’s energy is low, they are more likely to get sick or feel stressed.

Hamilton earned her certification in small-animal massage from the Blue Sky School of Professional Massage in Wisconsin in 2008. Since then, she’s been performing massage and reiki on humans and animals, including dogs, cats, rabbits, goats and chickens.

She’s worked in veterinary clinics but currently practices at the Illuminations Healing Arts Center in the Cherry Building in the New Bohemia District. She also travels to homes in the area, seeing five to six animals each month.

Her treatments are meant to relieve or improve post-surgical pain, hip, neck and spinal injuries, musculoskeletal injuries such as sprains and strains, and degenerative or congenital disorders.

“All living beings have an energy field or aura, which carries our frequency beyond our physical body,” reads her brochure. “Massage and energy work can mend any holes or disturbances in this aura.”

Therapy does not, however, substitute for veterinary care. She recommends consulting a veterinarian before beginning massage therapy.

For a full-service, hourlong session, she charges $50. For a 20- to 35-minute session, it’s $25.

Ann Svoboda, whose 16-year-old dog Scully has been treated by Hamilton for the past six years, said, “You can see it in her reaction and in her eyes that she’s feeling better.

“She’s always been spoiled, but I think she totally acts a lot younger and feels a lot better.”

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