MysticMag has the opportunity to chat with Shirley O’Donoghue, PGCE, MICCH, MGHT, MIFL, – the Principal and founder of Lucis College, established in 1990. An experienced teacher and practitioner, she has lectured and conducted workshops on holistic therapies, including Crystal Therapy, Reiki, and Colour Therapy, for organizations such as The Federation of Holistic Therapists (UK), Cidesco (Cyprus), and Professional Beauty (India & UK). Shirley has authored four books, including Crystal Alchemy and Working with Crystals and her latest book “The Beginners Guide To Crystal Healing was published on 10 September by Healing Arts Press. In 2009 she founded Holistic Harmony Community Interest Company, a social enterprise which was set up to provide complementary therapies to a wide range of disadvantaged groups and individuals.
Shirley, with Lucis College’s long history of providing accredited holistic and complementary therapy training, how have you seen the demand for these therapies evolve since the college’s founding in 1990?
What I’ve observed is that people today are more attuned to energy, and more sensitive to it, in general. When I first started 20 or 30 years ago, I had to spend a lot more time helping people feel the energy when working with chakras and crystals. Now, with the growing acceptance of Reiki and Yoga it’s much easier to teach people how to sense energy. However, the demand for this kind of work seems to ebb and flow over time.
One issue, especially with crystals, is that their true value has been drastically oversimplified. Too often, people are told, “Get this crystal, and it will change your life,” but from Shirley’s perspective, it doesn’t work like that. You need to make a conscious connection with the crystal for it to have any real impact. While there is definitely more awareness of crystal healing nowadays, when she first started learning and teaching about crystals there were very few resources available—no internet and barely any books. Judy Hall’s books raised awareness but initially there was a focus on attributes but without much practical advice on how to actually work with them. Eventually, her books became more detailed, but even today, if you Google a crystal to learn about its properties, the information is often very basic. There’s rarely anything about how to truly connect with the crystal.
I think this has led to some cynicism. People buy a crystal, expecting it to transform their lives, and when they don’t see immediate results, they give up on it. I’ve noticed that the interest in crystals tends to go in cycles—about every five years, there’s a surge of enthusiasm, followed by a bit of a decline. Right now, I think we’re in a bit of a downturn, partly due to that cynicism and the overwhelming amount of surface-level information out there that doesn’t really teach people how to properly work with crystals.
At the same time, people are becoming more aware of chakras and subtle energy system- meridians, auras etc and I think yoga has played a significant role in this. Yoga has made people more conscious of the energy within themselves.
You offer a diverse range of therapies, from Crystal Therapy to Toltec Shamanic Healing. How do you approach integrating ancient healing traditions with modern complementary therapy practices in your courses?
I suppose I feel that I’ve been quite groundbreaking in my own way. When I first started, particularly in the UK, I found myself attracting a lot of interest from therapists. I began teaching and running workshops for the Federation of Holistic Therapists, an organization that promotes complementary therapies and beauty treatments. Over time, I noticed that many therapists—whether complementary or beauty—were seeking something more to enhance their practices. As they moved towards an even more holistic approach, Reiki became an ideal bridge for them. It’s a modality that’s relatively quick and easy to learn, making it easy to integrate into existing practices. This, in turn, has opened up awareness to the other forms of healing that we work with. Combining crystals with Reiki definitely empowers the treatment. I and all my students find that the combination enables the client to relax even more deeply into the treatment but also enhances the overall experience.
What do you believe sets Lucis College apart from other institutions offering training in holistic therapies, particularly in terms of the depth of the teaching and the practical experience provided to students?
I try to teach face-to-face as much as possible, and we have a very high retention rate where students return to learn different disciplines and therapies and with many of our students coming to us through referrals. Admittedly, we’re not particularly strong when it comes to social media, but we are working to improve that. At the moment, we are about to launch an online course that will tie in with the latest book, Beginners Guide To Crystal Healing and we have just started a series of monthly podcasts – Light Insights From Lucis College – which feature in depth discussions around the courses we teach. I firmly believe in the importance of continuous learning. There’s always more to discover, and I don’t think I’ll ever consider myself an expert in anything. Even in the process of writing this online course, which aligns with my book, I’ve learned new things about crystal healing. It’s a reminder that learning never truly stops, and that openness to growth is key and this is something we seek to instill in all our students.
We are very supportive of our students and place a strong emphasis on empowering them. We don’t just want them to complete the courses—we want them to leave with the confidence to truly apply what they’ve learned. We spend a lot of time nurturing their skills and helping them build their self-assurance if needed. I know most schools would say they support their students, but I truly care.
For me, it’s not about numbers. I’m not interested in simply churning out students. I care deeply about the quality of their experience and their understanding of the material. Crystal healing, in particular, holds a special place in my heart, and I want to ensure that those we send out into the world reflect the same passion and depth that I strive to impart and are ambassadors for what we teach to bring greater general awareness and understanding of therapies that can sometimes be dismissed as ‘new age’ etc.
As a lecturer and practitioner of holistic therapies, how do you balance the educational aspects of your work with maintaining a personal healing practice, and how do these two areas influence one another?
I run a Community Interest Company called Holistic Harmony CIC. We established it in 2009 with the primary goal of providing complementary therapies to those who couldn’t afford them—disadvantaged groups and individuals, broadly speaking. We’ve been operating ever since, working with a wide range of people who face various challenges, from substance misuse to mental health issues. Currently, we’re collaborating with a community hub and a mental health support group charity, which brings people to us for care.
For instance, this morning we have 15 individuals coming in, all of whom are dealing with a variety of mental health conditions. They’ll each receive two complementary therapies for free, along with a workshop and a meditation session. The therapies we offer encompass all the practices we teach, and participants are free to choose the treatments that resonate most with them. It has become so popular that we’ve had to limit attendance to once a month per person, as demand has grown. Every session brings in a different group, and soon we will be running weekly sessions where we will support four groups of around 15 individuals each month.
I’m fortunate to have an incredible team of therapists, all of whom have been trained through Lucis College. These practitioners are generously donating their time at the hub, offering their skills without charge at the moment, though I hope to change that soon and provide them with some payment, there is a general expectation that therapists can give away their skills for free but for many therapists they have spent money on becoming multi-disciplined in different therapies as well as the on costs such as insurance, equipment and materials etc and I don’t think that it is fair for therapists. . For me, this initiative is truly rewarding because I get to see firsthand how effective these therapies are, especially when working with key groups in need. Having run Holistic Harmony since 2009 and having had prior experience with a local charity as a subcontracted tutor, I’ve become even more passionate about the power of complementary therapies.
One of my driving motivations is to make these therapies more widely accessible. In the UK, complementary therapies are often seen as indulgent or luxurious, something that might be enjoyed by “ladies who lunch.” But that perception is far from reality. I’m determined to change that narrative because these treatments offer profound benefits, and they deserve to be taken seriously as essential care for those in need.
With your latest book A Beginners Guide To Crystal Healing and your other publications, how do you see the role of literature in spreading awareness about holistic therapies, and what impact do you hope your work will have on the field?
What I hope to achieve with the book I’ve written is to make crystal healing an accessible tool for everyone, whether they are just starting out or have been working with energy for some time, such as Reiki practitioners or other experienced therapists. The Internet, while a fantastic resource, often presents a lot of contradictory and sometimes inaccurate information. What I’ve aimed to do in my book is to provide guidance rooted in my 30 years of experience working with crystals, both personally and professionally. I’ve seen firsthand how powerful crystals can be when integrated into people’s lives, especially when working with disadvantaged groups and individuals.
Through this book, I want to correct some of the common misconceptions and offer a more reliable, deeper understanding of how to work with crystals effectively. My hope is that it empowers readers to connect with crystals on a more meaningful level and gives them the confidence to incorporate crystal healing into their daily lives or professional practice with clarity and purpose.
If you would like to find out more about Shirley O’Donoghue, please visit https://www.luciscollege.com and sign up for their Newsletter. Light Insights Podcast can be found on Spotify and Apple Music as well as regular updates from Lucis College website.
A Beginners Guide To Crystal Healing is available on Amazon.
