Just over a month ago, an email slid into my inbox about something called spinal energetics. After decades in this biz, I’ve seen a lot of things in the beauty and wellness space. And although I’m pretty well versed in energy healing, this, I’d never heard of. So I dug a little deeper. 

Turns out, I hadn’t heard of it because it’s an entirely new modality which blends Eastern and Western thought. Created by Dr. Sarah Jane, an award-winning chiropractor, counselor and energy healer, it came about after she studied multiple modalities including chiropractic, esoteric acupuncture, alpha alignment, meditation and yoga and she wanted to create her own expression that mixed elements of all. The goal, as she puts it, is “to assist us in being in alignment with ourselves, others and the world around us.” That is, it taps into the hard-to-pinpoint vibe of “not feeling right” when you know something is wrong, in your body, mind—or both—but you can’t pinpoint what it is, and seeks to bring back the balance so you feel more connected (to the world, and yourself). 

At this point I was ALL IN. I’ve always skewed “woo-woo” but even if you’re not woo-leaning you cannot deny that we, as humans, are made of energy. There’s got to be something to it. Sarah says, “My goal is not to get people to believe; the work is there for those willing to experience it. We are looking for connection and homeostasis of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual in spinal energetics.”

But, how? Great question. “We work by assessing the client for tension patterns in the spine and then access it via the energetic field layers for areas of resonance, then engage in energetic centres specific to the pattern and thus to connect to the areas that are disconnected”, Sarah explains. The aim is to create a connection and greater homeostasis of the physical, emotional and spiritual parts of yourself. And while many people find spinal energetics after traditional modalities have left them dissatisfied or without solutions for physical ailments, most people interested in the treatment are looking for emotional release. And they get it too—with the most common feedback being that clients feel more at peace than ever before. This is the thing that made me immediately lock in an appointment. Because, although I didn’t have any major concerns—physical or emotional—going on in my life, the last couple of months had really got me…. energetically. I felt zapped from life/ parenting/ being a human and I couldn’t seem to get my buzz back. So, in I went.

My appointment took place at Sarah’s newly-opened Richmond (Melbourne) studio, which was more like an art gallery: high walls, polished floors, and incredible art hanging from the walls and ceiling. The rooms were bright, the space airy—so immediately you know this was not going to be like the others.

Pre-treatment Sarah and I chatted about what I was feeling. I told her a version of the above: that I just felt flat in a way that sleep couldn’t fix, and yes I’m a mother of two boys, but it was also more than that—it was inside my bones. She explained the process, and that there would be some unusual breath work (her) and some unique feelings (me). She was right on both counts. 

I lay down on the table and in what was probably the strangest sensation of the whole 45 minutes; she assessed how blocked the energy in my body was with a sharp tug of each arm. The left side relates to emotional storage in the body and the right, physical.  What she was testing was how much the body was ‘holding onto’. “This is determined by the distance the electrical current/energy sensation travels; for example from the fingers all the way up to the neck shows us that there is a significant amount that the body is still holding on to,” Sarah says. The arm, as she explains, activates the emotional energetic centres and helps the whole process.

Then, as I lay face down, she got to work. You know that feeling when someone creeps up on you from behind and you can feel their presence? That’s what the sensation felt like. Even when I logically knew she was at my feet, I had that creeping feeling in my upper spine and neck.  She started to list some of my blockages. Tightness in my stomach/ intestinal area (“epigastric”) was related to repressed emotions, or, more specifically, not releasing what I perceive to be negative emotions (hard relate). There were also some blockages around the liver which signified repressed anger or frustration (always). But it wasn’t just the physical; Sarah started to reel off personality traits too, like my A-type, overachieving tendencies, which she said she gathered from “certain tension patterns related to specific vertebrae in the spine. You had tension in the upper neck indicating an overactive mind, perfectionism, type A personality, overachiever etc.”

As she got to clearing there was some unusual breath work (whooshing, is the only word I can use to describe here) as she moved the energy through my body.  It was here, probably the most illuminating part of the treatment happened. Sarah noticed that in the movement/ flow of the energy of my spine that it had some dissonance and protection in the upper back area/thoracic spine that is related to the heart’s energetic centre. “There are different ‘tones’ that can be felt and in your case a sadness and grief tone was felt in the body, as well as tension patterns that were represented in the spine by fixations in the upper thoracic vertebrae,” she later tells me.

In our pre-treatment chat I had not discussed with her that I had lost a parent many years ago. It had been almost two decades and although I carried the grief with me (as you always do) it’s not something I think of daily. But, as it turned out, my body was doing the talking for me. “Realistically I prefer if a client has not expressed anything prior to the session to me, this way it is clear that the body is communicating to us through specific patterning what it is storing” says Sarah (which is exactly what mine was doing). Throughout the treatment the aim is to then bring awareness and connection to those areas and allow the body to feel safe—not forgetting the grief, but giving it context. “Spinal Energetics is a way in which we can do this while releasing, connecting, and transforming our experiences so that we are more connected to our true self as a result of them,” Sarah says. 

I left the session feeling slightly dazed, in the way you do when you wake up from a so-real-you-can’t-decipher-reality dream. In the days following I felt lighter, like I was coming out of the fog a bit, the drudge had lifted and the life burden wasn’t getting me so much.  It was a slow awakening, I wasn’t suddenly a different person, but something had… shifted. And, that thing, was my energy.