Tami Simon: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Janna Moll. Janna is a Healing Touch program senior instructor who has been teaching internationally for over 13 years. Janna is the founder of the Heart Healing Center and with Sounds True, she’s the presenter on a new home study course on Healing Touch and a new video program called Healing Touch for Beginners: Energy Practices for Self-Care.
In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Janna and I spoke about how to identify a stuck spot of energy and how Healing Touch works with liberating stuck energy. Janna also introduced us to a Healing Touch technique called “Pain Drain,” a technique we can use for working with pain in the body. Janna also discussed the role of the heart in Healing Touch and what makes a good Healing Touch practitioner. Here’s my conversation with Janna Moll.
To begin with, Janna, I’d love to know how you became an energy medicine practitioner.
Janna Moll: Well, about 20 years ago, I started studying with an individual in Hands-On Healing, an energy-based work. And then 19 years ago, I started training in Healing Touch. So I’ve been involved with it for quite some time.
TS: And what was happening in your life? What would you say were the antecedents that brought you to that path?
JM: When I first started studying energy work, my children were quite small and I wasn’t working outside the home. And I think was looking to develop myself further and get more of a purpose for my life outside of raising my small kids. Back in high school, I’d had a lot of energy-type things happening to me, with very vivid dream work and feeling like I was being trained by a spirit of some kind while I was sleeping. And it felt like it was time to kind of reach back into that and bring that current in my life as part of my personal development.
And so when I started training in energy work, the person that I studied with was trained in about 50 different energy disciplines. In fact, he had been searched out in the US by an African sangoma, or witch doctor, and trained. And he spent a day with me, training me in Hands-On Healing, and at the end of that day, he said, “Go out and do what you need. You know everything you need to know.” And I thought, “I don’t think I do!” [Laughs]
And at that point, I was sent to a Healing Touch practitioner that a friend of mine was receiving energy work from. And I started receiving Healing Touch myself and eventually started training in it.
TS: Now, you said something quite interesting that I think some of our listeners would like to know more about, which is this feeling that you’re being trained, if you will— think that’s the word you used— your sleeping life. That spirits or beings— somehow you’re undergoing some type of learning, potentially, while you’re sleeping. Can you tell us more about what those experiences were for you?
JM: Well, at the time, I was probably 16 or 17. Going through those teenage years is very stressful normally, and I felt like I was carrying a lot of stress at that time and challenge at that time to know myself. And so I spent a lot of time alone in a type of meditation, but I also would have these very vivid dreams.
When I awoke from the dreams, I would remember things like being trained to talk with others without using words. So, using telepathy or my mental capability. I remember being trained in how it was possible to walk through solid objects, to fly, to be anywhere on the planet that I wanted to be by thinking or using intention. It all seemed very strange to me when I woke up, as well, but I remembered it very vividly.
I remember sitting in my room [during these] times when I would sit in a type of meditation, and almost carrying on a conversation with someone who wasn’t really there. And in fact, looking back on it after I started training more formally in energy work, I actually thought I was having these conversations with my father. I would say to my dad, “Oh, don’t you remember you told me blah, blah, blah, blah?” And he would laugh and say, “I told you that?” And there was no real discussion around it, but years later, when I started training in energy work, I realized that it was a spirit guide that was having those conversations with me, and that it had taken the voice of my father so I wouldn’t be alarmed. All things quite strange, talking about it. [Laughs]
TS: Yes, I’m following you. I’m interested to know a bit more [about] when you use the word “spirit guide,” what that means to you.
JM: Well, I guess all I can really say about that is it seems to be some kind of intelligent being that is not in a physical form. It was very kind and benevolent and intelligent, and at the time, I thought it was somebody physically having a conversation with me. There was no reason to question or be alarmed by what I was being told. And I did have the feeling that I was being trained.
TS: Now, I want talk a little bit about Healing Touch and the method of Healing Touch. And to begin with, one of the things that’s really astonishing to me is how Healing Touch has so successfully taken something that many people might consider pretty woo-woo— medicine and working with the chakras and the auras— somehow Healing Touch has developed a methodology that has brought energy medicine into the mainstream.
It reminds me a little bit of, just by analogy, the way MBSR—-Based Stress Reduction— meditation into the healthcare field, taking something that people thought was off over to the left— Buddhist esoteric teaching— suddenly it’s in hospitals. And here’s Healing Touch, same thing— are practicing Healing Touch. Can you help me understand—’s the secret sauce that allows Healing Touch to enter the mainstream in the way that it has?
JM: That’s a great question and comment, because I too think that what we are offering is perfectly positioned with Western healthcare or allopathic healthcare. I think what happened is the founder, Janet Mentgen— was a nurse herself— quite a bit of time presenting Healing Touch in a way where what was known about it at the time was aligned with science. Now, science has grown tremendously in the last 20-some years that Healing Touch has been a program, and we’re still aligned with science.
I think the real gift is that Janet was able to take her science and healthcare background and see very clearly how an energy-based discipline fit into that framework. I also present Healing Touch very much the same way that Janet did. I teach family medicine residents at the local hospital systems. I teach them Healing Touch and energy medicine, and I teach them from a scientific framework.
And I think that makes it very easy for people to see how it creates benefit and dovetails very closely into the scientific healthcare framework that we have in this country, which is more research-based and more scientific.
TS: So what are the scientific ideas or the scientific evidence that supports Healing Touch?
JM: Well, Healing Touch works with an energy framework of the human system. And there are different parts of that system, and without going into the background of what those parts are, I will tell you that the framework that we use in quantum science is: if, in fact, we are energy of the universal— of the divine— there’s [a lot] out there that says that we are all one, we come from a collective consciousness. And that’s the framework that we work with.
So if we come from a universal energy, and then that energy— a series of energy nodes or transformers— actually stepped down through these different systems that make up our energy system, what happens is that, eventually, though the slowest of our energy systems, when that energy is stepped down again— made slower— it drops beneath the speed of light, we manifest as a physical being.
So when we say that stuck energy is where disease comes from, and moving energy is a healthy human system, then what we’re doing in Healing Touch by speeding up the energy in the densest part of us— is the physical part of us—’s happening is we are creating more flow of energy, which supports the body in a healthier expression. So all of that fits within the quantum science that we understand today.
TS: So what you’re describing— energy in motion is always healthier than when there’s stuck energy in the body— that fair to say that that’s a principle of Healing Touch?
JM: Yes, that is a principle.
TS: So if I feel something stuck in my gut or my back or something like that, the approach of Healing Touch would be, “Let’s get that stuck place moving. Let’s break it up.” What would be the approach?
JM: Yes, that’s exactly the approach. What we do as practitioners is we run energy into the body. And that sounds like we’re pushing energy in—’re not. We’re actually speeding up our own energy to make available to the client a higher or faster or more subtle energy flow that finds those stuck areas. And much like an earthquake can vibrate a solid object until it crumbles, this vibration of energy into the body finds these stuck areas, starts to vibrate them, and they can easily and effortlessly start to dissolve. Which then gives the client— person— ability to start to process whatever was stuck there in an appropriate way.
TS: Now, I know in the program that you’ve created with Sounds True on Healing Touch, it’s designed for self-care. And I’m wondering, right now, if I were to scan my body or if a listener were to scan their body and just sort of look and find an area that perhaps feels stuck— of all, how would I find that area? How would I identify that?
JM: There are lots of ways to identify it. We work with the person as a whole person— those are key words in medicine today, too— with the whole person: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. And so as you learn to start to scan your own energy system, you may find those stuck or more congested areas in a number of different ways.
You may find them physically in terms of pain, tension, tightness, sensitivity. Even your focus going to an area of your body. That may be an indication of an area of stuckness. You may find it emotionally. So, as you scan yourself, you may find that you have tension in your stomach or you feel stress or sadness or anxiety in some part of your body, and that would be an indication of where some energy might be stuck.
You can also focus mentally and look at your different thoughts— about your body or about what’s going on in your life, and that may be drawing you to a specific area, which is an indicator.
And then spiritually, there are lots of aspects that make up our spiritual component. It may be where we feel guilt or where we have difficulty understanding a concept or accepting a new belief. Or it may be coming through dream work or through meditation or through journaling that there’s an area where there is a stuckness.
TS: So let’s say somebody listening has identified a place in their physical body that’s painful. It’s clearly, “OK, I’ve got a spot here.” What would be a Healing Touch approach, method, for working specifically with that painful spot?
JM: A specific technique is the Pain Drain, and that’s a technique where we teach the student or the workbook participant to be able to drain the pain or congestion or stuck energy out of a specific area of the body.
TS: Can we do the Pain Drain right now? Let’s do it!
JM: Yes! We always start our techniques from a place of being centered and grounded and setting our intention for what we hope to receive and/or release. So in this case, we would take a couple of deep, cleansing breaths. We might focus on the space between our in-breath and our out-breath. And that is a centering exercise where we bring ourselves fully present. We can focus on sending our energy deep into the earth. That is a “grounding,” and that allows us that stability as well as the flow up from the earth is cleansing energy for the physical body.
And then, when we’re ready, we would place our left hand on the area of pain and the right hand, palm toward the earth. So out beside you with the palm toward the earth. And the focus or intention is to bring flow or release to the area where there’s pain. So what’s happening is the pain flows into the hand that’s touching it, and that pain flows down and out the other hand, which acts as a siphon to siphon out any congestion.
And the hand toward the earth can actually be squeezed, like you’re pulling the energy out. Or it can be pumped up and down toward the floor as well, which can act almost as though you’re priming the pump to get the flow of pain or congestion out of the body. This is usually held a minute to two minutes. It can be held as long as is appropriate for the person feeling the pain or congestion in the body.
And once that release is felt, then the hand that was over the pain goes upward with the palm toward the sky, and the hand that was pointed toward the earth then goes over that area. And what’s happening is now it’s being filled with a higher flow or vibration of energy to create more balance where that congestion was. So that is the two steps of Pain Drain, which is draining and then filling the area of congestion.
TS: I have to say, I think that’s so amazing! What an incredibly simple and useful technique. I’m curious— anybody can do that? A person who’s had zero training—
JM: Anybody can do this technique.
TS: Zero training, nothing, I never had dreams of spirit guides or anything. I’m just a regular person who’s got a pain in my hip, and I can learn this technique and start practicing right away?
JM: Absolutely. Absolutely. And the reason is because we are energy beings, we don’t need a PhD in energy in order to understand how we are energy beings. How our energy feels, how we sense it, and what brings it into balance.
The key here is that the human body— human energy system— designed to be self-healing. And many times what happens is where we have ongoing problems—, pain, congestion, stress, depression— areas are areas that have somehow gotten out of the habit of becoming self-healing. Either because we had too many events at once that we weren’t able to focus on and create more of a flow to healing with our responses, with our intentions, with our understanding of what’s happened to us. Or, for whatever reason, maybe we’re exposed by too many challenges or toxins or stresses in our environment, and we have gotten out of the ability to self-heal in a specific condition or situation.
And so all we’re doing with Healing Touch is we are retraining the body in how to heal itself, which is natural to each of us. So as we— any one of us can do this— more familiar with or more trained in taking the time to check in with ourselves, to understand where we need that healing, and then applying these very simple techniques to encourage that healing, we are remembering how to be healed and whole.
And this in no way takes the place of allopathic medicine. It is not our scope of practice to treat physically for physical diagnoses. But if we remember that we are primarily energy beings— [if we remember] that as the energy flows down it has the tendency to become more congested— we treat our own energy system, we’re actually making everything else that we do— it’s habit or whether it’s energy medicine or whether it’s physical medicine— us to a place of healing [that] is more effective.
TS: I think that there’s this paradigm in our culture where, of course, it’s the doctors or even the alternative medicine practitioners who do the healing, and maybe even, “I have a friend or two, they seem gifted at energy healing.” But just the fact that every single person could work on themselves— think that idea is not yet the prevailing paradigm.
JM: I think it’s not because we have this allopathic system that came from a place of separating out aspects of ourselves and turning power over to someone else to get it back into control, whether it’s our mental self, our emotional self, our physical self. And I think this training— I know Healing Touch comes from a tradition of self-healing— think we’re getting back to that. I think it’s a wonderful way of being empowered individually.
TS: Janna, one of the ideas that was very briefly touched on in the Healing Touch home study course was one of the basic ideas in Healing Touch of a “core star”— each one of us is somehow associated with a core star, something unique about us. And I wonder if you could explain that principle of Healing Touch.
JM: Yes. This comes from one of the higher concepts that we teach in Healing Touch. And again, it goes to the higher and faster and more subtle of our energy. If we accept that we are each connected to a universal— a divine aspect— each of us individually carries a piece of that divine aspect.
We could say that it’s frozen light, and that’s what manifests as physical within us. But we’re actually talking about a very high vibration of each of us individually that connects us to that divine essence. And when we talk about that light, that is the piece of us that we carry that no one else does, and yet together, we make a whole. But it is also— you want to think about it [this way]—’s that light that we shine in the world. It’s our individual light that carries all of the information about who we are— that’s past, present, or future— that is carried in that core star.
TS: I’d love to understand more about this idea of slower moving energy and faster moving energy. It sounds like, within the Healing Touch paradigm, the physical body is considered slow-moving energy. Matter is considered slow. But then there are these gradations where energy gets faster and faster. Is that the right understanding?
JM: Yes, it is. And if you know much about the chakra system— don’t go into great detail in the home study course. We do in the training of the Healing Touch Program. But if you know much about the chakra system, we talk about the seven major chakras that relate to aspects of the body.
And again, they’re not [part of] the body, because it’s a much faster or higher vibration system. We can’t dissect the chakras out of the body because they don’t appear as physical, but they do relate to tones and vibrations and colors. And as you go up the spine or up the physical body, there are different chakras that relate to different zones of the body, and these are those faster aspects.
TS: I know in the Healing Touch system, they also talk about a transpersonal point above the head. And I wonder if you could speak to that [and] how that works, also, in Healing Touch.
JM: My understanding of the transpersonal point is that it’s about an arm’s length above the head. We work with it because it holds an energy for the entire body, and I believe it connects to a faster system. So when we’re working with the chakras— these techniques do— then connect to the transpersonal point— is the point above the head, which is the last hold in the Opening Spiral technique as well as the Self Chakra Connection technique— are connecting this balance and clearing that we’ve created in the chakra system, which relates to the slower physical body.
But we’re also then touching or holding this transpersonal point, which relates to the faster system, which we don’t really talk about in the home study course because it’s an upper-level discussion point— understanding point— the Healing Touch training program, which is the Hara system. So I believe the transpersonal point is a transference of energy to even faster energy that is held within the individual.
TS: Now, Janna, I’d be curious—’ve been working with Healing Touch for two decades, as you mentioned. I’m curious— you ever had experiences working with Healing Touch where you were just terribly disappointed? It just didn’t really work; it didn’t give the kind of results you had hoped? And if so, how have you come to make sense of that?
JM: I trust the work. I trust the process. Over 20 years, it has been a learning process for me not to individualize it. Because I’m holding a high intention for this person I’m working with— for myself if I’m working on myself— do need to be aware that I do not always see what the appropriate outcome is. I don’t always know what that outcome is going to be.
When I first started as a practitioner in Healing Touch, if a client said to me, “Oh, I didn’t feel anything,” or, “Oh, I still feel the way I did when I came in,” my reaction was to internalize it and say, “What did I do wrong?”
But [in] over 20 years, what I’ve learned is that something is always happening. Something is always becoming available to the person and it is the person’s healing. So if I’m working with someone else, it’s their healing, and I can’t decide what it’s going to look like, and I can’t make it look like what I think it should be.
So I have learned to really step back and trust that process. On the other hand, if I work with someone and they and/or I don’t see change and benefit in three sessions, I will refer them on. Because I’m not everything to everybody, and sometimes the right person just hasn’t materialized to help that client heal. When I’m working with myself, I also have to make sure that I go into a totally receptive role— I can accept the healing that’s being offered. And again, it may not look like what I think it should look like.
But I encourage clients— even people working with this home study course— trust the process, to keep with it, and to turn things into a positive. I always have clients reframe it. So if, for example, they leave a session and that pain is still in their knee— they feel it, rather than saying to themselves, “Oh, there’s that old pain in my bad knee again,” I encourage them to reframe it and say, “Oh, isn’t that interesting, I can feel where the energy is working in that knee to create a different expression or a different outcome.”
TS: And what is the role of the heart in Healing Touch and in healing in the Healing Touch method?
JM: The role of the heart is everything. I believe that that universal energy that we tap into and that we each carry and that gets expressed through that core star is heart energy. It is divine compassion. I believe divine compassion is the healing energy we work with. The heart chakra itself is considered a transformer from the lower three charkas— the more physical aspects of us— [it] transforms that energy into the upper three chakras— the more spiritual, divine aspects of us.
So the heart chakra itself is kind of a balance between the congested expression, which is judgment— of self, judgment of others, or feeling judged by others— then the balance or healed aspect of that is divine compassion. So I think when we run energy through the heart with the purpose of connecting with the divine, we are creating deeper and deeper flows of divine compassion. And we’re also able to transfer or translate the lower, more physical challenges that we have into a higher understanding— of the lesson or of how to heal or of how to step outside our own focus and create healing on a wider plane. More of a community healing.
TS: As somebody who’s starting to work with Healing Touch— Touch for self-care— would I activate the energy of the heart so that the heart energy was part of the way that I was doing these techniques?
JM: I think the meditations are really helpful to focus within. I think on the video, where we teach centering and grounding—’s a very important aspect— be able to bring the focus more deeply into the heart. The daily cards have suggestions for focusing more deeply into the heart in a very simple way.
Becoming centered and grounded and placing the palms of the hands over the heart chakra is a great way to activate the heart energy. And then even the exercises like journaling around this idea of compassion versus judgment can be very helpful for opening up a heart awareness.
TS: And in your work—’ve now trained so many different people, interacted with so many different Healing Touch practitioners— do you think makes somebody a really good Healing Touch practitioner? And by contrast, what do you think are really the obstacles for somebody becoming proficient in Healing Touch?
JM: Man, that’s a good question. [Laughs] I think I’ll start with obstacles. I think some of the obstacles to being a really good Healing Touch practitioner are holding old wounds. And we’re all wounded, every one of us. I think as we hold those old wounds that we tend to hit against those stuck areas when we are trying to channel this high vibration of energy. And I think it stimulates our own healing, which we must step into.
So I think the more that we heal ourselves— through self-care or receiving care— better we become at being able to channel a very high divine vibration of energy for healing for ourselves or for someone else. So that is both the obstacle as well as the challenge to being able to hold more energy.
Ultimately, the healing is the other person’s, if we’re working with someone else. But as we are able to check in with ourselves; evaluate ourselves; identify ourselves; and work with any blockages in our energy to create more flow, we become beings of more flow. We become more of what I believe we are always meant to be, which is a reflection of that core star energy.
TS: So this idea of healing or releasing our old wounds— think that’s such an important idea to emphasize, so thank you for bringing that up. I’d be curious to know more [about] how that’s worked for you in your life; how, through the Healing Touch practice or other methods, you’ve really been able to work with old wounds. Because I do think that’s a challenge for all of us.
JM: One of the things that I’ve focused on over the years— over the last dozen years at least— in checking in with myself, [and] asking myself, “What is going on with me?”
I’ve been able identify for myself what triggers me. And I think we get triggered by where our energy is stuck around old wounds or things that were not processed fully. And we get to see, when we look at our reactions, what might be going on within us. It’s either a fear of going into a specific area, or it may be— think we’re motivated by one of two things: the need for love or the need for safety. And fear can be around either one of those.
I think when we look at where we’re getting triggered, we have a wonderful opportunity to go into deeper healing. What I’ve learned for myself is when I look at an event— a trigger for me— say, “OK, what’s happening here?” If I say to myself, “Why didn’t I do better? Why am I not better? Why could I not do what I need to do? What’s wrong with me?” I’m focusing too much internally and I need to switch it around. So I need to let it go and probably tell myself, “This isn’t about me.” And that gets the energy moving [so it can] process.
If instead I say to myself, “That person has a real issue. They have a problem. Why are they doing this? They need to do something different,” I’m throwing all of my energy outside myself and making it about someone else. It’s probably about me. And so I need to bring that internal and get the energy moving in terms of processing from an internal perspective.
So that’s one of the ways that I’ve been able to keep the healing going. And the trigger, really, is where am I getting triggered? Where is my energy going? And so there are some things that I’ve had to do over the years to make sure that I keep it going. One is, I need to get on the table myself. It is one thing to do self-care. It’s a big thing to do self-care. But part of self-care is also surrendering completely, and it’s very difficult to do that with only a self-care practice. So I go and I get on the table and receive treatment where I can surrender completely.
I also need to have a daily practice, and that includes meditation and internal focusing. I don’t necessarily journal, but I do need to bring what is happening with me into consciousness. And that thinking about it and possibly even writing about it is a way of bringing things that may be happening subconsciously to the conscious. Meditation is another way of creating space for that information to surface. And then working with my own energy system [is] very important to keep it all going.
TS: Now, Janna, as we bring our conversation to a close, I’m curious to know how Healing Touch is currently being integrated into hospitals and the medical system, and— importantly— you see as its potential. Where do you think this could all go in the decades to come?
JM: Healing Touch— it has a research base— it looks at outcomes— it’s been standardized in terms of its education over many years now— perfectly positioned to be totally integrated with allopathic healthcare or Western medicine. We have standards of practice, codes of ethics— do documentation with our sessions as practitioners. In addition, the self-care course— home study course that Sound True has put out with Healing Touch— a perfect complement because practitioners are trained to give the client homework to keep the healing going between sessions.
So I see that as working hand-in-hand with other forms of healthcare, whether it [is] medicine or psychotherapy or spiritual development. Healing Touch is perfectly positioned. I think how it’s being integrated today— teach family medicine residents. I’m not the only person in the country. I teach them Healing Touch and energy medicine. I think it’s important for them to know how we complement what they’re doing and where we sit in terms of what kinds of compromises or conditions they might be seeing that are classic energy disturbances. And so they’re learning how to refer back to someone like me to facilitate healing for their patients.
We are also in other forms or disciplines. People with Healing Touch training have incorporated it with acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and massage. [We] are in psychotherapy. We are not necessarily a stand-alone. We also incorporate well with other disciplines of healing.
And then where is it going? Oh my goodness. [Laughs] There is no limit. There really is no limit. We have a hospital— Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, has for five or six years now been training their staff in Healing Touch. Asheville is not a huge metropolitan area. It’s a good-sized city, but it’s not huge. And yet every year, we go and we teach the upper levels of our program there and multiple students go through the certification process every single year. And most of the students in that area are sponsored by or work at Mission Hospital.
So this is just one of our flagship hospitals, and there are many across the country that feel that training their staff in Healing Touch makes them better healers. And I just think that there is no limit to where it can go.
TS: And just to end our conversation, Janna, I know that blessings are part of the Healing Touch approach— blessings, receiving blessings. And I wonder, to end our conversation, if you’d be willing to offer our listeners a blessing on their journey of self-care?
JM: Absolutely. I bless you as human beings as you walk this planet, fully grounded in your physical bodies, moving your energy to create wholeness. I bless you as an emotional being, feeling your world, experiencing your world, through the ability of joy. I bless you as mental beings, with clarity of mind, with growth in learning, with the ability to hold more of your truth. I bless you as spiritual beings— more of the light of the divine flows through you and every pore of you as you walk through your day. Aho. Amen. It is.
TS: Thank you so much. I’ve been speaking with Janna Moll. With Sounds True, she has created a home study course on Healing Touch: Energy Therapy for Self-Care, and also a DVD called Healing Touch for Beginners: Energy Practices for Self-Care. And it really is quite a privilege to be able to be associated with Healing Touch and to help this method reach more and more people. Janna, thank you so much for being with us on Insights at the Edge.
JM: Thank you very much.
TS: SoundsTrue.com. Many voices, one journey. Thanks for listening.
