Trust Technique Practitioner, Reiki Master and Pet Behavior Therapist Masako Simmons from Regarding Animals helps animals with behavior issues by using the Trust Technique® by building trust and confidence. In this interview Masako tells MysticMag about her journey with insights to healing the cause of behaviors.
Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you started your journey in working with animals?
I was born and grew up in the countryside of Japan. I moved to the US in 1993. Although I loved animals all my life, I worked in the corporate world most of my life. After I went through life’s ups and downs, I started soul searching. During this soul searching, I’ve met many spiritually awakened people, and was attuned to each level of Reiki, but I didn’t start as a practitioner at that time. There was always a nagging question “what’s my purpose”.
Then I remembered that I briefly thought about working with animals when I was young but never did. There weren’t so many options back then, but there are so many ways to work with animals now. Among many options, animal communication intrigued me. So, I started taking a couple of online courses and a workshop, and it led me to discover James French and the amazing technique called Trust Technique. It is a combination of healing and communication. They are based in the UK, so as soon as they opened the online course, I jumped in and qualified to be a practitioner in 2019.
The Trust Technique helped not only my animals, my clients, and their animals, but also my spiritual journey. It is a never-ending journey.
What are the main services that you offer?
Trust Technique Consultations – The Trust Technique recognizes that humans and animals share feelings and react with each other. So, our emotions and feelings affect our animals negatively or positively. I teach this simple yet amazing technique for people to become present to create peace of mind for their animals to react to. It is to develop trust, deepen your connection, advance your communication, and share healing. This can be done in person or on zoom.
Reiki Sessions – Reiki is a form of energy therapy. It can help ease tension and stress. I offer the sessions to both animals and humans, and it can be done in person or remotely.
For anyone who has had a close relationship with an animal, it would be clear that animals have recognition, memory, decision-making abilities, intelligence, and a wide range of emotions. Could you tell us a bit about your own experience of this and how you connect with animals?
Animals are very sensitive and highly intelligent. Animals are thinking feeling beings. When their thinking levels are high, they can’t hear us. When we learn to quiet our minds our animals will follow, and we can listen to each other. Because animals communicate with feelings and images, I’m more aware of my feelings. I often talk to animals after bringing their thinking level down as if I’m talking to a person. They understand more than you think because they can feel the feelings and images behind the spoken words. They truly amaze me.
One of the clients’ dogs was very hyper around her but calmer around her husband. Turned out that the dog was reacting to her stress from her work. After I taught her the Trust Technique, the dog became very calm because the client had learned to be present (calm/peaceful).
Another client had a puppy and the puppy developed severe separation anxiety. After teaching her the Trust Technique, I told her to bring the puppy back to the same spot if he followed her. When the animal’s mind is calm, they can learn quicker and retain what they learn. The puppy understood what the client was asking for, went to his bed to sleep after repeating it only a few times, and she was able to leave the room without the puppy crying.
Another example with my dog, I had to give her an oral drop medicine. I used the Trust Technique to bring her thinking level down, brought the drop close to her face, imagined that she would touch the drop with her nose, and waited. She was processing it for a bit and finally turned her head toward the drop to take the medicine.
Peace (Trust Technique), Patience, and Persistence are the 3 keys to connecting and communicating with our animals.
Reiki is a Japanese word that literally translates as “universal life energy”. Please tell us more about this ancient healing art and how it is beneficial n practice with animals.
This life energy flows through all living things and directly affects the quality of his/her health. It is a non-invasive and safe technique that increases his/her supply of life energy. It reduces stress, promotes relaxation, and improves the natural healing ability of the body. I look at a practitioner as a conduit of the energy. It is not coming from me but coming through me, and I let the energy does its job.
Animals are more sensitive to energy and often respond to Reiki energy more quickly than people do. Reiki is one of only a few healing methods that involve no harm to any living thing in order to bring about healing. (Reiki should not be used as a replacement for proven conventional care or to postpone seeing a doctor about a medical condition.)
Lastly, is there anything that you would tell pet owners not to do when communicating with their pet?
Don’t punish them for unwanted behaviors. Their behaviors are just expressions of how they feel. If you punish them, they will fear you. They might obey you, but at what cost? There is no trust or connection in punishing. Very sensitive animals might even shut down.
Instead, teach them to be peaceful with whatever they are feeling about the situations, things, other animals, and people.
Don’t react. It is difficult in certain situations but stay calm as much as possible. When you get upset, nervous, or anxious, you are sharing those feelings with your animals and they will react to those feelings.
Instead, take responsibility for your feelings, and create a peaceful feeling and a space for them so that they will learn to be peaceful.
Don’t reward them at the wrong timing. For example, some people use treats to get their dogs’ attention when they are barking. They can redirect their attention at the moment but the dogs will learn to bark to get the treats.
Be mindful of using treats as it will often bring the animal’s thinking level up, and use treats to show appreciation for their good behavior (or when they did something you asked for).
Instead of telling the animal not to do, ask them what you like them to do, and reward them when they do what you asked for. This way, you get rewarded with your animal doing what you ask for and your animal gets rewarded with whatever they like receiving (treats, scratching, etc.). This communication works much better for both humans and animals.
