Katie Light is a renowned facialist, mind body therapist, Reiki practitioner and founder of The Light Technique. Here, she shares with us her holistic 360° approach to wellness.
What matters most to Katie is first looking at the individual, understanding what is going on for that person, understanding what has happened to them and where they want to go, and then putting a treatment plan together.
Katie, please tell us a little about your professional journey?
I qualified as a beauty therapist from college, then worked in many different places for about 5 years including spas, health farms and cruise ships. I traveled a lot with my work. I ended up working for a company called Aromatherapy Associates and was in charge of sales and setting up their offices in Asia and America. I really did a lot of traveling at this stage and met some amazing people and experts on the way.
I became fascinated with how people work in Thailand and, because of the language and cultural barriers, understanding their body language and listening to how people were responding to me.
I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was 28 and this made me question my life. It was actually on holiday in Cape Town that I went for my very first Reiki session and this was the only thing that had an impact on my blood sugars which completely dropped (without changing any food habits). I was astounded by the results of this Reiki session which I realised was profound energetic work. I then trained to be a Reiki practitioner, and then became a Reiki Master, and now teach Reiki as well. This was the start of a journey into working on another level, both emotional and energetic, physical and mental. This is how The Light Technique was conceived.
How do you define 360° wellness?
It is not simply one therapy. It encompasses Mind, Body and Emotion. I want to be able to tell a patient, for example, that they have anxiety, then trace it back to where it started, and deal with the pattern of behaviour and the belief system associated with this. Then we treat the anxiety while understanding the tools that we need to deal with it before it next appears.
What exactly are holistic facials, and do they go beyond skin deep?
Feedback that I am given by my clients, is that my facials differ to those in salons as mine focus more on massage. The work is quite deep work, into the muscles and tissues, and works on the collagen and elastin. However, I might massage a lot but I am also practicing Reiki while doing the facial. I perform all the hand placements on the upper body so I really enter into the unconscious mind, do some breath work and work with gua sha tools.
The holistic facials are completely organic and are mostly deep cleansing and hydrating for the skin. However, it’s more about the hands on touch and me feeling what’s going on behind the scenes, and being able to shift it.
What other treatments do you offer?
I do face work, body work, breath work, Reiki, energetic work and wellness coaching. If somebody wants something specific, I can of course do that, but usually I work with a combination of all those things. However, whatever treatment I am doing, I always use Reiki and therefore something always comes up and healing will always occur, whether this takes the shape of a conversation or a treatment.
I often have a phone consultation with a new client before they come in for a session, to figure out how they are feeling, how they want to feel and to establish a treatment plan, whether it be once a month or once a week. It really depends on how severe their issue, problem or concern is, as to how much time is spent treating it.
Are humans programmed to think a certain way which is why you refer to “resetting the mindset”?
I think for the most part, we learn to think a certain way through our upbringing and environment. As humans we are programmed to behave in a certain way, but I think that our actual behaviour and our belief system comes down to our upbringing, our parents, our environment and our peers.
I do think some aspects are hereditary but most behaviours are learnt behaviours. I cover this kind of work in my coaching program.
Why are some people intrinsically more negative than others in their outlook?
Again, this could come down to their upbringing and their environment. It could also be due to protection, or being too wrapped up in themselves that they can’t see other people’s perspectives. Sometimes parents protect their children too much and therefore they learn and hang on to this ‘negative’ pattern of behaviour.
What is Conscious Connected Breathwork (CBB)?
Often while doing breath work, I am working with trauma but I don’t necessarily need to know what is the source of that trauma. It is an energy that I feel. In a nutshell, the breathing enables the person to access their trauma, and through the breath work they are able to release it and let it go.
I have recently trained in Inspirational Breathing, which focuses on the conscious connected breath. It encompasses conscious connected breathing, sound toning, movement, touch and affirmation. All of this takes place in one session and many different tools are applied to enable the person to release their emotion.
Are we always conscious of our trauma, and can that of our ancestors be handed down?
I certainly think it is possible. With some clients, they feel a certain way but don’t know why they feel that way. That can be from childhood that they have blocked out or simply can’t recall, it could be trauma from birth, or trauma that has been carried through from past lives. Whatever the situation, I don’t necessarily know where it comes from but it is more about treating what is surfacing. It also depends on how much time a person is prepared to spend working on it, or how open they are to a deeper understanding.
