In today’s blog post, we are delving into the inspiring journey of Victoria Thompson, a skilled practitioner of holistic health and energy healing. Learn how her background in art and design led her to explore the world of energy healing and how personal experiences ignited her passion for helping both humans and animals. Discover the profound impact of synchronicities and the power of holistic therapies like Reiki, sound healing, and chakra work.
How did your background in art and design lead you to explore holistic health and energy healing therapies?
I have been told since childhood that I was “too sensitive”! In the world of art and design it turned out that was a good thing, it meant that I was able to “feel or sense” the different types of art and design that I was taught. Which ultimately enabled me to implement it in various forms.
I have always “felt” things very deeply and after finishing my training in art and design I continued in the field by running a business dressing and styling venues for events. Although this enabled me to work creatively, due to the constant deadlines there was also a large amount of stress and responsibility involved. After working within these binding constraints for many years, I began to feel the pressure in that I began to get quite emotional.
I should say that in answering this question today, I have a totally different perspective on what our emotions are and how they work. However, back then, I thought that there was something “wrong with me” and that I needed some help to address why this was happening. I began to research online for some kind of assistance and found (almost instantly) a website that spoke of energy healing. I had heard a few stories of how this kind of thing had helped others, although I didn’t really know why, but I readily called and made an appointment.
Fast forward around a year to 18 months later, I felt like a different person. Rather than being worried, or letting the external world “get to me”, I was much more grounded in who I was, had better boundaries and was able to recognize how my body reacted to stress and emotional overstimulation. This was a complete turning point for me, it enabled me to re-balance and clear a lot of baggage and I even began to feel that the brain’s constant “monkey chatter” was generally now a thing of the past. Because I was so “blown away” by how gentle yet powerful the work was and how it had changed how I looked at things, I was really keen to learn more about it. After finishing my own sessions I began researching the who’s, why’s and therefore in regards to energy healing and holistic healing in my spare time.
Although I was still running my events business, I began to feel more energized and wanted to get more “hands on” with the freedom and passion of art and design again. I decided to volunteer at a nearby children’s nursery, on the premise that I would be able to set up some art and design projects with them. I continued to research all types of energy healing whenever I had the time to do so. By now it was something I was really passionate about and wanted to find out as much as I could.
While at the nursery I was asked by the management if I wanted to work there whilst also doing the early years practitioner award. I thought that would be a great idea and decided to do both. Although working in a nursery might not appear to be a very academic job, once qualified you are able to teach children from 0-7 years and therefore studying for the qualification meant that there was quite a lot of theory work to research and take on board. I began to learn all about philosophers and educational theorists such as Maria Montessori & Rudolf Steiner as well as schools around the world that would base their curriculum on developing the children’s learning via specific tools, such as nature, art or a combination of both. This of course inspired me to delve further down this route and after passing the qualification I then went on to train as a children’s mindfulness teacher.
What personal experiences inspired you to delve deeper into the world of energy healing and its effects on both humans and animals?
After feeling the benefits of energy healing on a personal level, I couldn’t help but research more about this wonderous phenomenon and would study the various forms avidly, whenever I had the time. Having discovered how mindfulness could play a huge part in a child’s ability to recognize and appreciate more about how we react to situations and how we are able to fit into the world around us, I began to think that perhaps I could start to put together a teaching program based on mindfulness & nature. I had heard about the schools in Sweden and Denmark that use nature to teach all forms of learning, and I had also heard about the various forest schools in this country. I began to think that maybe I should start to change my career and go down this route as I enjoyed learning and teaching about it so much.
I strongly believe that the best way to approach something is to do it wholeheartedly, so I volunteered at various places to get concrete experience. I began to volunteer in different types of forests, schools, and nature sanctuaries and even went on to help out with different types of equine and animal charities (as discussed later).
Throughout this time, I met lots of lovely people that would share stories and give me their own perception of the work that I was doing and the directions that it might take me. During one of the volunteering sessions, I came across one lady that told me about a course that aimed to teach about the natural energy forces found in nature. I found this really interesting as rather than go down the “survival” route found in some forest schools, their teachings are some of the spiritual aspects often spoken about by our ancestors; in terms of the four cardinal directions, the elements and how this might affect us, together with different types of regional folklore.
I enrolled on the course, which was divided into three introductory levels so that the applicants could choose which areas to concentrate on. After doing the first two stages, I was all set on continuing with the two that I had learnt about (even though we were only supposed to choose one!). I was sure that I wanted to sign up for their three-year course, however the only thing that was bothering me slightly was that it would mean that I would need to go down the route of working with people, rather than animals. I had always had a strong affinity with animals and was a little uncertain what to do, as I didn’t know if I was ready to say goodbye to working with animals completely. As each section of the course was 3 years in length, I thought that I would need to concentrate on going down this route, rather than veering off into other directions. Little did I know that I would experience a couple of strong synchronicities that I personally felt guided my journey into being able to work with both people and animals.
Can you explain the role of synchronicities and guides in your journey toward exploring holistic health and wellbeing?
Growing up in Central London, my family have always had dogs. Although this was great, growing up in the middle of the city meant that I didn’t really have much experience of being with other types of animals. I had never really spent much time with farm animals, or even horses or ponies yet I began to realise that as I got older, when I would often see them in a field (normally whilst driving) I would often feel compelled to “feel for them” which would result in me often tearing up. I wasn’t exactly sure why I was doing this or what was making that happen, but when I saw a flyer put together horses with emotions and energy, I knew that whatever the cost I needed to find out more. I spoke with the equine teacher and booked in a couple of sessions, just to see more about the modality.
During my second visit, I couldn’t help but to go out of my way to “speak” to the horses that were in close proximity. One of these horses seemed to make a bee line over and I eagerly went to greet her. I ended up staying with this mare for a while and explained to the equine facilitated teacher, how much respect I had for the species. I told her how wonderful I thought they were and how emotional I would get when I saw them. I explained that I was honoured just to be within their presence.
Within moments of explaining all of this, the mare (who was apparently very hypersensitive at the time, after just having an operation) began to roll over. She did this a few times and then seemed to go up to the other ponies, in the adjoining field and urge them to do the same. By the end of it there were around 6 of them rolling at different times and the teacher said she had never seen this kind of thing before. She recommended that I try to find some horse charities or voluntary work, so that I could spend more time with them, which she said might enable me to find out what it could mean. I took this as a major synchronicity and started to help out with various equine sanctuaries and rescue centre’s so that I was able to spend more time with them.
As I had enjoyed being with them so much at the rescue centres and charities, I began to look for other ways I could potentially “help” them. I began to learn animal Reiki along with a special type of equine bodywork (called Equine Touch) as I wanted to do all that I could to help them in some way.
Although I truly loved spending time with these amazing creatures, I was still working at the nursery and was wondering how to develop the mindfulness and teaching skills that I had. As mentioned previously, I was volunteering at various forest schools which lead me to find out about the natural energies course (previously mentioned).
Although I was all set on going down the route of teaching more about how to access and work with natural energies as part of this course, I still had the last section of their introductory level course to finish. On the last day of the course, we were urged to take some time out to explore the natural environment around us. As the course was set up in an animal therapies farm, I couldn’t help but head to the fields with the ponies in them.
I saw a paddock with around 5 or 6 ponies in it and began to say hello. Within moments one of the ponies came over. I was so happy to see her, but to my surprise within minutes she fell asleep alongside me. I knew that horses, as a herd animal that were over 50 million years old, and me being a prey animal, would not choose to spend time with a human (unless they knew them or had food / or a friend etc). Although we were in an animal therapy farm and the equines had probably had experience of repeating back the behaviour shown by the human (as part of their therapy work), I was still surprised that she was so trusting. I had only really spent about 5 minutes there. I believed that she had shown me the greatest respect in trusting me enough to take a rest and for that I was honoured. My take home was that they trusted me even though I had not spent much time with them. Given that I already had so much respect for their species, I took this to be another synchronicity. Maybe I shouldn’t give up on working with these beautiful animals. Although I loved the natural energies course, perhaps there was a way to do both.
After that, I began to rethink the course. I loved the basis of it, but I thought that I would put it on the back burner and finish off the work that I was already doing. During this time, I found other ways to find out more about natural energies without committing to what was essentially a big commitment running my events business still, finishing off my other courses to then take on this three year course as well.
During the next year or so, I came across another course which went down the route of natural energy work. It allowed us to take into account our ancient human ancestors as well as the natural deities that existed in nature and how we could honour and celebrate these as part of our day to day life. I also continued down the animal Reiki (and then human Reiki) course to level 3 (and beyond) and also completed the Equine Touch course to be an equine bodyworker.
I also undertook the HeartMath training to practitioner level as well as studying for a diploma in animal (applied zoopharmacognosy) (animal self selection) as well as animal acupressure for dogs and horses. I have also undergone additional teaching qualifications for adults as well as undertaking additional research into neurodivergence (such as autism).
How do you tailor your sessions using therapies like Reiki, sound healing, and chakra work to meet the unique needs of each client?
I will always send the client a form prior to the session. This will help me to understand more about the potential issues / history – as well as the desired outcome of the session. I will tend to use this as a guide to help me to understand more about the client (be they human or animal).
Although I might have a bit of background on them, I will always use my intuition within the session to help me to understand more about what is going on. I believe that once you have tuned in, you will almost always have some kind of feedback, be it on an energetic physical; emotional; spiritual: visual; intuitive level. What you might get really just depends on the client in terms of their perceived issue’s, as well as their ability to open up. It is at this point that you will also decide how and what you can do to help them to get the best from the session.
If I am able to meet the animal or human client in person, I might do a body scan to see what information comes up, or I might start the session and see where it takes us.
I find that although they might not be perceived as being as “strong” as in person sessions, remote or distant healing can be a really good way to “cut to the chase”. I find that the reciprocal energy feedback is part and parcel of the process and a phenomenal way to help address the issues, be they in line with the symptoms surfacing, or more importantly. as part of a deeper underlying issue. I should say though that I feel that energy “protection” is a really important part for any practitioner, regardless of what modality they are working with.
How has your training in HeartMath and trauma-sensitive practices influenced the way you approach stress and anxiety healing?
I discovered Heartmath by accident whilst reading about equine facilitated learning. I was really impressed with their techniques and felt sure that I should train with them to discover more. Once I began to uncover more about their practices, I realised that their teachings were driven primarily, from a scientific stance. I suppose I believed that this was also another type of synchronisty, as their insights were reiterating many of the same principles that I had already learnt, from traditional belief systems or in spiritual teachings.
Once I understood what HeartMath was all about, I knew that I needed to go down the trainer route to help bring together the other knowledge that I had learnt, but in a more academic way. I wanted to use their 35 years of research / techniques and technologies to help children and teenagers understand more about how, how and what they might be feeling. Why they might be experiencing heightened emotions, anxieties or stress levels and how this is more to do with their environment and unconscious thinking rather than being “something wrong” with them
What do you find most rewarding about working with both humans and animals in the field of holistic energy wellbeing?
Although I love to work on people and animals individually in one to one sessions, I find that workshops are especially rewarding. I love being able to help teach more about the modalities. To explain how and why this or that is working, whilst introducing them to the methods that might help them or their animals therapeutically.
I consider myself lucky enough to have been involved in lots of different types of workshops. I have worked with people, as well as animals; horses & dogs (cows and sheep ☺). I love being able to demonstrate and explain more about the wonder of the energetic world around us and hope by showing others in simple English how and why energy healing works in real time, I might inspire others to learn more about it. I suppose rather like the field of art and design, when we find something we are passionate about, we want to tell the world, so that we can pay homage to it.
I suppose that when I am able to teach the modalities in the workshops, I have the ability to help both people and animals in a healing capacity, whilst singing from the rooftops, what a truly magnificent phenomenal natural world that we live in!
