Hollywood Sentinel: For those who don’t yet know, please tell us who you are and and what you do?
Jaclyn Kalkhurst: It sounds so very pretentious to me when I write out my credentials. I don’t think it makes up who I am as a whole as I do other things including photography and stage craft. Nor do I think it entitles me to say that I am all knowing or all powerful. However, I am a Holy Fire Karuna Reiki and Usui Master. What this means is that I have studied the art of energy healing for a very long time and have handled many cases that makes me more experienced than most. I have a lineage in this field which means that I can draw from my previous generations’ knowledge and I never stop wanting to learn more. When receiving my Masters in Usui Reiki, the biggest emphasis they place on the level is that it does not mean that you are a Master at the craft, but a dedicated disciple of that way of life. I consider myself to be very devoted to being healthy and happy in this world and to show other people that it is attainable with a little healing and a little work.
Hollywood Sentinel: Excellent. What motivates you as a person?
Jaclyn: I have always loved helping people ever since I was a little kid. My Mom always laughed that the other kids would come to me for advice and joke that I was the class psychologist. I had even considered studying psychology when I got to college. However, psychology was just too technical as a field and too based on formulas. It doesn’t really appreciate an individual as a unique separate being with unique circumstances experiencing the world from a completely different point of view. I find helping people as the most rewarding thing in the world purely because, happiness to me is the whole point of living. Everyone sees happiness differently. But the basics are the same. To feel safe and secure, to feel loved fully and unconditionally, to be able to just enjoy an afternoon without any worry, etc.
Hollywood Sentinel: That is a wonderful outlook. I totally agree. How did you get started in Reiki?
Jaclyn: To understand how I got started in Reiki we would have to look how I was brought up with very New Age ideas. My father is a Chi-Gong Master himself and my mother is an incredibly open minded individual. For example, I have a very particular memory of when I was in middle school. I was terrible in my classes battling severe dyslexia, and my brother wasn’t any better than me. School was really stressful and there was a test coming up that I clearly wasn’t ready for. So my Dad’s solution was to sit me and my brother down on a couch and watch a video with him. It was a meditation video. In the video I remember very calming music with very psychedelic colors on the screen. It was incredibly soothing and beautiful. But what it reminded me was that everything that I was worried about was temporary and small compared to the more important things.
Whatever it was that I had an interest in, my parents were always loving and supportive. So when I showed up to school one day and saw that my biology teacher was going to hold Reiki classes after school, my parents were the first ones to approve my piece of paper. I started learning Reiki level I with my teacher Val Richards at that time and we would do combos of learning after school or going to her house for Reiki Shares. I eventually learned Level II with her and a different healing system called Sekhem (a branch of Reiki in a way) to Level II as well.
Learning Reiki was like adding a whole different layer of cake to helping people. Not only do I help people by listening, but now I can help them by actually calming their real beings. Humans really are an amazing collection of molecules that are sensitive and responsive to energy healings. Just from 15 minutes of Reiki I can already calm a person significantly from everyday stresses. Although Reiki is by no means the absolute cure for everything, it is definitely a huge part of the healing process a person has to go through to achieve their idea of peace and stability.
Hollywood Sentinel: Wow, that’s all great! What do you think of when you are doing Reiki?
Jaclyn: Reiki actually requires an incredible amount of focus and right intention to be effective. Like meditation, you are trying to achieve a focus on a particular part of your client to heal in order to channel the energy to that area. Also, feeling is incredibly important too. We get so disconnected with how we “feel” now-a-days with our devices and constant streams of information going through our brains. But in order to do an effective Reiki session, you have to feel how your client is when you are working on them to detect upsets or imbalances. So when doing a session, my mind is mostly on the part of the body that I am working on. The minute I loose my focus, I come back to my breathing and start the concentration again.
Hollywood Sentinel: That’s very interesting. Have you had any strange experience doing Reiki?
Jaclyn: Everyone reacts to Reiki very differently depending on what type of person they are. I have had everything from hysterical laughter to crying, past life regressions to shakings. But the most common reaction is sleep. I would say ninety percent of the time my clients will fall asleep within fifteen minutes. However, that is with clients who are used to me. For newcomers to my practice, and who have never experienced Reiki, it is harder for them to relax and that is totally understandable. There is a stranger in a room waving her hands over me and am I supposed to be feeling something there? For those circumstances I actually encourage my clients to not be shy. Keep your eyes open and ask me questions if you want. If you are not going to be relaxed enough then I want you to ask me questions to make you feel more calm and safe.
Hollywood Sentinel: That’s amazing. I am curious, who gave you the best Reiki session you have ever had? What was it like and what happened?
Jaclyn: The best Reiki session I ever had … Wow that is a really hard question.
Hollywood Sentinel: (laughs)
Jaclyn Kalkhurst: No two are ever alike. No healers are ever the same. So to pick one is like picking a perfect flower out of a field of beautiful flowers.
Hollywood Sentinel: That is such a beautiful analogy …
Jaclyn: If I had to pick one though, it would probably be with my original teacher Val Richards. It might have to do with the fact that I was young and it was the first time I had ever experienced Reiki. It is the one that sticks out the most in my head as the most life changing and impactful.
Hollywood Sentinel: That’s great.
The remainder of this interview will Reiki Master Jaclyn Kalkhurst will be continued next week here exclusively at NewsBlaze. To read more about Jaclyn Kalkhurst, visit her official website at: www.reikiwithjaclyn.com
Contact Jaclyn at 213-537-2185 or info@reikiwithjaclyn.com