MysticMag chats with Kristin Dwan, founder of The Healing Woods, and a Certified Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master-Teacher with a profound journey through personal adversity that fuels her passion for healing. Her life took a transformative turn after surviving a house fire in 1998 and overcoming cancer in 2018. These experiences ignited her dedication to empowering others through the healing arts, particularly Reiki and Hypnotherapy. Kristin uses her expertise to guide individuals on their path to self-discovery and healing, drawing from her own experiences of triumph over life’s challenges. Through her work, she helps others find their inner light and embrace their healing journey.
Kristin, can you share how the experience of escaping a house fire and your near-death experience in the burn ward influenced your perspective on life and healing?
Before the fire and the near-death experience, I didn’t truly appreciate life as a gift. I was in a very dark place, struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. It’s interesting how facing the possibility of death can change your perspective. When I almost lost my life, it was a revelation that I am here for a reason and that I needed to start loving myself. As a child, I always dreamed of helping people and making a positive impact on the world, but a difficult childhood had worn me down. However, losing my life and fighting to come back made me realize the true value of existence. I now see the fire as a baptism into actually living life, understanding who I am, and embracing self-love.
The fire was my initiation into my Spiritual Journey and I wrote a book called “Baptism By Flame – 10 Steps to Ignite Your Light Within” about the Fire and the Spiritual Journey that followed.
This book is not merely a memoire of the experience, but it is an interactive journey where the reader becomes a Phoenix using an online space that provides journaling exercises, guided meditations and more to take them on their own Spiritual Journey with fire without having to burn their house down and end up in a burn ward like I did.
What role did Reiki and other forms of energy healing play in your recovery process, and how did they shape your approach to helping others today?
I spent about a month in the burn ward undergoing skin grafts. Initially, they used cadaver skin from a deceased donor, but that didn’t work. Then, they took healthy skin from other parts of my body and grafted it onto the burns. This process seemed to take forever, and I was eager to leave the hospital. I excitedly told my surgeon about my plans to start a band and write a book, but he reminded me, “I’m glad you’re happy to be alive, but we can’t release you until your skin grows.” His words hit me hard, and I had a moment of despair when he mentioned I might be there another month, depending on how the grafts took.
Desperate for help beyond what the hospital could provide, I turned to meditation and called out to The Universe. I felt an energy enter my room, like a tingling and suctioning on my wounds, and then I felt myself leave my body. I rose up into the air, free from the burns and pain I had endured for a month. Despite being on liquid morphine, I had felt constant, intense pain, as if hot irons were on my skin. This energetic presence was the only relief I had experienced, and I felt cradled in the arms of the universe, loved and safe, taking a much-needed break from the constant pain.
When I returned to my body, I realized that about 90% of the heat from my burns was gone. I managed to walk barefoot to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and saw my reflection. I looked disheveled, with tangled hair and no makeup, but for the first time, I looked into my eyes and saw the fire within me, the phoenix I was. I saw my inner power and beauty, and it was the first time I truly began to love myself.
This experience helped me heal more quickly, and the next day, my surgeon noticed the change. To me, my burns still looked severe, like Freddy Krueger, but he saw progress and said, “Wow, you’re really turning the corner. You’re going to get out of here this week.” I believe this experience reinforced my belief that combining Eastern and Western medicine yields the best results. The energy work didn’t completely heal me on its own; I still needed the Western medicine, the burn ward, and skin grafting. However, the energy helped accelerate the healing process.
This integration of energy work and Western medicine has benefited me throughout my life, even during my cancer journey and other medical procedures. Doctors often warned me of potential complications, like the inability to walk, but none of those predictions came true. I used Reiki energy to support the doctors and surgeons in their work, and this holistic approach has consistently helped me heal and recover.
How did your cancer diagnosis and subsequent healing journey impact your relationship with food and self-care, and what changes did you make that contributed to your significant weight loss?
After my cancer diagnosis, I lost 160 pounds using hypnotherapy. As a certified hypnotherapist, I realized that when someone receives a cancer diagnosis, their world comes to a halt. At that point, I was already established in the healing field, helping hundreds of people, but I was mainly using my tools for others and not for myself. When the cancer diagnosis came in, I decided to pause my healing work momentarily to focus on myself and navigate through what I needed to endure. Again, it wasn’t that I Reiki-ed or hypnotized my cancer away; I received medical treatment at City of Hope and underwent the necessary procedures, including a hysterectomy, for the cancer in my uterus.
I used hypnotherapy to heal a part of me—my inner child. The subconscious mind, which is formed between the ages of zero and eight, determines what we truly believe about ourselves, life, health, love, and money. During that time, I learned that I was easily abandoned and insignificant because my parents divorced and my father left. At the age of eight, I discovered that food made me feel better. This is a common lesson, as we are often taught to associate food with comfort: children are given cookies to soothe a skinned knee, and holidays like Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter are intertwined with food and candy. I had to reparent myself and relearn that I was worth fighting for, worth making changes to my diet and exercise routine. However, I prefer not to use the word “diet”; instead, I changed my habits. The habit was to eat cake, drink wine, or have carbs when in emotional pain.
Habits comprise 88% of your brain power because they reside in the subconscious mind, which is 88% of your brain power. Your decision-making, willpower, and desire to lose weight and be kind to yourself are only 12% of your brain power. Therefore, I had to use my hypnotherapy tools to reconfigure my beliefs about food, pain, myself, and life. I replaced unhealthy habits with ones that were beneficial to me, such as hiking, swimming, and drinking water when emotions ran high. After my cancer diagnosis, I focused on healing my inner child and addressing wounds I had been carrying since I was eight years old, ultimately losing 160 pounds.
What were the key lessons you learned from overcoming depression and facing life-threatening challenges, and how do these experiences inform your work as a hypnotherapist and Reiki master?
I feel that in this lifetime, those of us who are born with a deep desire to help others, like I had as a child, are here for a purpose. I always felt connected to the earth and the universe, even as a young child, when I would talk to the moon. But as life happens, it can wear you down. I believe that when a soul decides to be a helper in the world, it often means learning lessons the hard way.
Going through all that I have experienced has not only made me stronger but also more empathetic. It allows me to truly understand the path out of darkness because I have been there myself. This connection is invaluable in my work with clients. I tend to attract those who are dealing with significant challenges and deep, dark issues. I can meet them where they are because I’ve been in those depths too—maybe not in the exact same situations, but I’ve felt the emotions, the heaviness, and the darkness.
It’s important to note that it’s not about me doing the work for them. I don’t consider myself a healer because I don’t heal them. My role is more like guiding them through their journey. I go into the deep, dark cave they are in, holding a torch light to show them the way. It’s up to them to do the work, to allow the energy or hypnosis to take effect.
My experiences have given me the courage to explore any depth of depression, sorrow, or pain with my clients. I can meet them in those places because I’ve been there myself, and I know the way out. It is their journey, but I am there to help guide them through the darkness toward healing.
How do you integrate the elements of fire and the moon in your healing practices, and what significance do these elements hold for you in terms of personal transformation and guiding others on their healing journeys?
People often ask me if I’m afraid of candles now, given my past experience. I think it’s important to clarify that I was the one who started the fire I had to escape from, though it was not intentional. I intentionally lit a candle, which ultimately caused the fire, but I never meant to burn my house down. At the time, I used a road-opening candle as part of my practice as a witch, which I’ve been for 35 years. I have always focused on using the elements to create change and transform my life. At that time, I was deeply unhappy with where I was living and going through a very dark period.
After lighting the candle, I went to sleep, only to awaken to find my room completely engulfed in flames. I had to run through a wall of fire, which is how I got my burns. That road-opening candle certainly worked, but in a rather dramatic way. Following this incident, I decided to start The Healing Woods to help others on their journeys, inspired by the energetic experience I had in the burn ward.
This happened in the 1990s, a time when you couldn’t simply Google an energy worker; you had to embark on a journey. I visited various pagan and metaphysical shops in search of energy workers, finding them through business cards left on bulletin boards—the spiritual world’s version of Google back then. I sought out angel healers, shamans, crystal healers, and others. It was during this search that I first encountered the word “Reiki.”
My first Reiki session was a revelation; I recognized it as the energy that had come to me in the burn ward. I realized then that I needed to become a Reiki master, to write about it, and to share its benefits with anyone who would listen. Reiki not only helped me heal physically, allowing me to leave the burn ward and mend my wounds, but it also healed me emotionally. It was the first time I looked at myself and felt self-love.
Reiki is a foundational pillar of my healing practice, as is fire. I always incorporate fire into my work. As a bodyworker, I practiced fire cupping, using fire and glass cups to help people through their pain. I also created an activity called “Bullshit Bonfires,” where people burn the things that hold them back. I send Reiki to the fire, perform cord-cutting rituals, and use hypnosis to help them plant the seeds of what they truly want in life. Fire is incredibly powerful, and I truly feel like a phoenix rising from its ashes. Fire transformed my old life, which was no longer serving me, into one where I thrive and use its transformative energy for good.
I also work with the moon. I host full moon gatherings called Spirit Craft online, where we use fire as a tool for transformation. Participants light candles, and I create Reiki grids aligned with their full moon intentions. I also perform hypnosis and occasionally invite guests to discuss different ways of connecting with spirit.
I’ve been a witch for 35 years, and I’ve explored various religious and spiritual beliefs, from Kabbalah to Hinduism and Buddhism. My life has been a journey through a comparative religion course. What I’ve realized is that we’re all striving for the same thing: a connection to spirit. We just use different languages, faces, books, and ideas to achieve it. That’s why I created Spirit Craft—not to teach witchcraft per se, but to explore all the beautiful ways to connect to one’s idea of spirit, always under the light of the full moon.
If you would like to find out more about Kristin Dwan, please visit https://www.thehealingwoods.com/
