Agawam woman helps others find wellness

Date: 12/19/2014

FEEDING HILLS – Christine Bailey of Agawam was on a quest for wellness when she discovered reiki, an Eastern modality that reduces stresses and encourages healing. Ten years later, she is now trying to help others find their own ways of healing.

Bailey is opening the Feeding Hills Wellness Center, hoping to help clients feel their best.

“It’s just my desire to see people well. I see people hurting all the time and it’s just my desire to help people,” Bailey said. “It wasn’t really about the money. I just want to see people well. There are so many people out there that are hurting.”

The Feeding Hills Wellness Center will be home to a variety of classes and treatments, including yoga, meditation and ionic detox treatments, which remove toxins from the pores on feet.

Bailey said that the center will offer people with methods to rebalance themselves and to reduce stress. The practice of reiki in particular, she said, also allows people to heal by allowing energy to flow through the body’s energy centers. The flow of this energy can be disrupted by heavy emotional strain, she said.

“What happens too is if you have a trauma or something in your life, you get a block … There is a block in your life,” Bailey said. “Think of it like a beaver dam, so the water goes through but it doesn’t flow through the beaver dam. What reiki helps do is open up those energy centers. It brings healing. It brings healing to those blocks.”

Bailey said that these blocks lead to larger problems or ailments, which means most people will reach for a medication. This is where Bailey said the Feeding Hills Wellness Center has the capacity to help.

“People take an aspirin to mask a headache, but it doesn’t get to the problem,” Bailey said. “I want to get to the problem so they don’t have to keep on that cycle.”

Bailey said she knows that some people are weary to try new practices. In fact, she was one of those people when she started, just dipping her toe in the water unsure of what, if anything, would happen. However, she said reiki, meditation and more holistic practices are becoming more commonplace to treat ailments than they once were.

Her personal journey began with a stiff neck nearly 10 years ago. After going down the list of medical resources – MRIs, physical therapy, and chiropractors – a friend suggested she try reiki, much to her skepticism.

“I didn’t know that [the stiffness] was mostly stress related. My girlfriend sent me to try reiki, and I said ‘That sounds weird, but I have nothing to lose,’” Bailey said. “I had three sessions and after the first session, I was still sore but I actually had mobility. After the third session I had no problems at all and I said I need to learn this.”

Though her family initially questioned her, Bailey said they have quickly come on board.

“At first my husband was rolling his eyes,” Bailey said. “I said, this was nine years ago, ‘No, no, no. I need a guinea pig.’ After he realized after the first time that it was OK, he is like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll take reiki,’ and he just falls asleep.”

She even showed her son tips for tapping energy centers to recall answers on tests when he was in college. Bailey knows that the techniques work; all she needs is a chance to show it.

“If I can give people five minutes in the chair and give them free reiki, they book,” she said.

The Feeding Hills Wellness Center, located at 567 Springfield Street in Feeding Hills, opens Jan. 5 and will hold an open house on Jan. 10, 2015 from 2 to 6 p.m. Free reiki sessions will be offered, along with a chance to meet the staff and to enjoy light refreshments. For more information about the center, visit www.FeedingHillsWellness.com.