This week, Mystic Mag‘s Miguel Amado talked with Maria Cooper-Gomes, a holistic therapist based in the UK. Maria talked with us about her life story, what Reiki meant to her in a difficult moment of her life and also what other treatments she offers, including Access Bars. Check out the interview below!
How did you discover your gift?
I discovered it when I was really young. When you are young, you have no barriers and are open to things. Having a very Catholic upbringing made me shut it down and that reality didn’t allow me to explore anything different.
Then, when I was going through my challenging years in my 20’s, I didn’t want to live and tried to kill myself a couple of times and I just did not feel like I was happy here. I found the world and the people quite harsh, so I guess that helped open a door to explore what else is there.
Then, when I really hit rock bottom, Reiki came into my world. It was 26 years ago and I was working as a beauty therapist. I always knew and wanted to work with people and help them. That’s how Reiki came into my world. As soon as I experienced what Reiki was like for me, I wanted to share it with the world. It really helped me overcome anxiety, feeling comfortable in my skin, having a purpose, feeling like I belonged here. It was a long journey.
When I knew it was a real gift, I started exploring crystals, meditation and reading self-development and self-empowerment books. To develop self-empowerment is not encouraged to most people, and women in particular. My practice is healing, empowerment and freedom: when you are healing, you empower yourself, and that sets you free to be who you want to be.
You mention the words ‘fun’, ‘adventure’ and ‘joy’ in your website. Do you believe people struggle with the enjoyment part of their lives?
Yes, 100%. That comes from a recent moment, when I discovered access consciousness. I do Access Bars, which is a very empowering healing modality that shows joy, laughter and delight are our birthrights. When we start growing up and address life expectations, it gets beaten out.
People think joy is something sort of far away or that happens occasionally, like in celebrations, such as getting married or in a new relationship or a new job instead of integrating joy in daily life.
People reach you and then you do a Discovery Call. How does that play out?
People find me through the Internet and normally email me, which is a chance for me to get to know them and for them to know me. Sometimes I might not be a match for somebody because they require or are looking for something different than what I offer or energetically we are not aligning.
So, the Discovery Call is generally just to have a general chat and cut back expectations. I also talk about how the treatment works, I get to know what motivated the clients to contact me and what they’d like to achieve through the sessions.
A session is a session and what I’ve found before putting up a Discovery Call is that people would come to me for a session and talk about that stuff. So, there was no time to do the talking and the treatment.
Please walk us through your treatment.
Basically, I offer 1-2-1 treatments – Reiki with Auricular Acupuncture & sound healing using tuning forks and Tibetan sound bowl, Access Bars®, Access Energetic Facelift™, Access Body Processes® and Indian Head Massage.
What are the Access Bars?
I discovered Access Bars around 3 years ago. It is an energy healing modality. The body of work is called Access Consciousness, which has a massive umbrella of treatments, of which Access Bars is part.
In Access Bars, there are 32 points on the head that represent different areas of your life. When you lightly touch a point, it releases all kinds of existing mind chatter or limitations. Most of us have a limiting point of view about some aspects of life, which cause them not to work. Access Bars remove those limiting points of view.
On a deeper level, it makes you super present. We are aware of some limitations but most of them are in our unconscious and the healing makes us aware of them. It also teaches how to receive.
We are often taught how to give and not to receive. Sometimes we wonder why things don’t work right for us because we are not taught how to receive in this reality.
Access Bars is amazing for things like overwhelm, anxiety, depression. The nice thing about it is that you don’t need to talk about your story. Often people may start talking during the session when they are touched in some spot that precipitates issues, but it naturally comes out.
It’s also amazing for people who have neurodiverse conditions like ADD, ADHD, autism, dyslexia, because it opens up a new space for them, since they are very sensitive to energy and have many things going on in their headspace. It clears up that space so that they can be more like them.
I discovered Access Bars when my eldest son got diagnosed with ADHD 4 or 5 years ago. My mom had 2 strokes that year and then my dad died. So, I was exhausted the following year. I felt like my energy needed to be really good for work.
So, I went to a psychic fair to promote my business and I met a woman who was doing Access Bars and I felt really drawn to energy. I had a session and it was incredible. I’d never experienced that level of relaxation since I found Reiki.
After learning Access Bars, I trained as a facilitator, so I teach people. Just like reiki, you can learn the modality and become part of a big community, in which you do gifting and receiving. The more you do it, the more you declutter your head and become able to be present to what you are and the energy of your being.
Please share a message with our readers fighting in search of the right purpose.
I’d say never, ever give up. We have this life and I think that, with all my challenges I’ve gone through, I always knew there was more. Always trust and follow your knowing.
We have this one life and we can constantly complain it’s not great. Actually, we are the creators of our own lives. There are many people out there to talk to, such as on the Internet.
My big message is to always empower yourself. Always trust your knowing and follow what brings you joy. The more joyful we can be, the more we can be the invitation for others to also be joyful.
