About Kathie & Healing from the Heart

Healing from the Heart© came to be in 1995 as I was having lunch with a good friend. I was trying to come up with a name for my company and she said, “Kathie, you have such a big heart and you help so many people, let the name describe what you do.” thus “Healing from the Heart©” was born.

As a nurse of more than 40 years, my journey began as an Intensive Care Nurse, moved quickly through Critical Care Coordinator and Nursing Administration into Diabetes Nurse Educator. I left hospital nursing in 1984 to complete my graduate studies and was able to take care of my father as he battled stomach cancer. In 1988, I started working as a Diabetes Nurse Educator in Private Practice and began to incorporate holistic modalities such as guided imagery and stress management into my client sessions. I had my first article published, “The Teachable Moment,” in Practical Diabetology in 1988 and continued writing for various other Diabetes publications including abstracts in The Diabetes Educator and articles on Women’s Health in Diabetes Self-Management.

My Reiki Journey

My journey with Reiki began when Reiki “found” me in 1992. I had studied Healing Touch and loved the experience of working with energy. A good friend then told me about Reiki and I said, “If it’s anything like this…show me the way!” I was able to find a Reiki teacher through the Occupational Therapist that had been taking care of my mother who had Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). Anne had been bringing Reiki into my home and giving it to my mom every chance she got! I like to think that Reiki found me in my darkest hour. I was able to take a class in May of 1992; three weeks after my mother had made her transition. I began to treat myself every day and I believe that Reiki helped me heal after losing my mom and best friend. I completed Reiki II in December and not sure of what to do with this new healing energy, I was guided to enroll in massage school to help me continue to develop my healing skills. When I started my private practice, “Healing from the Heart©,” I found that combining Reiki with massage therapy was a way to give skeptics a comfortable way to experience energy healing. I also noticed that as my practice grew, my ability to “sense” or “feel” people’s emotional pain as well as their physical problems began to develop.

My intuitive skills have continued to grow and develop over these many years of practice and have often become an integral and profoundly healing part of many of my sessions.

I continued to study Reiki and became a Reiki Master Teacher in 1994. I then met Laurelle Gaia, a teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training and was guided to enter their teacher’s program. After completing my requirements, I began teaching Reiki full-time and found myself traveling to different states as people contacted me to learn about this wonderful healing energy. Laurelle and I worked closely together and started “United in Healing,” an organization of Reiki practitioners with the intent to unite the Reiki community and spread the word to the public.

(In January 2015, I was guided to leave the International Center for Reiki Training as one of their Licensed teachers and expand on my own as an independent teacher.)

Since 1995, I have taught Reiki to more than 4000 people. This includes children, young adults, seniors, doctors, nurses, dentists, massage therapists, physical therapists, social workers and athletic trainers.

I also love writing about Reiki and was a contributing author for Reiki News Magazine (Articles are available for download on the Articles page). I also wrote the chapter on Reiki in “Conversations in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Insights and Perspectives from Leading Practitioners,” Norma Cuellar, Jones and Bartlett publishers, March 2006. Most recently, I was asked to write for the Winter 2020 editon of Nursing Clinics of North America Journal on Complementary Therapies, and along with my co-author Jane Van De Velde, what began as one chapter “Reiki: Defining a Healing Practice for Nursing”, quickly evolved into a second chapter “Reiki, Nursing and Health Care.”

Career Highlights

One of the highlights of my teaching career came in August 1999 when I had the opportunity to teach Reiki at Stony Brook Nursing School on Long Island, New York. It was a class of Nurse Practitioners and they all received college credit for the course. Then after 9/11, I was invited to teach at the College of New Rochelle, in Westchester, New York, teaching Level I and II, and later Advanced Reiki Training and Reiki Master Teacher, as three credit college courses for Nurse Practitioners. I also taught Reiki to the Operating Room staff at Mid-Hudson Hospital, Queensborough Community College, and various massage schools.

In October 2002, what started as a networking meeting of Reiki Masters, quickly evolved into a non-profit organization known as the Long Island Reiki Connection. I became the Founding President of the organization, which was dedicated to spreading the joy of Reiki, educating the public, and offering networking and support for Reiki practitioners. I also completed my Hypnosis training in 2003 through the National Guild of Hypnotists (ngh.net) and studied Past Life Regression with Brian Weiss, author of “Many Lives, Many Masters.”

Speaking Engagements and Presentations

I have presented at many Reiki Retreats; an annual event hosted by the International Center for Reiki Training (reiki.org) on such topics as Reiki Myths and Misconceptions, Teaching Reiki, Reiki and PTSD, Reiki and Mental Health, to name but a few.

In October of 2011, I was the Keynote Speaker at Reiki Rays of Hope’s annual convention. My topic was “Reiki and Mental Health,” sharing the work being done at the Clubhouse in Ronkonkoma, New York and how Reiki is helping those with mental health challenges. In 2012, I was asked to present on “Reiki and PTSD,” this time sharing about teaching the staff at the VA hospital and their experiences with how Reiki helps veterans and others with PTSD. I presented at their last annual convention in 2013, this time on “Riding the waves of life with Reiki.”

In 2016, I presented “Making Reiki Real: What is Credible Reiki Practice” at the annual Celebration of Reiki conference in Boston, Massachusetts.

I have also been a guest speaker at various support groups, holistic events, Health fairs, Stony Brook School of physical therapy, and many other venues.

I love sharing what I know and love about Reiki and continue to be asked to present as various conference and events.

Teaching Reiki in Hospitals

In 2011 and 2012, I was privileged to be part of the Innovations in Care Grant: a patient center care and cultural transformation which focused on a new approach to health care delivery for Veterans. I was asked to teach Reiki I and II to the nursing staff at the VA Hospital in Northport, NY (see my article on Reiki and PTSD for more information). Social workers, Physical Therapists, even a few medical doctors joined the classes and it was exciting to see how they were sharing their new skills with the vets in different settings in the hospital and out- patient center.

From January 2014 to November 2016, I taught Reiki to nurses at the New York City Presbyterian Hospital system which included Weil-Cornell, NY Columbia Presbyterian, Allen Hospital, Children’s Hospital and the NYP White Plains Psychiatric Hospital.  We began with Reiki I and moved on to Reiki II. I also taught several classes for the Chaplains there, helping them to add a new dimension to their already spiritual ministering practice.

I love teaching health care professionals a powerful way to take care of themselves as well as sharing this balancing and healing energy with their patients and co-workers……healing the health care system from the inside out.

Back to the Roots of Reiki

Over the years I had always felt that something was missing from Western Reiki training and I was pleasantly surprised when a friend told me about Jikiden Reiki ®. The word Jikiden means “authentic” or “as taught by my teacher” and it is Reiki as originally taught by Dr. Hayashi, one of Mikao Usui’s gifted students. I was even more excited when I learned that the class was being taught by one of my beloved teachers, Frank Arjava Petter whom I first met in 1999. In May of 2014, I signed up for my first Jikiden Shoden and Okuden classes (Level One and Level Two or First and Second Degree) and loved it! The simplicity and depth of the training and the understanding of Japanese spirituality and culture helped me to finally understand why we do what we do when we practice Reiki. Jikiden resonated deeply within me and I continued my studies to become a Shihan Kaku (assistant teacher). I could then teach the first level Shoden class. I began to teach and completed my requirements to become a Shihan (teacher) in May 2017. As a Shihan, I can now teach both levels, Shoden and Okuden.

I now teach both Western (Takata style) and Jikiden Reiki© with a deeper understanding that I share with my students.

Private Practice

My private practice is an integration of all my studies and skills. My strong background in traditional medicine as well as holistic and complementary modalities, allows me to offer the best of both worlds to my clients and students.

My goal is to offer my clients and students a wholistic view of healing thus empowering them to become all that they can be and to heal and balance their lives. I have worked with people of all ages and from both ends of the spectrum of life…. from getting pregnant to transitioning at the end of life. I also offer distant healing sessions and have clients all over the world.

I have enjoyed sharing the gifts of Reiki as well as my other gifts with many clients and students over the years and I continue to be amazed by their journeys back into balance and healing.