Today’s episode is a conversation with Amber McMahon, a Reiki Master, intuitive energy healer, spiritual guidance Coach, spiritual medium, and licensed therapist. Together she and Dr. MC discuss their self-care routines, the benefits of Reiki, therapy, setting boundaries, and much more!
As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.
Additional Resources:
- Dr. MC blog post on Reiki
- Amber’s Website
You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Welcome to another episode of Dr. MCs self care cabaret podcast. I’m your host Theresa Melito-Conners a PhD level self-care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance. <inaudible>.
Speaker 1 00:00:59 Amber is a Reiki master Reiki, master teacher, spiritual energy healer, spiritual, medium intuitive spiritual coach, and licensed therapist in Arlington, Massachusetts. We met about 10 years ago when I was the guidance coordinator at a therapeutic high school. And Amber worked in a similar setting. I set out to create a job alike group for counselors working with similar populations of students. And Amber was part of this endeavor. We clicked immediately. However, we lost touch for a bit after Amber left that position until I was choreographing a production of the musical legally blonde. I was chatting one day with a woman who owned the dog who was cast to play bruiser. She asked me what I did for work, and I told her she remarked that it sounded like the work her niece did. She then told me that I reminded her of her niece. Out of curiosity, I asked, what is your niece’s name?
Speaker 1 00:02:01 Never in a million years? Did I think I would know her niece, but guess what I did and it was Amber, I nearly fell over. That was the spark we needed to reconnect, cut to present day where I have been seeing Amber for regular Reiki appointments for about five years. And I love it. I often credit never sacrificing sleep and never skipping my Reiki appointments as one of the ways I got through the doctoral program that, and the support of my husband and mom. But back to Amber, she is such a remarkable woman and someone I am grateful to have in my life, Amber, his passion is supporting, guiding and empowering others to ignite that bright light within their journey of self-awareness self-mastery self discovery and healing. Amber has found that combining all of her healing modalities using Reiki as her foundation has been the most effective approach to healing and wellness. I am so excited for you to hear my conversation with you. <inaudible> Cross that bridge when we’re not recording, but yeah, no, that makes sense. And we can just dive right in.
Speaker 2 00:03:21 All right, go. Let’s go.
Speaker 1 00:03:24 All right. Welcome Amber to the Dr. MC self care cabaret podcast. Thank you so much for joining me here today. For this episode, I want to get started the first question that I want to ask you and that I’m sure our listeners are wondering about is can you describe for us what Reiki is?
Speaker 2 00:03:44 So thanks for having me, um, it’s an honor to be on your podcast. So what is Reiki? Reiki is a holistic ancient form of healing as a holistic wellness modality. And it’s hands-on. So Reiki uses universal life force energy, which is the energy all around us. And that energy works through my hands as the facilitator and it to the individual. Uh, and it ignites the cells within the body to awaken the body’s own natural healing. Uh, it puts the mind in the Delta state where healing happens, the Delta state, the meditative state, where healing takes place. So Reiki eases any symptoms, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and it’s a, um, form of healing that if there’s any dis-ease in the body, it creates ease. So it’s something that can’t hurt and only help. And this is also a modality that can be used at a distance as well. Um, as a Reiki master, there’s three levels. So there’s Reiki, one Reiki, two Reiki, master Reiki, master teacher, and as a Reiki practitioner, Reiki master you’re attuned to different symbols, which then help you connect in the physical form. And then in the, when the person is not right in front of you. So that is how I’m able to send healing to an individual who’s in my office and not in my office at a distance.
Speaker 1 00:05:48 Yeah, I love it. I think I’ve been seeing you for regular Reiki appointments now for like five years. It’s been a while and I love it. And I always try to, to folks when I’m giving presentations or people ask me about Reiki, because it is one of the aspects that I credit, you know, being able to get through the doctoral program anyway, through my regular Reiki appointments. And I’m not never sacrificing sleep, but, um, try to explain a little bit like what it was like for an in-person appointment with you, um, you know, similar to you lie down on like a massage type table, and then you would kind of work your body, work your hands, kind of over, um, various body parts, um, with the Reiki energy. And you could really feel it. It’s very cool. And even now, you know, with COVID you and I have still managed to continue doing our Reiki appointments through distance. We haven’t done them in person in over a year, but we’ve still been doing that the distance, which is awesome. So can you tell me a little bit about how you got interested in Reiki and energy healing and all the wonderful things you do?
Speaker 2 00:06:51 Oh, geez. So in let’s see. So I was always interested in energy. I could always sense the energy in a room. I mean, as a kid growing up, um, and then through the years, I could always sense the energy in a room, or I was always attuned to individuals and their energy. So it was always interested in energy and that in, um, college, one of our family, friends, Dr. Judy Spross, um, was getting her doctorate in nursing and education. And she, her part of her doctorate was doing, um, a part of the paper was doing pain drains on individuals, on patients, essentially using energy from one person to another, to drain out pain. That’s what got me really interested in this. And then, you know, went through college, went through masters, went through life, always, you know, wanted to do Reiki and, or get certified and just never did.
Speaker 2 00:08:11 And in 2014, I had a huge spiritual awakening, a profound moment when my father passed away. So seeing him take his last breath and then having the experience of my daughter’s birth. So seeing life and death, I had this huge aha moment and awakening, and it was in 2015. I decided to do my rookie one and Reiki two. And even before I got certified, I already signed the lease for my first office to do that. So that’s how the energy work in the Reiki, um, got started. I knew I had these gifts, intuitive gifts, and Reiki was just a part of this journey. So I always wanted to use my gifts in a way to facilitate and help others on their journey and healing.
Speaker 1 00:09:28 That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing. I didn’t know, timeline wise, kind of where it, where it fits. So I just learned a little bit more about you also, which is like,
Speaker 2 00:09:36 I know there’s like a big timeline because I never, in a million years thought I would be having my own healing practice and private practice for therapy. That was never the therapy piece. Yeah. The healing piece never in a million years.
Speaker 1 00:09:56 Did I think goes hand in hand though. Really? Well. It makes sense that you would do both.
Speaker 2 00:10:03 Absolutely. And then you failure. It was like, oh, this does go together. This does work together. Um, and now I can’t imagine any other way. And there’s a huge benefit to wearing both those hats.
Speaker 1 00:10:21 Yeah. So we’ll, then I’m going to ask you a little bit about your therapist hat right now, but you know, so many folks with the COVID crisis continuing have really been struggling with their mental health. What is maybe a little piece of advice you can offer to folks that may be struggling during this time period?
Speaker 2 00:10:41 This is, you know, it’s certainly a chaotic time. We are theirs and they’re still we’re through, we’ve made it through this time and we’re getting there, but it’s, it’s a chaotic time. And, you know, with mental health and mental health piece, I look at mental health as my body spirit, I have a holistic approach to treatment. My number one thing is if you feel you need support and guidance to get that now, you know, to go and do it find the therapist. I know it can be difficult right now because a lot of people have that wait list or their book, because it, it has been such a chaotic time, but it’s a reach out for the help. And then B look at this as everyone needs support. Even me as the therapist is the healer. I need support. I have my support teams, but looking at it as having, uh, the mind body spirit approach and to, um, not wait to get the help.
Speaker 2 00:12:08 And when people are reaching out to therapists, it’s usually on psychology today, you know, ask the individual, if they don’t have a spot for you, can you refer me? I always have a referral list. I don’t want to leave anyone hanging. So I’ll give them my referral list. But I think, you know, now more than ever is the time to get the support needed, to be able to just ride the waves better, to manage each day, to manage each moment better. You know, there’s no magic wand, there’s no magic wand in any of this, in the Reiki part and the mental health part. So getting the tools that you need to be able to manage each moment better so that you can be successful in whatever it is that wants to do or whatever your goals are.
Speaker 1 00:13:06 Yeah. I think that’s really important and really good advice. Thank you. And a lot of folks, we feel like we don’t want to ask for help. We want to be the super hero superwoman, Superman, and we don’t want to ask for help. And there’s no, there’s no shame in asking for help. I work with a therapist. There’s no reason why folks should feel shame around that. Like sometimes you need help, you need support and get it. Um, and, and, you know, take the steps to set yourself up. So you are successful. And I really like that to help us ride the wave of life that may end up being the episode title, right.
Speaker 2 00:13:45 There is no magic wand.
Speaker 1 00:13:48 No, when there is any, even when it comes to self care, like you have to be willing to do the work, to put yourself, as I like to say on center stage to find your spotlight because you’re worth it. But sometimes we feel like we’re not, we’re too afraid. We’re ashamed. We don’t want to be a week, so we don’t ask for help. So that’s very, very important. Thank you for that, Amber and speaking of self care, tell me a little bit about what you like to do for your own self-care practices.
Speaker 2 00:14:15 Oh my gosh. I have my go-to shoes. My month is scheduled and set up through the year for my self-care practices. Um, so, and I have to do it that way because I’m so busy with family, with my businesses that if it’s not scheduled in, it’s one of those things that can be easily looked over. So my self-care practices is, you know, I’m always a big fan of having your support team around you. I have my therapist that I’ve been seeing since, oh my gosh, 2009 before my daughter was born, my first daughter was born. So since 2009, 2010, then I have the energy healer that I see who I’ve been seeing since 2006. And she’s been mentor along the way on my journey. And I see once I got into my, the healing work that I do, and also as a psychotherapist, I started seeing her monthly. So I’ve been seeing her monthly for years now. And that’s something I just, I don’t miss. It keeps me grounded and anchored. Then I have an acupuncturist that I see monthly. And I also have a trainer in Arlington that I see by weekly for a half hour, at a time
Speaker 1 00:15:59 Physical that’s for like exercise, like a personal trainer.
Speaker 2 00:16:02 And I’ve, I mean, I’ve seen him since 2015. That’s something that’s non-negotiable. So I see him twice a week and then have just recently started moving more and cardio more, which is non-negotiable and that’s probably at least four times four or five times a week.
Speaker 1 00:16:30 Wow. Where are you? Is that like a, like a group class you go to, or how are you doing that?
Speaker 2 00:16:34 So the training I do is one-on-one and then in the gym outside, but at least like 20 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes. Cause that’s awesome. Each time, because moving helps. It’s a, it’s like a meditation, you know, there’s all forms of meditation. So that keeps me grounded and anchored so that I can be the best I can be. And also having that time with colleagues or friends carved out at least once, if not twice a month. So having that non-negotiable things carved out that I go to each month, each week is huge. I would not be able to do what I do for others or myself, my family, if I didn’t do those things
Speaker 1 00:17:30 Right. To maintain your own kind of wellbeing so that you can make those connections and, and hold space for other people would be very important. I love that. Yeah. And it sounds like, you know, you really focus on that relationship domain of self care and the exercise domain, which are both very important. We have to move our body and it’s important to have our support systems and the people that make us feel good, who encourage us, support us and believe in us and make sure that we make time for those people as well. That’s excellent. And I love that. You’re not afraid to ask for help and that you get help. You have your personal trainer and other people that you work with too, to kind of help you. Cause I’m like that also, we just can’t do it all ourselves. We
Speaker 2 00:18:13 Tried, I’ve tried try doesn’t work, you know, but you on your journey realize that you need to ask for help from others. And even as the professional, the healer, the therapist, the doc, you know, you it’s essential. So
Speaker 1 00:18:31 Yeah, a hundred percent. So tell me a little bit more about this though. I mean, you’re a mom of two beautiful children, a wife, a small business owner, a healer, et cetera. So what do you have to do like special, like to make time for yourself care? So how do you kind of fit all these non-negotiables as you called them? Which I love that. How do you kind of fit all of this? Like what do you have to do?
Speaker 2 00:18:53 It’s scheduled out? And my schedule is set as best it can be. And I’m proactive with making these appointments. For example, my training session, it’s the same. It’s been the same day and same time since 2015. And it’s, we don’t leave it up to chance. You know, every Tuesday, every Tuesday, every, or whatever, Monday and Wednesday, I’m in from nine 30 to 10. That’s awesome. Every, uh, month, the second Wednesday of the month I am in was conquered seeing my energy healer from 12 to one. And then acupuncture’s on that same day either before or after. And then they’re happy that’s at least once a month. And if other things are going on, maybe more, but at least once a month, and then they have other go-to supports in my spiritual realm who do the same things that I can go to that I usually do see once a month or more. And my Reiki master, who I forgot will be Barnett, always, you know, you can schedule session or consult with her and that I have done a lot. So that’s scheduled and as needed. It’s been a crazy year. So I’ve added more care.
Speaker 1 00:20:29 Well, I love that. And I feel like a lot of people have, but this was definitely a giant wake up call on taking care of ourselves. Certainly. But you know, this is the stuff that goes out to out the window. Usually we get so wrapped up in our careers and our jobs and in our other roles, being a wife, being a mother, whatever it is we’re doing that we forget to care for ourselves and put our needs first. And that’s really important. And it’s, I love hearing that someone with your expertise and what you do for a business use still take care of yourself because you have to, you have
Speaker 2 00:20:59 To, you have to, I mean, this is it’s crazy. And having, you know, my healing practices and therapy practice, that’s only one of my jobs. My other jobs is being a mom and then essentially running everyone’s lives to make sure that it goes smoothly and education and all that comes with it. So, yeah, it’s a lot, you know, as my daughters get older, I’ve been actually able to put more self-care, you know, I have to mention meditation. I love meditation. So, you know, I’ve been doing that since 2015, personally, professionally in my practice, but that is a non-negotiable every morning, every night, whether it is five minutes or whether it’s an hour and
Speaker 1 00:21:56 I’ll do it times a day, or just either in the morning or at night or morning and night,
Speaker 2 00:22:02 The non-negotiable is every morning and self Reiki every morning. But for Reiki master it’s hands-on Reiki on. So when your hands are on anywhere it’s on, but it’s a non-negotiable every morning, if not in the evening as well. So
Speaker 1 00:22:24 I love it. And you’re you find that you even feel benefits even if you just meditate for a couple of minutes, maybe five minutes.
Speaker 2 00:22:30 Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it’s not people have this misconception that you need to meditate for an hour or the mind has to be blank. And that the mind is actually like grand central station and it’s bringing these things up so that we can deal, release them and heal. So whether it’s five minutes, 10 minutes an hour, it’s not about a duration. It’s about frequency and consistency.
Speaker 1 00:23:03 Right? A hundred percent. I always talk about that in my trainings that like you can start small people think they have to sit on the ground in the traditional meditation pose and think about nothing for 45 minutes. It’s like, no, that’s actually not what you’re doing at all. No, but there’s this there’s this, like you said, it misconception about it. That that’s what it has to be. We have these ideas of perfection. And if we can’t, if we don’t think we can achieve like the perfection of it, we don’t even want to try. We automatically shut it off. And it’s like, Nope, that’s not for me when really 2, 3, 5 minute meditations are awesome. And I prefer personally, I love guided meditations and I’ve done, I don’t know, hundreds of them with you at this point. I feel like some of my favorite meditations have been with you during some of your, um, events and Reiki stuff that we’ve done together have been awesome. But yeah, meditation is a very important practice. I’m glad that you find ways to include that into your routine.
Speaker 2 00:23:59 It’s a must and I’m going to go shovel. So
Speaker 1 00:24:03 Any other non-negotiables I’m liking these so far are the non-negotiables.
Speaker 2 00:24:06 Yeah. So, you know, the non-negotiable spiritual practices, this is something I learned from Katy Boyd way back in the day and the meditation, the Reiki. I also have the practices in my office, which is my sacred space. So rose water insects using Palo Santo, just to clear the energy, making sure I get outside and get grounded either in between clients or after clients. But I try to, you know, if my client is in person, walk out the door with them, so there are just these non negotiables and the movement part has become a non-negotiable.
Speaker 1 00:24:57 Yeah. Moving is very, very important. The movement
Speaker 2 00:25:01 On my own without being in the training studio that is just trouble.
Speaker 1 00:25:07 Yeah. I love that. Awesome.
Speaker 2 00:25:10 So, oh my God, boundaries. That’s another non-negotiable for me. And, um, having those boundaries with others, you know, making sure that when you say yes to someone or something that you’re not saying no to your self, that’s a huge, yeah, that’s huge because you’re taking care of yourself. Um, energetically, and you know, in general, if you’re saying yes to everyone, then you are saying no to yourself. So just making sure that keeping up with those boundaries and time, because time is valuable, right. And our schedules are packed and there’s all these different priorities in life and in business. So, you know, just keeping to the boundaries, like I tend to not schedule things to go out or meet colleagues unless it’s the end of the week. And it’s usually, you know, once during the week, at the end of the week, that’s just one of my things.
Speaker 2 00:26:28 Um, and again, the whole making sure you say yes to someone, you’re not saying no to yourself. Also, when we talk about boundaries and energetic boundaries, making sure, um, we’re clearing our aura, our energy and sealing it up and protecting it. Because when you go out there, you could be walking by someone and bump into them. Well, not much nowadays because of the six feet apart, but you pick up other people’s energy. So making sure that your maintaining your energy field and that your only allowing who you want into that field, that’s hugely important. When we talk about boundaries,
Speaker 1 00:27:20 It is very important. And thank you for making that point. I usually talk a little bit about boundaries to them when I’m giving myself care presentations and stuff. Right. And how do you, so usually what I tell people, and I do this myself too, I’ve had to get much better at setting boundaries. I used to be terrible at this and I would just say yes to everything.
Speaker 2 00:27:39 And then
Speaker 1 00:27:40 I would be miserable. And my mom would say things to me like you’re burning the candle at both ends. And then I have to take a step back and probably want to do it all right. And other things would suffer as a result. And so I have to be really careful right now. And when I get asked, I get asked to do something and think about like, okay, is this really where I want to spend my energy? Is this really a priority for me right now? And if it is great, go for it. If it’s not. And unfortunately I have to say, no, I always try to do like a gut check to like, how does this feel in my gut making this decision? Yes or no. Like whichever one it is.
Speaker 2 00:28:16 Absolutely. And when you check in with your gut, which I call the soul inner knowing, you know, we, I like to say base those decisions and actions off of what your core desired feelings are. So whether it’s, if you want to feel freedom or happiness, plus joy, whatever it is based what you do off of wind, feel that core desired feeling and you’ll know to when something is usually off or not. Right. Because it, it won’t align with that core desired feeling. Right.
Speaker 1 00:28:57 So what is it, how do you want to feel, what is it that you want to feel? Right? And if something, you got asked to do X and that’s going to make you feel the things you want to feel, go for it, but chances are, we get asked to do these things and they take us away from our core desire and our core desired feelings and what it is that we really want. And then we get a little off track. So it is very important to set clear boundaries. Right. So that’s another, non-negotiable very important.
Speaker 2 00:29:27 Sure. Yeah. We’ve I didn’t bring that one up right away, but
Speaker 1 00:29:32 Yeah. Amber, thank you so much for joining us today. That was a lot of fun. You gave us a lot of great tips and things to think about, and I’m sure listeners are even more intrigued now about Reiki and energy healing and all the wonderful things you do. Can you tell us a little bit more about how we can find you and where we can find you? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2 00:29:51 So my business is karma queen raking guidance. Um, if you are looking for, um, therapy, you can find me on psychology today. I ask anyone who’s looking for the therapy piece to go through psychology today. Um, and that’s Amber D. McMahon, M C M a H O N for the energy piece. So I’m a Reiki master Reiki master teacher. I teach one and two. Um, I do the energy healing work. I’m also a spiritual medium, and I also do intuitive guidance coaching as well. Um, and you can find me at my website, which is Amber, the karma queen.com. Um, I’m also on Instagram, Facebook, and, uh, individuals can contact me via email, um, at Amber the karama queen@gmail.mom. Um, and the phone number, if you feel it’s like not a lot of people call nowadays, they either,
Speaker 1 00:31:06 But we like, you never know we got old school listeners here, so, or
Speaker 2 00:31:10 Chats, but it’s 3, 3 9 7 0 7 0 3 4 8 also. Yeah, you can look me up, find me, visit the website. I look forward to hearing from people. Awesome.
Speaker 1 00:31:28 And I do highly recommend Ms. Amber and all of her services. So thanks again for joining us here today on Dr. MC self-care cabaret. Woo. I love riding the wave of life. Amber and Reiki have helped me so much on my journey. If you’re curious about Reiki, I will share a blog post in the episode notes. It is so amazing to experience it firsthand. Amber can always tell what is going on with my body, because she feels the energy when she’s performing this practice. For example, she may ask me, is your knee bothering you today? Or how is your stomach? It’s so wild that she can pick up on these things because she feels the energy is stagnant. And I love how Amber framed her self-care routine around her. Non-negotiables that’s how I like to think of it too. It’s so important that we make it work for our health and wellbeing. You must get in touch with your non-negotiables. There was nothing endearing about depriving yourself of your self-care and schedule your self-care. If you to don’t leave it up to chance. We all know what happens when you are not intentional about it. It’s the first thing to go out the window when a competing priority arises. I’m wondering if my listeners have any non-negotiables that they would like to share with me. I would love to hear them
Speaker 3 00:32:56 Go for
Speaker 1 00:32:58 The holistic approach to mental health. By connecting the mind, body and spirit is so true. You cannot address one without addressing all three. And I second ambers recommendation to seek support. She works with a therapist. I work with a therapist. It is important to have that person in your life. Oh, and boundaries so important. I know it stinks when we have to say no to things or people, we tend to feel bad or guilty about it, but it’s so crucial when it comes to my boundaries. I like to buy myself some time someone asks you something. Don’t just say yes. Immediately say something like, oh, I have to check on that and get back to you. Or I have to check with so-and-so and I’ll get back to you, then do a gut check. How does this decision make you feel? Are you excited on a scale of one to 10?
Speaker 1 00:33:48 What do you feel if it’s a 10? Well, then go ahead and say yes. So the request, if it’s a one, well, you know what to do? Tell the person no with grace and love, but also clarity and firmness. Don’t leave an open door. When you need a brick wall, you can even practice running scenarios with a partner or a trusted, loved one. Remember you cannot control how someone else will react. Maybe even journal about the situation afterwards. And remember to check in with yourself. Once the anxiety has subsided, how do you feel? Are you relieved? Your body will always tell you if you’re willing to listen. Thanks for listening to this episode and remember to subscribe and rate the podcast on your preferred player. The ratings help us grow and share the message of self-care. If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, please reach out directly by emailing podcast at Dr. MC self care.com that’s D R M C self care and come join the cast party on Facebook and Instagram for Dr. MCs self care cabaret at Dr. MC self care, or even on my website, Dr. MC self care.com. Be sure to like subscribe and love me across all my social media platforms for the most up-to-date information on self care. See you next time. Stay well and do good.