Patricia Sheehan tells Sylvia Thompson how a change of career has brought benefits to her and many others
When a conventionally trained scientist becomes a practitioner of a complementary medicine therapy, people are taken aback. It is one thing for a soul-searching civil servant to find new meaning in yoga, meditation or the like but many people cannot understand how a scientifically qualified person can turn to such an esoteric line of work.
Patricia Sheehan (45), chartered chemist and now Reiki practitioner and teacher, is well aware of people's views of complementary medicine therapies but she is also aware of how the hands-on energy healing art of Reiki has helped her, her family and many others over the past six years.
She points out that quantum physics can explain vibrational healing practices such as Reiki. "At an atomic level, everything that exists in the universe vibrates energy. The electromagnetic output of the whole body can be measured using an electromyography and the normal biological frequency of the human body is around 250Hz [ cycles per second]. When tests were carried out on people who used healing energies such as Reiki, it was found that the body frequency registered in a band between 400Hz and 800Hz," she says. Reiki practitioners claim that these heightened levels of energy can dissolve blockages and create balance in mind, body and spirit. There are other forms of vibrational energy used both diagnostically and therapeutically in conventional medicine. These include ultrasound, radiation and laser.
Leaving sceptics aside, Sheehan admits her reasons for changing career arose from a personal search for stress relief following the birth of her third child and, subsequently, the death of her mother.
"My mother's death in 2001 led to a reassessment of my life. Before her death, she had needed round- the-clock care and I had changed my work schedule to be part of the rota for her care. Also, my third child, Ruairí, cried until he was 15 months old and after trying everything from colic drops to homeopathic remedies to massage and osteopathy, I finally calmed him by giving him Reiki for 15-20 minutes a day over two weeks."
Sheehan had learned the basics of Reiki at a level-one weekend course aimed at people who want to practise on their family and friends.
"At the time I was in a full-time job with three children and I was stressed out. I decided to do Reiki for myself and my family. Since then, all my children have learned to do Reiki," she says.
She also gave Reiki to her father who suffered from dementia up to his death last year. "My father was a deep, peaceful man who had brought myself and my two sisters to transcendental meditation when we were teenagers so it was nice to give him something back. I developed a deep connection with him through Reiki even in the latter stages of his dementia."
In 2002, Sheehan completed the Reiki teacher course and became an active member of the Reiki Federation Ireland. Later that year, she handed in her resignation at Leo Laboratories where she had worked for the previous 18 years. "I loved science subjects at school and I had worked my way up from being a laboratory technician to a chartered chemist, studying and working at the same time. It was a long haul but I had good mentors. By the time I left I was working in regulatory compliance and cross-departmental reviews. It was very technical and very legislative but I've a great eye for detail which was important for the job.
"It had taken me two years to reach that point. I realised I was staying in a good job because of self-doubt. My family and friends also had some reservations about my change of career but I could see that people were getting great results from Reiki which helped me make the decision to do this full-time."
Now, Sheehan gives Reiki workshops to schools and community groups and also sees clients individually in the upstairs bedroom of the family's suburban home she has converted to her Reiki room. She co-ordinates her Reiki work around the school and after-school activities of her three sons, Tadhg (14), Myles (11) and Ruairí (9). Her husband, Tony, works as a sea-captain on a week-on, week-off basis.
She says: "I have worked with ex-drug addicts, ex-prisoners, children, transition year students and given talks in companies - even pharmaceutical companies during work/life balance week. Reiki is great for self-esteem and self-confidence.
"One of the beauties of Reiki is that the energy flows through you while you give it. So it energises me as I'm receiving it on the way to the client."
Patricia Sheehan is giving a Reiki level-one course on Saturday and Sunday and March 30th in the Seraph Studio, Heytesbury St, Dublin. She will also give an introductory talk on Reiki in Blanchardstown Library this evening at 7pm.
She can be contacted on 086 3576142. See also www.reikiforall.org and www.reikifederationireland.com