Date: 12/8/2021
AMHERST – Feeling burnt out? Looking to relieve yourself of stressors from the pandemic and everyday life? Cranberry Hill Healing Arts may have the answer for you.
Through reiki and sound healing fusion practice local musician and teacher Carolyn Walker hopes to offer community members, and specifically mothers, a tonic for pandemic burnout after 19 months of delay in opening.
“Before the pandemic happened, I started reiki training and knew that was an area I wanted to delve into,” Walker said. “I did my second reiki training on Feb. 29 [2020] right before everything was shut down.”
Walker had converted an area in her home into the new studio for the Reiki studio, as well as a space for her to do violin lessons, another thing to offer from her palate of skills. Because she is also a musician, she uses this to her advantage during her reiki sessions.
During the pandemic, Walker was able to finish her reiki and sound healing training online and as the public vaccination rates rise and access for the shot is now given to children like her own, it felt like a good time to open the home studio and try and help people who have been in the pandemic rut.
“There’s been nine people who have initially signed up for sessions, and I just opened the doors for this on Nov. 13, and it’s all word of mouth,” Walker said. “It’s mostly women, and mostly moms, because there’s a lot of burnout. I’m a mom and I know a lot of other moms, so I’ve been hearing it from the mom side of things how tired they are.”
Walker also feels that essential workers and those in the mix of the most drastic pandemic situations could see benefit as they have also had to deal with arguably the most stress during the pandemic.
Walker brings clients to her quaint and calming home studio on 11 Cranberry Ln., where they lay down on a bed and begin meditative practices through traditional Usui reiki with improvised chant, crystal and Himalayan singing bowls, chimes, a gong, bells and a frame drum to coax listeners into a deep meditative and restorative state.
“With reiki and sound meditation, it helps get you into a meditative state easier and more quickly than sitting meditation, for some people,” Walker said. “Some people are turned off from meditation because it’s about quieting that monkey mind, quieting that chatter or accepting that it’s there and just letting it go, but that can be really hard. But when you have sound, it pulls you away from those thoughts.”
Combining traditional Usui reiki with improvised chant and other instruments, Walker attempts to coax listeners into a deep and meditative and restorative state. She is a reiki master and sound healer who has received both a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in music theory from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
When it comes to chanting, Walker explained that the practice has a profound effect on the listener due to our nervous systems and the process of entrainment. A well-known and much studied example of entrainment is the eventual synchronization of two once independently swinging pendulums. Walker says that due to vibrations and energy, one of the two pendulums when placed close enough to each other will exert influence over the other and result in synchronicity due to the more forceful pendulum.
This same idea is applied to Walker and a client during a session. When a singer’s body system is at ease, those in close proximity can be entrained to the singer. The deep and controlled breathing utilized in chant results in the signer’s heart rate decreasing, helping create a sense of relaxation and peace.
Walker also mentioned you can see the same thing happens naturally with humans, such as when someone is in the presence of another person and felt the person’s calming influence over their own systems. If you can relate to this, her session is hoping to bring a positive impact on wellness and getting through the difficulties of feeling burnt out.
Deep breathing impacts the nervous system which is a key in seeing Walker for a session. In a blog titled, “The Ancient Wisdom of the Voice: Chant as an Instrument of Healing, Part 1” written by Walker she explains how the process works.
“The autonomic nervous system includes the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system is best known for its fight, flight, or collapse reaction, pumping adrenaline throughout our bodies to help us react to perceived threats. The parasympathetic nervous system restores use to a pre-threat state, or one of rest and digest. Both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system responses are involuntary functions. We have no conscious control over them, except for the one part that can be controlled: our breath.”
She explained further by saying due to requiring no conscious effort on our part to breathe, breathing deeply can stimulate the vagus nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system, whose role is regulating heart rate, blood pressure and digestion, among other functions.
There is also a major connection with music and how it can influence our bodies as well, she explained. Walker uses various instruments from types of drums to gongs and bells, to play for clients during a session. One example shown by Walker was that with a client, she may walk from head to toe next to the person on the table and play the drum in different spots. The vibrations along with improvised chanting plays into the calming and effectiveness of the reiki and sound healing process.
“Maybe the sound is on the left side and then it might go to the right side, it might be around you. You’re bring your focus to these different places and the tones have different effects on your body. The lower tones you’re going to feel more grounded,” Walker said. “While upper tones, we might be talking Himalayan bowls or chimes, those might bring you a little more into the focus or a headspace. I use a frame drum and having a steady beat on the frame drum can be very grounding and relaxing. It’s about getting your brain into different brainwave states.”
Walker explained there are four different brain wave states that we cycle throughout the day as humans. Delta state is deep sleep and serves very restorative to the body.
“I don’t heal somebody. I’m not a doctor, I don’t heal anybody,” Walker said. “But if I can help somebody get to a deep brainwave state, their body is more able to heal itself. If during a session you can get to that state, you might feel much more refreshed when you open your eyes and are done with the session.”
Theta state is a more meditative state that Walker likens to a dream state like in between consciousness and sleep. Walker says she can see when clients get to this state due to their breathing patterns changing.
Alpha state is an awareness and creativity state. Walker said she had one client who said that during her session she saw the color purple visualized in her head while Walker sang and played the Himalayan bowl around her head. As someone who had done reiki before without sound, this client said this was the first time she had seen something of this nature.
“I mostly work with, at this point, getting to that relaxation state. I don’t think people are necessarily coming here yet for the stimulation yet,” Walker added. “It’s mostly the burnt out and those looking for relaxation.”
Walker has received praise from people who have experienced her treatment and real results have shown in their experiences with the healing practices.
“Carolyn’s commitment to a practice of healing is as authentic as it is sincere,” said Adam David of Holyoke in a press release for Cranberry Hill. “I can attest to the fact that her heartfelt focus on the healing ways creates true results. Sessions with her have calmed my anxiety, helped my migraines and elevated my meditative sessions.”
“The healing with my reiki session with Carolyn was super-charged with her spontaneous shamanic chanting. She is a multi-dimensional healer with many gifts to serve you,” said New York-based Author Layla Morgan Wilde in the same press release.
Walker is still running one-hour sessions for a $20 introductory rate through December and encourages people feeling the weight of the world to take a chance and come in with an open mind to a unique way of combating stress. Walker also hopes to continue offering sessions into the next year as her outdoor property can be fully utilized as well for different practices.