Crystal Healing–My Story
My path to crystals began with a search for protection. I was about to complete my training as a psychotherapist. I had become increasingly concerned about my tendency to take on and retain the energy of my clients and wondered how I could better protect myself. I became very curious how other people who worked therapeutically kept their energy clear. I decided to ask Barbara, my massage therapist.
Right in the middle of giving me a massage, she answered my question by whipping two crystals out of her bra. Barbara said, “I really feel the difference when I don’t wear my crystals. I feel more drained at the end of the day.” I was intrigued by this and asked her where I could get such crystals.
Before I had a chance to check out Barbara’s recommendation, I found myself driving down the same street I drove down every week to get to the dry cleaners. But this time I noticed a sign “World’s Best Nature Store—Dinosaurs, Crystals, Minerals, Fossils.” I pulled over and looked at the sign, wondering how it had escaped my attention the last four years. I thought perhaps it was a new store, but I learned later, the store had been there for 18 years.
Crystal Shopping
Inside, it was a small store packed with crystals and fossils. I stared in amazement at the treasures before me—the dinosaur skeleton in the front of the store and the massive, vibrant, colorful crystals in every shape and color the mind could imagine. It was hard to believe it all was real. I felt overwhelmed, my eyes bombarded by the stimulation. It was difficult to focus on any one item.
When the store owner, Henry, approached me, I told him I was a psychotherapist and was looking for something to help keep me energetically protected when I worked. He asked me if I wanted to wear the crystals or use them in my office. I told him I was open to both. For my office, he showed me a beautiful sparkly pyrite stone about the size of a large paper weight. He told me that pyrite is known for increasing vitality in the physical body.
Pyrite Crystal
To wear, he showed me a beautiful pendant made up of three crystals. He said, “You know, if you need protection, this is the piece for you.” I fell in love with it immediately.
The cost of the pyrite stone combined with the pendant was expensive. I began to feel conflicted. My chest was buzzing with subtle anxiety. I heard the old doubting voice in my head saying, “Why are you spending so much money on these crystals? This is hocus-pocus. There are so many better uses for your money.” Countering that voice was a deep urge that didn’t really have words, but might translate as “this is the way…this is the way…” I sat with my conflict for a few minutes feeling the surge of desire in my heart and the “no-no” monologue in my head. Despite my reservations, I ultimately made the purchase. I left the store feeling satiated and content.
Crystal Pendant
Meditating with Crystals
came Ihome and meditated with the pyrite crystal. I had been meditating for years but never with crystals. I placed the pyrite on a coffee table and sat in a chair a few feet in front of the stone. I began by tracking my breath and other bodily sensations. After about 15 minutes, I shifted from my internal focus and gazed at the pyrite. I felt the most pleasurable sensation that was familiar, yet new. A deep sense of comfort engulfed my heart, which swelled with joy, and I found myself crying with relief and gratitude. I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but in an attempt to fully release the emotion, I walked over to the pyrite crystal, knelt down, and began kissing it. At this point, that skeptical voice kicked in again. “Hello Laura, what are you doing? Have you lost your marbles? It’s just a rock. It’s not alive. Why are you kissing it?” I wept profoundly having no idea of the journey that had just begun. I was plunging into uncharted territory. My consciousness was about to connect to realms that were previously untapped. It would take a long time to ground and trust my experiences and articulate them in a way that made sense to me. I was coming home to my body. I was coming home to mother earth.
I spent the next two years meditating daily with my crystals and slowly expanding my crystal collection. Each day, I would choose whatever crystal or crystals I was drawn to and place them on my coffee table. I would add candles and sometimes flowers. I referred to these daily arrangements as my crystal alter. Through my continued practice, I discovered that the energy of each crystal was complex. The obvious color, shape and visual beauty of the crystal contributed to its energy. In addition, there was a more invisible nature, a deeper energetic element that emanated from within the crystal. I could feel this deeper energy if I took the time to really resonate with the crystal. Both layers, inner and outer, were significant. I had to take into account the full nature of the crystal when making my selection for meditation. I noticed that on different days, I craved the energy of different crystals. To my surprise, what I might seek one day, I might clash with the very next day. Instead of looking at energy in terms of “good” or “bad,” I reframed my context as “the seeking of balance.” Since our bio-energetic systems are complex and changing by the second, it began to make sense that what I would crave or need would also fluctuate with the same rhythm.
Crystal Alter
Expanding My Knowledge
After spending so much time exploring crystals on my own, I began to wonder what other people might be doing with crystals. I looked up crystal healing on the internet and found a local class. So far, I had worked with crystals predominantly through meditation and the creation of my daily crystal alter. Of course, I also wore my protective pendant daily. The local class I found was based on the work of Katrina Rafael who is considered a pioneer in the field of crystal healing. Her method involves placing crystals directly on the body. I was immediately intrigued by this and grabbed a bunch of small crystals and placed them on my body—forehead, neck, torso, and so on. I used a lot of vibrant green malachite which is a strong purger stone, though I didn’t know that at the time. After about 15 minutes with these stones on my body, I began to get an intense headache. I realized that I could not just randomly place crystals on my body. Clearly I could create disharmony with the crystals as easily as harmony if I didn’t have a sensibility about what I was doing. So I enrolled in the class I’d found, taught by Eri Vachon, who was trained by Katrina Raphael. Katrina, through her years of study and experimentation, developed a basic framework based on the chakra system as to where to put the crystals. Her system takes into account both the color and the energy of the crystals. I loved my level 1 class and soon after took level 2. With Katrina’s work as my foundation, I gained the confidence to develop my own way of working, keeping her basic concepts as my core.
My first crystal healing session.
Once I began using the crystals properly on my body, I noticed how the effect was so much more immediate and intense compared to meditating with them on an alter. I learned to use the crystals for specific functions: to soothe myself and feel self-love, to ground myself, to get out of my head and connect with my spiritual self, to calm myself when I was feeling anxiety, to clear my system of outside energies, to reduce emotional pain, to reduce physical pain, or to help bring emotions to the surface. I had been in psychotherapy for many years, but I found that using the crystals on my body took my healing to a new level. Through the process of overcoming my personal trauma history to become the thriving person I am today, I learned the importance of incorporating bodywork with the more traditional talk psychotherapy. Talk psychotherapy is important but it can only take a person so far, particularly if there is trauma involved. Trauma is in the body and it has to be addressed in the body. More and more mental health professionals are beginning to understand this. By the time I reached my last year of psychotherapy, I had already explored many body-based practices: meditation, Qi-Gong, acupuncture, dance, Moving Theater, Continuum, Energy Medicine, massage, Reiki, and Cranial Sacral. All of these practices aided me in my healing, but I still felt stuck. The crystals took me a critical step further.
Healing
With the crystals on my body, I found I could shift out of negative states more easily. My ability to regulate myself emotionally increased dramatically. I had an old habit of self-hate that was deeply ingrained in my system. I understood the origin of this habit and was often aware of the triggers, but that did not necessarily give me the ability to shift it on an energetic and cellular level. I believe emotional states have their own energy and resonance. Hate feels very different from love, and if we could see it in energy form, I suspect it would look very different as well. Some people refer to this as vibration; they might say hate has a different vibration than love. So for me, the crystals would mirror for my body a resonance of self-love and acceptance; my body would emulate this mirror and I would find myself shifting from self-hate to self-love. I was able to nurture myself with the crystals. This gave me an enormous sense of freedom and independence that had previously been lacking in my life. After a few months of daily self-treatments with the crystals, I quit psychotherapy and have not needed to go back. A year later, it dawned on me that I had re-mothered myself with the crystals. I had re-mothered myself with the ultimate mother, mother earth.
Flourite Crystal
I’m not saying that crystals can replace psychotherapy, and I don’t think my response to the crystals would have been as profound and grounded had I not done the psychological work. But the crystals work on a visceral level, and my body was hungry for relief that no amount of talking or insight could provide. I also do not think that crystal work is just for people who have experienced trauma. It’s great for relaxation, connecting with higher consciousness, and finding direction and clarity in life.
It’s ironic that my path to crystals began with a search for protection because this turned out not to be my primary issue. I learned that my energy needs to circulate and release on an ongoing basis. In the past, I would energetically hold onto things, often without awareness. The crystals taught me how to release energy that was no longer serving me. After several years with the crystals as my teacher, I gained the capacity to emulate what they taught me without their physical presence. My journey with crystals has been so enriching. It seems a natural progression to share these gifts with you.
