Energy Healing: A Contemplative Practice
- Leslie Sandra Black
- Nov 2
- 5 min read
Fr Thomas Keating taught “Divine Therapy” through “opening to the Presence and Action of God within”. His core contemplative practice is Centering Prayer; mine is Energy Healing. As a contemplative method, energy healing helps us connect with the present moment and encourages transformation. With mindful intention, practitioners can support holistic wellness and spiritual growth, following the modelling of Jesus. Let’s reflect on a couple of sessions.
A high school teacher suffered a head injury during automotives class. Seven years later, after many physical therapy sessions, he was referred to me for Energy Healing to address his pain, stress, and depression. He had been mentally unable to teach and had been through several family tragedies. Peter’s strong Christian faith inspired hope for Divine Healing.
Before Peter arrived, I did my daily Integral 3-Body Practice, followed by a Centering Prayer sit. I ensured I was well-grounded in my body and with Earth. After hearing his story and his hopes, I led him through conscious breathing to release distraction and bring us both Present in our Heart Chakras. The Heart is the access point in our bodies to the Light of Christ – where compassion and unconditional love reside.
This Heart Chakra silk painting in my Healing Room serves as a reminder to stay in Presence in the Heart, letting go of the chattering of the cognitive rational mind. After Peter relaxed on my massage table, I told him my intention for the session was to be a vessel of Divine Love and Light. I saw the Light of who Peter truly is, despite his experiences of pain, imbalance, and inner challenges. Peter stated his intention to “allow the Light and Love of Source to flow into and through me in the ways that are for my Greatest Good”, fostering both safety and openness.
Dropping into contemplative consciousness, I used the sensitivity of my hands to discover several distortions in his energy field. His emotional layer seemed thick and heavy. The lower body felt cold. His crown chakra felt as if it was reaching beyond his head. I allowed the Healing Light to flow through my Heart and down through my arms and hands like rivers of living waters, for the laying-on-of-hands. Gently placing my hands on his feet, then his hips, I allowed the Divine healing energy to clear the energetic debris that was blocking flow. There was a back-and-forth flow of clearing and filling as I gently touched his shins, thighs, belly, and heart areas. I encouraged Peter to notice the sensations in his body, rather than thinking — because “energy flows where attention goes”. We both felt aching, burning, sharpness, and pain arise, and release then relax. My hands stayed long on his Heart, and dense energies cleared out. With blessed oil I then anointed his brow, crown, and neck, addressing his spiritual layers. I gave Peter selfcare energy tools to integrate and stabilize our session: a grounding meditation; and a Heart expansion meditation.
A week later Peter returned, reporting that his body “felt really different”, his back felt better, and he was seeing “weird” colors in the clouds. Additionally, he demonstrated that his left foot, previously misaligned since a bicycle accident at age seven, had shifted to its proper position.
After preparation steps into contemplative consciousness, I followed Divine Guidance. Immediately my hands focused on his Heart chakra and we both felt sensation of a bubble moving from back to front of his chest, followed by a sensation of unravelling. In Healing ministry, we use the neutral language of “energetic debris” for such releases. We welcomed emotions that arose, allowing them to be seen, heard, felt, and expressed… and then breathed through them. With my assistance holding unconditional love through my Heart, these old stuck emotions then released.
Peter reported a new lightness in his chest “as if old grief had melted away”. I focused sustained touch on each vertebra in his neck, giving particular attention to the 1st and 2nd vertebrae, which hold up the skull. Peter felt pain arise and dissolve. We experienced much unwinding, releasing, filling, and settling at each vertebra. Peter told me his neck felt longer. As I tuned into the energy of Peter’s crown chakra, it felt as if I pulled an object, shaped like the horizontal of a car hood, out of his energy field. Then we felt waves of sublime energy swoosh into his crown and down through his body. Peter was amazed by his felt and visual experiences — and felt spacey as he sat up. I coached him into being well-grounded before driving home.
The next day Peter’s wife called me exclaiming that he was like a new person. His life energy was fully back! Later, Peter told me he now felt excited about life and that he sensed he was “unstoppable”. He was now having restorative sleep every night and felt invigorated. He reported that both his church and work community wer in awe of this huge shift – and several asked how he had found his BLISS and this apparent awakening. These physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual shifts appeared to be sustained and well-integrated for Peter. He returned to teaching full-time.
Peter and I had some further healing sessions where I continued to see the Divine Light that he truly is. He was able to be deeply present in states of “no mind”. Peter shifted into greater self-acceptance, and he moved deeper into trusting Divine Love and entered the experiencing of life beyond separation consciousness.
When we are being the space of allowance, our True Self leads us perfectly through the precise healing and transformation for which we are ready. I know that Peter’s path might also lead into Realization of Oneness with his True Self coming home to embody in the here and now. There are infinite possibilities available to us on this contemplative path of energy healing. We are deeply blessed by the modelling, and ongoing guidance, of Master Jesus.
Leslie Sandra Black is a long-time member of The Contemplative Society. For over 30 years she has been a Transformational Coach & Energy Healer, transmitting embodied, heart-centered energy to facilitate people in healing and in awakening to their own True Self. She was initiated as a Healer through a powerful Presence of Divine Light — and was called to teach hundreds of multi-day workshops to train and mentor other energy healers. Leslie also creates and facilitates contemplative workshops and retreats on energetic self-care, self-healing, and embodiment.
To connect with Leslie about this reflection, please e-mail TCS at admin@contemplative.org. Your e-mails will be forwarded onto her.