“You’re a healer,” the reader says decidedly, looking down at the worn deck of playing cards spread out on the cloth before her.

“Yes,” I nod.

“A very good one…” she adds, looking surprised.

“Thank you,” I said.  I wasn’t sure what else to say about that.

I don’t introduce myself as a healer, but it’s not uncommon for readers to describe me as such, just as this reader at a recent psychic fair. I do understand what she’s talking about. But the designation of “Healer-with-a-capital-H” is harder for me. It’s not a way I usually think of myself.

I usually just think about it as “having good energy.” I can comfortably own that. I’m very good at encouraging people who are open to and seeking encouragement.

Maybe that’s what healing actually is. Encouragement.

Healer is a funny term, the way it’s most commonly used. It implies one person–the “healer”–somehow works some sort of magic on another person–the “patient,” I guess, or the wounded one–to afford an improvement. The patient is in need of help, and the healer gives that help. There is a suggestion the healer is strong and well, and the to-be-healed is not. The healer is supposed to fix the wounded one. Except that’s not how I see it at all.

I cannot fix anybody! I don’t try to fix anybody. I don’t even try to fix myself, for God’s sakes.

There’s a very simple reason for this. I don’t see anyone as broken. 

I do understand people hurt. They struggle  They may be in physical or emotional pain. They want changes. They want to feel better. I can often help facilitate that, but I always understand implicitly, I’m only a helper here. Like an amplifier, I can turn up the natural signal of their well-being by clear focus.

What I do–getting grounded and centered, plugging in for divine inspiration and insight and translating what I receive–is a process available to literally everyone on the planet. EVERYONE. No exceptions.

You don’t have to be some kind of glow-in-the-dark-holy-special-gifted-with-the-sight-at-birth-psychic-healer to do this. It’s easier when you’re calm, and harder when you’re upset.  It’s helpful to have your own energy focused as a matter of practice and to be clear about your intention. Your beliefs and attitudes will influence what processes you may choose to do this There infinite ways to approach it and some habits definitely make it easier. But it’s not a special gift given unto a select few. And you already do it, probably a whole lot more than you realize.

Those times when you know just what to do or to say, when the perfect words are inspired to you? Those times when you lean into self-care, or comfort a friend or make a comment or come to a realization about how to approach a topic? You are tuning in. That’s all that it is. That is “healing” energy in a nutshell. It’s being connected and inspired.

I have some skill at execution for sure, probably due to years of study and practice. I prioritize my connection because, with that connection, everything else works better. It’s more important to me to maintain my connection than it is to please anyone else. That all helps tremendously, but it’s not something only I can do. I’ve made a practice of it, but you can, too. Literally, any person on the planet can choose to do this for themselves.

When I’m working with someone one-on-one, I’m not reaching for a way to mend them. I don’t mend what I don’t see as broken. Do I hope to help them improve their experiences? Of course!  There is certainly more and less comfortable. There’s happiness and pain. There’s easy and hard. I know which ones I prefer, as do the people I work with. But there is not broken and whole, at least to me.

When I work with someone, I’m reaching for insights: information, tidbits or advice that will be of practical use. I’m looking to serve as an amplifier for an individual’s strengths and abilities. I’m asking for perspective and wisdom to shine light upon what someone already knows within their own heart. In my world, healers are not those gifted in furrowing out dysfunction and magically correcting it. I guess I think of “healers” as those particularly skilled at tuning in to an individual’s goodness and helping to amplify that by recognizing and reflecting it.

Healers don’t heal people. People heal themselves. It’s up to the individuals involved, however, how they attribute the outcomes.

Personally, I consider it an incredible honor to be able to participate at all. I feel good about my role in it, but I’m certainly not going to take credit for it. The credit always goes to the individual who is doing the real heavy lifting by adjusting their own vibration.

So in the sense I hold steady in my own connection (which allows me to help influence those looking for to shift their own energy), I guess I’m a “healer.” Or maybe it would be more accurate to say, I’m a helper. I’m a professional encourager. And yeah, I do think I’m good at it.

Whatever you call it, it’s an incredibly rewarding line of work.

What do you think being a healer is all about?