In today’s interview, Peg Conway, a certified Healing Touch practitioner and author, opens up about her journey into energy healing and her dedication to helping others find balance and healing through touch. In this interview, Peg shares her insights into the power of energy work, her hands-on approach to one-on-one sessions, and the inspiration behind her workshops and memoir, The Art of Reassembly. MysticMag has the pleasure.
How did you get into energy healing and what sparked your interest in it?
I’m certified through the Healing Touch Program, and friends who were involved in this organization led me into this work. I took my first workshop ten years ago after being curious about energy healing for many years. At the start, the instructor invited us to experience energy by rubbing our palms together, back and forth, then holding them facing each other about a foot apart. Moving our hands closer to each other and then farther apart, I could sense an edge. There was pressure or shape, almost like holding a ball between my hands. I was fascinated!
The workshop proceeded to build on this basis. We worked in pairs to scan our partner’s energy field by moving our hands from head to toe, several inches away from the body as the other person sat in a chair. Some people detected areas of warmth or cold, but I sensed varying degrees of tingling.
By the time the first day ended, we had learned about chakras as well as several Healing Touch techniques to clear, open, and balance the body’s energy. Massage tables had been set up for us to give and receive mini-sessions with each other. I relished the deep relaxation that Healing Touch brought, and the very idea of energy so intrigued me in a way that felt both brand-new and familiar.
What energy healing modalities and methods do you use?
The Healing Touch Program was created in the 1980s by a nurse in Colorado based on her studies with various healers and her own intuitive guidance. The program’s techniques involve light hand placements on the body or hand movements a few inches above the body, and there are full-body techniques that address the major and minor chakras, as well as more localized techniques for congestion, pain, or injury in a particular area such as a headache or joint issues. I also use additional techniques that I learned through a course in nervous system states and how they relate to the human energy system.
Can you walk me through one of your 1:1 sessions?
People seek Healing Touch sessions for support in situations ranging from dealing with life stresses to grief and loss to coping with a medical situation. It’s a valuable form of self-care, or it can serve as a ritual to mark a transition.
When a client comes for an individual session, I begin by providing an overview of energy healing in general and background on Healing Touch in particular. Then I invite the client to share their hopes and goals for the session and to discuss previous and current challenges. They also complete a consent and registration form.
During the session, the client lies on a massage table, fully clothed and usually covered with a blanket. I lead them through a brief meditation and read a poem as an opening and then assess their energy using a pendulum and hands over the body. The most time is given to the appropriate techniques to clear, open, and balance their energy system, and I conclude with a re-assessment. The techniques may be done with hands lightly on the body or just above. Throughout, the lights are dimmed, and instrumental music is playing. Clients often fall asleep!
After I’m finished, the client rests quietly for a bit longer before I invite them to bring their awareness back to the room and when they’re ready, to get up from the table. I offer them a glass of water and we talk as much or as little as they prefer. People often describe feeling “relaxed,” “clear,” or “peaceful.” One client says she’s “been plugged into a charger.”
I might present a technique for them to try at home, and I encourage them to stay well-hydrated that day to help the process continue. Some clients schedule their next appointment a few weeks or a month in the future before departing.
Healing Touch can also be offered remotely. The process is very similar, even though we may be at some distance. We communicate by phone or video call before and after.
What are your workshops like?
I develop workshops inspired by my experiences and those of my clients. They always begin and end with a meditation or grounding practice and include time for sharing our experiences.
I offer an Energy First Aid for Every Home workshop that presents five techniques that anyone can use to support a family member in situations like school or work stress, recovery from illness or surgery, or muscle/joint aches. This workshop involves mostly demonstration and practice.
My signature offering is the Making Space workshop for people who are clearing a home as part of moving or handling an estate or just because they want to. I created this workshop after having cleared out my parents’ home after their deaths followed by a major downsizing for my husband and me. I evolved a process of reflection on the heirlooms, objects, and furniture to discern what to keep and what to release. I learned to observe a settled feeling in my body when something felt right. One day while chatting with my realtor I alluded to my process, and she said, “I have never heard anyone talk about their stuff like that. A lot of people need this. I wish you would teach a class.” This workshop is reflective of journaling and discussion.
As an author, what books have you written and what are they about?
My memoir, The Art of Reassembly(www.pegconway.com/the-art-of-reassembly), is about the long arc of childhood grief. My mom died of breast cancer when I was 7 but I didn’t start grieving until age 25, when an accident on a downtown street unleashed a lot of emotional reactions that I later realized came from long-buried childhood grief. As I married and became a mother, intense feelings continued.
Gradually I confronted the reality that growing up surrounded by silence in a family that moved on from sorrow had caused me to suppress my mother’s memory for far too long. Ultimately, after excavating all the layers, I found my mom again, and in the process discovered that truth, no matter how painful, heals. I began studying energy healing around the time I started writing this book, and this awareness served me well as I grappled with emotions and events of the past.
To learn more about Peg’s work, you can visit www.pegconway.com
