The power of healing is associated with medical doctors, psychiatrists and religious figures. The physical, the emotion and spiritual are all a part of a human’s well being, and each figure deals with one part of the whole. The medical doctor heals the body, the psychiatrist heals the mind and the religious figures heal the spiritual. A person’s beliefs dictate who they think can heal them.

A newer version of energy healing, bio-field therapy, is a holistic approach to healing. The claims are that it can be effective for pain, depression, arthritis, headaches, wounds & breaks, cancer, emotional stress, spiritual growth and overall health.

The holistic healing incorporates the body, mind and spirit, according to Deborah Lallier, a Energy Healing Practitioner and Reiki master.

“Holistic healing encompasses all the aspects,” Lallier said. “All those elements [mind, body and spirit] are important in the creation of well being.”

According to Lallier and energy healers, the universal energy is channeled through the body. The energy healers work with the aura or the body’s energy field to align the chakras, allowing the energy to flow through the body and helping it become an “open channel.” The energy life force enters our bodies through the electromagnetic field known as the aura, according to Lallier.

“It’s not me doing the healing, it’s me helping to balance the energy so the body can heal itself,” Lallier said.

Others don’t believe that the healers are really helping to heal the body. They believe in medical doctors and modern pharmaceuticals.

“I don’t put much faith or interest into it,” Megan Tirpak, a senior in history and anthropology, said. “It’s better living through pharmaceuticals baby!”

But to holistic healers the body has seven chakras which envelop the body into central energy zones. They are: the crown — top of the head –, third eye — center of forehead, throat, heart, solar plexus — navel area –, sacral — between the navel and genitals, and the root — base of the spine.

Energy work is not to be confused with herbal medicines, crystals or talk therapy. Even though, Lallier said that the thoughts are very important in the body.

“The emotions are stored all over the body by helping to release those emotions the energy can flow better,” Lallier said. “They will be more peaceful, more content and will heal faster. People who have experienced healing touch have a more purposeful life.”

Doctors use the practice of holistic healing treatments for relaxation, and Lallier said the energy work is becoming more popular with the general public too. But some doctors do not believe in the medical benefits of energy work, but admit to emotional benefits.

Dr. Carolyn MacDonald, a psychiatrist in Fayetteville, NC, said the work performed by energy healers will work depending on the person receiving the treatment. Dr. MacDonald denies any scientific validity behind aligning the chakras and performing energy work, but it can improve customers because of its placebo effect.

“Aligning the chakras is not medically beneficial. But if they believe that they will improve then they will,” Dr. MacDonald said. “This is not because the are healed medically through the treatments, but because their mood will improve and that will produce the results. It’s because emotionally and mentally they feel less stress and are more relaxed.”

Lallier said the easiest way to describe the work she does is to say it brings the body back to homeostasis. She said she doesn’t pay attention to those who don’t believe in the energy healing.

“I’m sure there are people who are less open minded,” Lallier said. “People do like to take a pull to get rid of things instead of doing some soul searching.”

There is plenty of skepticism when it comes to energy work and holistic healing in general.

“I don’t really think talking about your private life or your loud neighbors is going to cure your case of the sniffles,” Thomas Baucom, a senior in history and english, said. “I still like Advil for my headaches.”

Lallier disagrees with Baucom, she said one’s private life contributes to the problems with the body.

“Your mind and emotions are very much what is contributing to what’s wrong with your body,” Lallier said.

The mind is a very powerful tool, according to healers like Lallier. It is a large part of what holistic healing is about.

During a session of bio-field therapy, a practitioner, like Lallier, will have the customer lie on a massage table. The customers are asked to breath deeply in and out to enhance the alleviation of stress. The healer proceeds to “feel the aura or energy field” by hovering the hand over the body, rarely touching it.

Lallier said healers, like herself, can “clear, energize and balance the human and environmental energy fields thus affecting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and healing.”

It has not been proven that energy healing is medically beneficial, but healers like Lallier say energy work improves the body, mind and spirit.