TTouch and Reiki with Bonsai and Nilo

A couple of months ago, I did a TTouch/tabling event at Whiskers Holistic Pet Store in NYC, and I raffled off a free TTouch session. Kristin came by my table, entered the raffle and said she was lucky at these things and sure enough, she ended up winning the free session. Since then, I have had four sessions with her and her two cats, Bonsai and Nilo. Bonsai is a sweet 15 year old Burmese cat who has had problems with seizures (he's taking medication for this) and Nilo is a 5 year old Bengal cat with a lot of wild in him. Nilo is a very one-person cat and only likes Kristin. He also often pees outside of the litter box. Kristin has been feeling that Bonsai has become more low-energy and more removed from her lately, perhaps a side effect of the medications he is taking. Both these cats are absolutely stunning-looking, and so appealing each in their different ways: Bonsai has a lovely gentle, sweet energy and Nilo is very inquisitive and hyper-aware of all around him, like a little wild cat.
In my first meeting with them, Bonsai settled very easily into the TTouches. I showed Kristin how to do some of the TTouches so that she could do them on both Bonsai and Nilo. I wasn't able to touch Nilo, but I did engage him using two of the long TTouch wands, and did some of the TTouch circles on the floor near him. While I worked on Bonsai, he sat a little ways away and was very interested, but just not ready to be touched by me.
After this first session, Kristin told me that Bonsai had been extremely calmed by the TTouch, and that he slept in the bed with her, something he had not done for a long time, which was great to hear. (below is Bonsai)

The next meeting, I showed Kristin a few more of the Ttouches on Bonsai, and how to do some circles and strokes on him with a jelly scrubber (here's a link to how to use the jelly scrubber) and soft brush, which he responded to also. Then I did some TTouch and Reiki with Bonsai. His lower back and tail felt tight, so I did some TTouches around that area, and when I offered him Reiki, this area of his body also was emitting the most heat, so thought I put my hand in several positions, I spent more time with my hands in that area. I felt a very strong connection, almost like my hands were glued there. He got extremely and laid on his side, very relaxed.

After the session with him, he ate some treats which I had put out for him previously, and went to curl up on his cat bed, something he apparently had not done for a while. Again, Nilo had been observing all of this from a short distance away. Right as I was about to leave, I leaned down to say goodbye to Nilo and he came and touched me with his nose. I felt that with patience, I would make more contact with him soon.

The next session, I did seem to be slowly making more contact with Nilo. He came up to me several times, touching my hand with his nose, and I was able to engage him a bit using the TTouch wands, doing a few circular TTouches on him. I also connected with him with Reiki, sending him Reiki energy from a couple of feet away. I crouched down with my body sideways to him while we were both in the kitchen area. He stayed quite still, then relaxed as I did this. Though this was just for a matter of a few minutes, this seemed like a lot for him, as he is a very sensitive cat.

With Bonsai, I offered him Reiki for quite a long time. Again, I felt a lot of heat coming from his back end, so I focused my attention there. I felt him become deeply relaxed. When this happens, I also feel my own energy change, like it drops down a level and even the thoughts in my head feel like a record being played at a slower speed. Then I did some abalone TTouches and clouded leopard TTouches down his body and even down his legs a bit, as well as some mouth work.

In our most recent session, a few days ago, at first I felt the energy with both cats to be a bit restless, and so I began by doing a few circular TTouches at a time on Nilo, who still was keeping his distance from me, hiding under furniture. So I would do a few TTouches with him, then do a few TTouches on Bonsai, who was nearby.

Then I gave Nilo a break and began to focus on Bonsai. First I did some TTouches on his body and head, and offered him Reiki for a short time. Then I tried a technique which I learned in Margrit Coates' hands-on-healing workshop where one gently and slowly follows the energy down one side of the back (a few inches from the spine, parallel to the spine) and then the other side of the back, not pressing down on the back but, using such a light touch, following the energy. Hard to describe in words -- will have to put video up sometime soon. At any rate, all of a sudden felt the energy s h i f t down to the lower, slower level I was talking about earlier in this post. Very interesting. All of a sudden Bonsai and I were completely focused and connected with each other at the same time. I did energy healing on his brachial chakra (over the shoulder area), heart and base chakras. Bonsai because VERY settled at this point, so extremely comfortable.

I did the energy healing going down the sides of his back again, then Reiki with hand positions starting at his head, then slowly moving down his back. I was feeling a very strong connection and a lot of heat - and waves of energy going back and forth between us. After we finished this, I did a bit of TTouch around his mouth area, and felt we were done. It was a bit hard to move my hands away from him though, we felt so connected. Bonsai followed me into the next room as I went to see what Nilo was up to.

I began to work with Nilo with a wand again - but this this time I wrapped a piece of Ace bandage around the narrow end of the wand (contrary to the end we were taught to use but had to follow my intuition). When I touched Nilo with this and began to do the TTouch circles, all of a sudden I saw him react like "hey, this is different - hm, I think I like this". And I felt a real connection to him and saw him start to respond to the circular touches. He became really comfortable and began to rub his head against any surfaces that were nearby. I gave frequent breaks - would do the circles for a couple of minutes then stop for a few minutes, then start again. Bonsai was nearby so I did a few TTouches on him while I gave Nilo breaks.

THEN - I actually was able to work my way down the wand and did a few brief ttouches on Nilo with my hand - hooray! I just got in a few touches before he was on the move again, but I tried the same procedure a few times. He became extremely comfortable with the wand/ace bandage TTouches and was ok with a few hand TTouches after that. I feel that gradually he is beginning to trust and that I will be able to get closer and closer as our sessions progress. I love how much cats can teach us about patience.

After this, I was speaking with Kristin about what had happened, and asked if it was all right to take some pictures of the cats and to post about them on the blog. After I took apictures of Bonsai we began to look underneath the furniture for Nilo, as that is where we were used to finding him. He wasn't there.

All of a sudden I noticed that Nilo was on top of a bookcase (see below) and he was staring at me - probably had been doing so the whole time we were talking! Very funny.

Below you will see Nilo making a "cozy face" to me. What a nice holiday gift to me it was to feel such lovely connection with both these cats, and I felt I had particularly made a real breakthrough with Nilo.

TTouch and Reiki are not presto-chango fixes for helping animals, but the shifts that can happen as a result of these modalities can be deep and lasting. Wth time, I believe these modalities will give Bonsai a lot more relaxation, body awareness and comfort and will give Nilo more trust and less stress, which hopefully will help lessen the peeing outside the box and make it more possible for him to connect with people other than Kristin.
Happy holidays Kristin, Bonsai and Nilo, look forward to more adventures with you soon! xo

Hands-On Healing Class with Margrit Coates

Hi folks, this past weekend I had the beautiful experience of taking an advanced class in hands-on healing for animals with Margrit Coates. I had taken another class with her in March, which I found to be so helpful, and for me added another way of helping the animals I work with in the shelters and privately (in addition to TTouch and Reiki). In this class she showed us other ways of working which gave another level of connecting with the animals to help balance their energy. Hearing her speak and watching her work was such an inspiration. She has such a kind, gentle energy, and we saw each and every animal respond to her as she worked with them. Above, you see her working with a lovely dog named Spirit. Her hands truly are magic.

Not only did we work on connecting with animals in the class, Margrit also showed us how to do remote healing, using a photograph of the animal we wanted to connect with. It is very easy for people to be skeptical of this process but I can tell you that it is very powerful, and I did feel a shift in the animal (actually the sweet BARC kitty Animal) who I connected with when I next saw her in the shelter. Once I tuned into her energy as I looked at her photograph, I felt like I was in the shelter with her. It was really quite something. My friend Eileen, who is a wonderful animal communicator and healer, was also in the class and said she noticed a real difference with her cat Duff when she got home.

Above and below you see pictures of Ryley (and Margrit working with him below). Ryley is a sweet senior Maltese, who has very serious heart disease. His loving owner Tracy found Margrit while searching on the internet for someone to help him, as he was doing very badly - panting, lethargic, his heart pounding, he wasn't eating much, and would barely even raise his head. Tracy was so afraid she was going to lose him. She emailed Margrit, sent her a picture of Ryley and she did the long distance healing on him. What happened next was so miraculous. Tracy said, "The morning after Margrit did the healing (I didn't know she had done it overnight because of the time change overseas) he bounced up, ate breakfast, played with his toy and wasn't panting anymore. It really was amazing. I'm not saying he doesn't have heart disease anymore but he certainly has his will to live back and doesn't seem to be suffering anymore. That's all I can ask for. " When we saw Ryley at the class, as you can see in the pictures, he was bright and alert, and he was interested in everything that was going on. I am sure the work Margrit did on Ryley in the class was extremely helpful as well. The healing work seems to pull everything into balance and focus, while being extremely relaxing at the same time.


Thank you so much Margrit, for all that you do with the animals, and for your generosity in sharing the lovely work that you do. Please check Margrit out on her website (click on her name in the first paragraph to go to the site). She is on Facebook as well.

Gigi and friends, and Gigi inhabits my dreams

(Above, Ray on left, Gigi on right, Below, Gigi)

Especially since I have begun working more intensively with animals, they often visit me in dreams, or appear in my head as I wake up or go to sleep. One of the cats in the shelter has appeared several times this way.
Her name is Gigi, and she's a sweet little kitten about three months old. Many times the animals which we take into the shelter arrive needing medication of various kinds, because often these are the animals which the kill shelters would otherwise euthanize. Gigi and her two cage-mates, Ray and Layla, have colds and ringworm, which we are treating with medication. I offered Reiki and hands-on healing to these animals connect with them in hopes of helping their bodies achieve more balance so that they may heal more quickly. Gigi is a very friendly kitten, coming right to the front of the cage all the time, nuzzling in my hand, so I could not help but connect with her right away.
After giving the kittens their medication and some wet food, I held one hand directed at Ray and Layla, and the other directed at Gigi, and began to send them healing light. I began to feel energy pouring from my fingers. Ray and Layla, who were cuddliing together, looked even more cozy and closed their eyes. Gigi, who is usually active and rubbing herself against my hand, laid down on her side, as I felt a golden energy passing from my fingers to her body. That image and that feeling is so strong in my visual and feeling memory right now. It is an image I can return to at will and can help me if I'm at the shelter and having trouble focusing (which can happen, as it is busy, and sometimes hectic there).
The next morning, as I opened my eyes, I saw Gigi come running up to me in my mind, so full of life. It really took me by surprise and was such a lovely feeling to wake up to. When I saw her and her friends later, I could really feel them welcoming and absorbing the energy work.
A few nights later, one of the long-time volunteers at the shelter, Marisa, helped me to give these three a medicated bath to help with their ringworm. Though Ray was a bit difficult to get out of his cage because I think he was startled as we had just put some shredded paper in his cage, all three seemed to really enjoy the bath, as we got the water just the right temperature and it was as if they were getting a gentle massage from Marisa and me in the warm, soapy water. This is another sense memory that remains so strong, feeling their bodies relax as we cleaned them. After we dried them off, they looked lovely, and I think the bath really accelerated their healing process as well.
That night, Gigi again appeared to me, this time in a dream, and she was doing forward handsprings over and over. She was so joyous! It was as though she was thanking me.
Over the past week or so, I have continued to give them their medication and work with them with Reiki and energy healing. Different days, I connect with one of them more than another, and each has shown me a different place where they would like me to put my hands. With Ray, he seemed to want me to hold my hands over the lower part of his body, near the base of his spine. And there was one day where I felt a particularly strong connection with Layla, a lovely black and white long-haired kitten, who has had a particularly stubborn patch of ringworm on her face. I held my hands slightly over her shoulders and began to feel intense energy passing back and forth between my hands and her body. I stayed there for quite a while, I could really feel her absorbing the energy into her body, as though she was craving it so much. She looked straight at me with a look that felt like thank you. The next day, I felt a tangible shift with her, and her fur has begun to grow back now on a particularly stubborn patch of ringworm on her face.
Though they all have a ways to go, I have noticed a shift with all three, and felt so much gratitude from them. Here's to their continued healing!