How Does Qi Energy Healing Work?

There’s no secrets here! I get this question all the time so I wanted to share more about (and decolonize) the modality of energy work I practice. Hopefully it helps you understand this work better and gives you some new insight into your own healing. So let’s get into it!

Background:

The modality I practice (and was certified in) is called “The Emotion Code”. It was developed by Dr. Bradley Nelson in the 1970’s out of his US-based chiropractic practice as a way to help his clients release trapped emotions stored in their bodies, which were pain and imbalances.

Important note: Dr. Brad is a white man, and the process that he developed has roots which have been taken from Chinese culture—specifically, from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)—so I’d like to take some time to decolonize this modality and talk about my ancestors’ technologies, which are critical to making this whole energy healing work work.

Key Concepts from TCM:

What is Qi? Qi (also written as Chi) is your life energy. Your spirit. Put very simply, it is what gives you life and vitality. All living beings have Qi. Without it, our bodies would be lifeless.

Over the course of life, our Qi can become blocked by trapped emotional energy that gets stored in the body as a result of trauma, as well as regular, everyday, being a human type of experiences.

Why do we trap emotional energy in the body? Often it’s because we were unable to process it at the time, so it gets “saved” for later. You can imagine each trapped emotion as a ball of energy, roughly the size of your fist. Whenever the body is reminded of that trapped emotion, it gets activated as if it was happening again. That “stuck” emotional energy can play out over and over again, until that energy is released and Qi can flow more freely.

You can imagine your Qi as a flowing stream. If the stream is blocked, by debris or litter, the water can’t flow through and parts of the stream become stagnant. The waters become murky and unclear. But when those blockages are released, the water flow through freely and life can thrive in the stream again. (Shoutout to all may Avatar fans who recognize my metaphor from this episode)

The Process:

The process for a session, using the Emotion Code modality, entails asking the body a series of yes/no questions, in order to determine if a trapped emotion is present. If so, further questions are asked to determine what type of emotion it is, as well as any details that need to be shared before releasing it.

Connecting with Your Energy (Remotely):

You might be wondering how I can do a session for you, without even needing to meet. That’s actually one of my favorite things about energy work—it works remotely! Why? Because all of our energy (or Qi) is interconnected, all around the world. For a remote session, I channel my client’s energy and then perform the process of identifying and releasing emotions using myself as a proxy.

Because we are interconnected, you may feel the releases happening in your body while I am doing the sessions remotely. It may feel like waves of energy flowing through your body, or some movement/sensation in the body. Or, you might feel nothing at all. Not everyone “feels” the session happening, which is totally ok! Just know that releases are happening on my end.

You may feel things after the session as well, but I’ll get into that later.

Identifying Trapped Emotions:

Once I’m “connected” to your subconscious/Qi energy, I’ll begin the session by asking your body whether or not there is a trapped emotion that is ready to be released. If there is, I then ask some further yes/no questions to determine what type of emotion it is (common, prenatal, inherited, etc), what the emotion is (ex. anxiety, fear, overwhelm, etc), and any additional details that need to be acknowledged before the emotion is ready to release (usually this is the age it occurred, location in the body, or an associated life event).

“How do you ask the body?” you might be asking. Through something called “muscle testing”. Muscle testing leverages the innate “move towards” and “move away” response that our bodies possess. We instinctively move towards positive, nourishing things and away from negative, harmful things.

It’s important to note that “muscle testing”, as a concept, was not invented by Dr. Brad. There are sooooo many ancient and indigenous practices that utilize this practice, and it is a wonderful way to be in dialogue with your own embodied wisdom.

You can test this out for yourself by sitting or standing upright, then asking a question or making a statement that you know is true, like “My name is (insert your name)”, and observing your body’s response. You likely swayed or leaned forward. Come back to center, reset yourself, and then ask a question or make a statement that you know is un-true, like “My name is (insert someone else’s name”, then observe your body’s response. Did you sway or lean back? Chances are you did, but every body’s different so don’t feel weird if things didn’t go as planned.

This takes energy and practice to learn, which is why I offer sessions in the first place!

Releasing Trapped Emotions:

If it the emotion that was identified through muscle testing is ready to be released, then it can be released drawing energy over the Governing Meridian of the body, using either a magnet or one’s own hand (both have electromagnetic properties needed to release energy from this meridian). You can think of Meridians as channels of energy in the body. Activating those channels with the intention to release trapped emotional energy allows that energy to get cleared.

I’m not sure where Dr. Brad learned his TCM from (the Chinese healing lineage or teacher he draws from is not explicitly named in his books or certification course materials) but that’s where the use of the Governing Meridian comes from: my ancestors! Magnets, physical touch, acupuncture needles, gua-sha, cupping and more have been used in TCM practices for thousands of years to promote the flow of Qi energy through the body via points on the meridians.

What Happens After a Release?

Once the trapped energy is released, it’s permanently gone from the body. This process (from identification to release) is repeated for each trapped emotion, one at a time, until the end of the session. Usually I try to release between 5-10 trapped emotions per session, but it may vary.

After the session, your body will be processing the releases. You may feel tired, irritable, emotional, or a bit off, especially in the first few days. You may also experience “echoes” of the trapped emotions in the form of memories, thoughts or dreams. Sometimes this can be intense or overwhelming, but sometimes it is not. You may experience emotional releases, like crying or tears, but again you may not.

I don’t want to minimize the fact that processing these emotions can be a lot. However, I will say that once they are processed, you shouldn’t feel as much emotional “charge” when they come up, going forward.

If you want to know more about the suggested aftercare for processing released emotions, you can check this blog post out where I go into more detail about it.

Can I Release Trapped Emotions Myself?

You can actually learn how to release trapped emotions for yourself by reading his book, which gives a thorough guide to the process. That’s actually how I first started: I read his book, tried the process on myself, and kept on doing sessions because they were working for me. I actually recommend this if you’re interested in learning yourself (truly, anyone can do it), but rather than having to read a whole book and learn a whole new modality you can book a session with me here!

A Word on Religion and Spirituality:

If you read the book or do any googling about the Emotion Code, you’ll probably notice connections and mentions of God or Christianity. Dr. Brad is a Christian man, and in his book there is a clear connection between the healing magic of energy work and the divine.

On it’s own, this is fine. But I’ve also worked with at least one client who has told me that someone gave them Emotion Code sessions as a way to lure them back to the church, which is not fine.

I want to be clear: using energy work to coerce people into a religion (or a cult) is unethical and wrong. Healing work is for healing purposes only.

However, the origins of energy work have spiritual connection, so I want to take a moment to de-colonize this aspect back from chirstofascism and share how spiritual connection shows up in my practice.

To answer that, we can start by asking how did Qi Energy Healing begin in China? There’s many layers to that, but we can start by focusing on Qi Gong.

One of the 3 major pillars of TCM (next to herbal medicine and acupuncture) is Qi Gong, which you may know as a slow-paced movement practice where breath and movement are coordinated in dance and/or martial arts postures to facilitate the flow of Qi in the body. “Qi Gong” literally translates to “Energy work” in Chinese. Before Qi Gong was knowns as Qi Gong, it was known thousands of years ago as Tui Na and Dao Yen (still practiced today btw). The intentional breathwork and dance like postures were there as well, but the intent was to connect the person (typically a shaman) to spirit and nature, often as part of shamanic ritual or ceremony. Over time, this practice became used for “regular” folx (ie not just the shaman) as a way to promote/support their health and wellness.

When I perform energy work sessions, I am intentionally tapping into spiritual intelligence, just like my ancestors have done. I’m queer, trans, witchy, magical being who is also Muslim-ish in faith, so I ask for support from Ash-Shaafi (the Islamic name for God as the Healer) in my sessions as well.

Your unconditionally loving and supportive ancestors, guides, angels, spirits, etc may well show up for the session as well, to help you in your healing.

So yes, Qi Energy Healing work has a spiritual component, but you don’t have to be spiritual or religious to benefit from this practice.

Conclusion

I hope this blog post gave you more insight into this modality and Qi Energy Healing overall. Informed consent is super important to me, so feel free to reach out (yourgaydanceteacher@gmail.com) and ask if you have any questions about anything related to sessions.

I truly enjoy doing this work and helping people get free from their trapped emotional baggage so they can feel better and thrive as their most authentic, embodied selves. It is an honor to support you on your healing journey.

If you’d like to book a session with me, you can schedule a time HERE.