WMH Season 4 Ep 12: Energy, Parapsychology, Reiki & Your Mental Health

This is a transcript of Watching Mental Health Season 4, Episode 12 which you can watch and listen to here:

Katie Waechter: Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of watching mental health and I am so excited because today we're talking all about energy, energy healing and just these really important parts of life that we just don't always talk about with mental health and for this conversation I've brought forward an expert I believe in this field Natasha Joy Price.

And she is first and foremost an energy healer, having spent the last 23 years of her life exploring and learning about energy healing. And she'll say that on her first Reiki session, she had an unusual experience, which then made her passionate to find out more about universal energy. And from that point on, really delved into this fascinating adventure.

And so today Natasha is a Reiki master. She completed a master's in parapsychology and she focuses on our energy fields, what they contain, how our energy fields relate to our physical bodies and how we can clean and clear our energy for optimum health, including physical, emotional and mental or spiritual health. And so she is a published author, also the host of the podcast, Bomb Up to the Soul. So all of our podcast listeners out there, definitely check that out. And on this episode, we're gonna be breaking down how energy really does impact our mental health and the basics of parapsychology for anyone who's wondering, really talking about how to use energy healing in our own mental health healing journeys. And so with that, welcome to the show, Natasha. I'm so glad to have you here.

Natasha Price: Thank you Katie, it's a pleasure to be here.

Katie: Thank you again so much. And I do believe you're an expert in this because you really have been doing this for so long. And before we jump into it, I just want to ask, know, to tell me a little bit more about your story. What brought you to this? What made you go into that first Reiki session?

Natasha: Well, really it was that reiki session that set the whole thing off. So I just had my third child and ⁓ it had been the hottest week of the year and he was a big baby and I just had terrible swollen ankles and somebody said to me, why don't you go and have a reiki? And that was the first time I'd ever heard the word. It just had not been in my consciousness. You know, I was, I was spiritual, but I... I just wasn't aware of that. Up until that point, you know, he was my third child, so I'd had three children within a nine year period. And, you know, I was just involved in family life. I just didn't have any awareness outside of that, really. So I went along. I don't think I relaxed at all. ⁓ I I laid there with my eyes shut, thinking, what's she doing? Where is she?

And, but I had a really, really strange experience. And instead of frightening me, because I think it could be, it could have been frightening to some people, instead of frightening me, it just made the walls of my little life in a box fall down. And I was like, how have I got to this age and not known that this existed? What is it? Where does it come from? How does it affect us? And it just made me fascinated.

I just thought I have to find out these questions. And that was the start of it really. And then I trained to be in Reiki. I went through the process with my mum. We trained together to be masters. And then I kept adding other healing modalities and I did my masters. And I've just kept on. And it's purely because I've been fascinated. Not with a view of setting up a business or… you know, offering sessions or writing books or having a podcast. But that that just sort of evolved as it went along. And then alongside of that, of course, I've been a lawyer. So I've had very, you know, a foot in very different camps for the last year. Yeah, strange. But yes. So, yes, that's that's how really I got into energy healing.

Katie: Wow.That's so interesting and to know that you have this kind of other life as a lawyer, that is so interesting to me because those worlds are so different, right? And when you're in legal, like you're based on facts and this is what it is, but in spirituality and reiki, it's so much more abstract, right?

Natasha:  Mmm. Wow. Yeah, exactly. And I think I've often tried to work out how I could merge the two along the path and why I seem to be, you know, in this position with a foot in different camps. And I've never been able to sort of put them together, really. ⁓ But I've come to realize that having done the energy healing, that enabled me to stay in the environment, the corporate environment, because it really helped me, gave me tools to stay centered and balanced. And I think really that was what it was all about.

Katie: I love that. And I was just going to say that I bet that the reiki and the spirituality keeps you grounded during these, you know, this very stressful career, essentially is being a lawyer can be incredibly stressful. And I think that a lot of lawyers maybe they don't necessarily pay attention to their mental health or their spiritual health, right, because they're so busy in the world. And that can lead to burnout and to all sorts of really bad problems.

Natasha: Yes. Yes. Absolutely and I think it's getting better now in the UK anyway ⁓ but yeah absolutely it's not it's a very stressful ⁓ environment and in the the discipline I'm in you have to be quick so you're a lot of work you have to do it quickly you need to do it correctly you know and when I was younger I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking, I haven't done that and I haven't done that. Or I'd be awake for a few hours worrying about things or am I going to get into trouble or then at work if something goes wrong, my stomach physically would just flip and literally drop. And I thought I can't, I can't survive for, I'm not going to last unless I find tools to help me.

And that's when I turned to Reiki and those other ⁓ modalities and other ways that I found to keep me calm. And then that evolved into helping other people really. And I would have terrible eczema at that point as well, which I now know was caused by the stress and anxiety. So I began to realize that it's all interconnected.

Katie: Yeah.

Natasha: You know, the physical, the emotional, the mental, the spiritual, it's all, to me, it's like this beautiful, colourful, organic bit of machinery. And if one thing is out, then everything's out. It's not quite flowing properly. So it's, it's, and I think that's really important understanding mental health as well, because I think we need to look at all parts of ourselves. We need to get them all into balance. Yeah.

Katie: We do. And you know, it's a challenge because I think that we're in a better place today than we were 20 years ago, right? Like you said, and I think even with mental health and physical health, we've started to realize how connected they are. But people still don't really give spiritual health, I believe, the attention that it needs. And I think maybe a lot of people may be connected with religion. And so they say, well, I'm not Christian or I'm not this. And so I don't have that. And it's not that, is it?

Natasha: That's the end. Yes. Yeah. No.

Katie: Is so much different and so explain to me more what spiritual health is, why it's so important that you know to link that with our other forms of health.

Natasha: I think it's our trust and our faith and even for me it's ⁓ talking to people about finding their passion because even if it's something like, and I'm not talking about making money out of it, I'm just talking about them finding their passion because that energy of passion and enthusiasm, we've all felt it, it just lifts our souls. Doesn't it? It just makes you feel excited and refreshed. I think, so I often talk to people in that way to get them to understand how important that is. For me, surviving the law, my passion was energy healing. But it can be anything. It could be growing a particular plant. It could be baking sourdough. It doesn't matter as long as you get that passion from it. And then I also think it's, I mean I call it spirit. That's to me what's most important. It's what links us all. Some people call it compassion. Greg Braden talks about compassion linking all of us. The Buddhists talk about it being compassion, the energy that links all of us.

But then it's something more than that as well. It's something, this all-knowing energy. So maybe in Reiki we talk about it's not us directing the energy. The energy has the intelligence. The energy knows where to go. The energy has the answers. It has, it's that all-knowing presence. So I might call it spirit. Other people might call it God.

You know, it doesn't really matter, I don't think. I think it all comes from the same place. And I think we're all feeling the same feelings when we connect to that. And it's just having that faith and trust that things are going to work out. That, you know, that life can be better. You know, that maybe we can heal and we can live a ⁓ healthy life. Spirituality is quite hard, I think. It's a very complex, very complex... ⁓ Very complex topic, definitely. But it definitely is part and parcel, part of our overall holistic health.

Katie: Yeah, it is. It is, it is, and it has been for centuries, right? Like we have always had spirituality ingrained in us in some way. And so it's important. And I think what you mentioned, you know, it's like hope, right? And that's important, you know, to have that hopeful feeling.

Natasha: Yes, absolutely. And all of these feelings have frequencies, of course. And so that when I talk about passion, that's a really high frequency. We all have heard about like the, you know, being grateful and talking about what we're grateful for. That's a high vibration. And this is all being looked at scientifically as well. So in energy healing, what we're trying to do is amplify those emotions, those high vibrations and when you're in that high vibrational state, you know, when you're enthusiastic about something, nothing drags you down, it? So, you know, the low, low vibrational emotions or states just, they can't be in your presence. So, you know, it's, yeah, hope's a big one, hope and gratitude and joy and just finding those moments in life. And I think that's what people say, find out what gives you joy. You know, we can't be in that state all the time, you know, but you can have moments of it during the day. You know, you can find small things and be very present and find small things that make you feel great. Maybe pets are a great example, you know, they are really good for your mental health. Stroking a cat or cuddling your dog or, you know, it's that love and those sort of emotions.

Katie: We have. Yeah, that's so true. And so would you say that is that what Reiki brings when I go into like a Reiki session is you're helping to kind of bring my my energy frequencies up? Is that what a Reiki session does?

Natasha: Yes, I believe so. Yes. And we talk about in our you talk about the chakras in the energy system, and they're literally just where the energy wheels of energy that turn the rest of your energy around. So ⁓ a healthy aura or healthy energy field is beautiful. And this always shocked me, but beautiful bright colors, like just flowing like those sort of oil and water pictures that used to do a primary school. That's what a healthy aura looks like. But if we've got, we're holding on to quite negative energy or thoughts, then the energy can become quite gray, it can spike, it can become quite stagnant. So what we're trying to do is keep, so the chakras will clear all of that energy and we're trying to keep the energy flowing. So Reiki will work on the chakras and we'll open them up and help that energy flow basically.

Katie: That's amazing and it's so cool. You had this, what sounds like a really unique experience during your first session and then you took that and you ran with it and really educated yourself.

Natasha: Yes, well, I just, it was just so bizarre that I just, I just had to know what it was about. know, if something happens, it's just so, you just think, what? And you know, I wasn't young either. And I just thought, how have I got to this age? And I haven't got a clue about this. Do you want to tell you what happened in the session? Yeah. So,

Katie: Yeah, please, if you're comfortable, I'd love to know.

Natasha: Basically the room filled up with what I call spirits. So, and it was almost like quite cartoony, which sounds bizarre, but in the cartoons where you have like a ghost that looks like a sheet, but with a face to it. And the room was full of them and they were swirling around to the point that I ducked physically ducked at one point, because one came right up to my face look at me and I was thinking what on earth is going on? What is happening? And like I say it could have been frightening, it could have really put people off and just thought I'm not doing this again but I didn't have that feeling, I didn't have that feeling of fear, I just felt, I was just fascinated basically, I just thought I need to know what this is about. And in fact, I have a picture which maybe the listeners can't see, but I discovered this picture a few years later. It's by a Mormon artist, actually. But this is exactly what I saw.

Katie: Wow.

Natasha: And I just thought no I have to understand it. Yeah and so for me you know this all-knowing presence I wonder sometimes is it full of souls but you know is that why we can mediums work? Is that what they're picking up on? ⁓ You know that's a whole opened up a whole different leaning sort of understanding ⁓ but yes it just fascinated me and I can't say I've got any definitive answers yet either, even after 23 years, but it's been fascinating along the journey to learn as much as I can learn. And I sat in circle for a long time to do mediumship because I just thought maybe that's what they are picking up on.

Katie: Hmm.

Natasha: Is it just that it was shown to me in that way so that I would be fascinated and start this journey? Was it shown to me in that way because I would call that spirits? So they wanted to show me that that is what flows through us and we can connect to spirit. I have no answers. Only questions.

Katie: It's hard to know, yeah. Yeah. But, but what is clear though is that it, you're, you seem happier now. You are in a... Yeah.

Natasha: ⁓ absolutely. Yes. Yeah. And if anything, people at work say to me, you are so calm. You're this calming, warming presence. And I can only put that down to ⁓ energy healing. And the fact that I've worked on myself, because energy healing is about looking at our darker side as well, our shadow side, looking at the traumas that we might have experienced in life.

Katie: Just presents, yeah.

Natasha: And working through those. So it's not a quick fit and it's not easy but it's so rewarding and that you get to a certain, I think I've got to a feeling of peace actually. And that doesn't mean life doesn't happen, life happens, but it means that you can stay centered and balanced and you can deal with things in a much ⁓ calmer way. ⁓ I think a famous poet once said, the cure for pain is pain itself. And that's how I look at the work that we do. It can be overwhelming, but you go into the pain and then by going into the pain and understanding it, you can sort of go you can sort of release it and expand more into a compassionate state and that's not easy and it's not a quick fix you have to work at it but that's what energy healing is about and I think that's essential that we all do that and all work through our darker sides if you like our painful areas ⁓

Katie: Yeah, yeah, because we're human, you know, we have both light and dark within us and we need to we need to appreciate, acknowledge and work with both.

Natasha: Absolutely. Absolutely and it's not easy being human. You know this is a tough school that we're in. It is, it's a very tough school and but I often think I'm not sure that if I hadn't have found the energy healing and that that passion around it I'm not sure where I would be now after 29 or even if that I would have survived that long in the corporate world because it is a hard place to be. And there is so much overwhelm and burnout and stress and anxiety, you know, it's hard. It is hard.

Katie: It is hard, and we're in such a busy world that ⁓ to have that spiritual, just within you, that spiritual healing, that point that you can come back to and balance yourself, center yourself is just so valuable.

Natasha: And for exactly that reason, when I have clients and I do it for myself as well, I say stop. You have to just find time to stop, even if it's for five minutes. And I think, you know, the banning of ⁓ social media for in some countries, I think actually I quite, I quite agree with that because that's so much information, you know, people can scroll through for hours, you know, they're constantly activating the brain and we need to just stop, just stop, you know, and sit. Exactly. Yeah. Yes, that's right. You know, where kids and it's overstimulating and then it affects sleep and then, you know, and it just compounds it.

Katie: Yeah, yeah, we need to learn to be bored. Right? Like how we used to be bored. Like that's so important, you know, to have that. It's so true.

Natasha: So I say to people, you've got to stop, you've got to create space for yourself somehow, even if it's five, 10 minutes a day. And we're all so busy, aren't we? We're all so busy and we look at screens all the time, which I don't think is so good. So it's about stopping, it's about breathing. None of us breathe properly either. And it's about going out into nature. I'm a big one for… being out in the trees and the nature. And you know, in Japan they prescribe forest bathing because it is so good for our mental health too. You know, there is a reason why we say, and people laugh at it and say it's very woo woo, but there is a reason why you say go and hug a tree. Because, you know, trees give off compounds that help, that calm us down, that help our mental state. You know.

Katie: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Natasha: So ⁓ being out in nature, doing that, but just stopping, just stopping for five or 10 minutes. I go walk, I have three dogs and I go and take them to a dog park, which is fabulous because you drive in, you shut the gate, it's all fenced in so you can let them loose and that you know they're safe and they have like a tree house in there for them and you know, a sand pit and you know, it's fun.

But I always walk around while they're having and the other day I went and sat on the bench and I just watched the clouds. And you know as a kid you sort of that looks like an elephant or that looks like an apple or whatever. And I did that for about half an hour. I sort of connected with my inner child and I thought that's brilliant. You just shut your brain off and do something like that.

Katie: That's beautiful. Mm-hmm. I love that. So I was gonna ask, you know, ⁓ what are some tools that people can use to connect with their spirituality and with their spiritual energy? And it sounds like you're saying some great ones here. Being in nature, hug a tree, take some time, look up at the sky. I love that.

Natasha: Yet more. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I mean and forest bathing is, we have a lady around here who does forest bathing and it's beautiful. It's about walking very slowly around trees, sitting among trees and looking very closely at them and just taking in you know more than just rushing past them you know so it's about slowing down and doing something with purpose but in that nature scenario. What else can we do? And the other thing is, it's also about being kind to yourself. You know, drinking lots of water, sleeping well. I do exercises in the shower, you know, mental, you know, intentional exercises like affirmations. And I sort of do them in the shower because when I had three children, that was the only place that, you know? That was quiet, nobody was going, mommy, you know. And you sort of do it automatically anyway, don't you? So you can be thinking things through. You can imagine letting go of things that you no longer need to hold onto emotionally and seeing them going down the plug hole like sort of ink in water. You can do all of that intention as well. It's something that is so powerful and it's something that people really miss but intention is really like a switch in energy healing. It is what causes the energy to flow. So if you set your intention like you get into the shower and you say you know I want anything I no longer need to hold on to, any emotional emotions that I no longer need to carry around baggage if you like, I want it to just be released. It starts a process. It's a bit like that Pavlov's dogs, you know, ringing the bell and it's this, you know, so you do it in the same way every day and you start to do it and it becomes a habit and ⁓ you feel a shift. But that's something else you can do. Absolutely. And anything like… I do yoga as well, which I absolutely love. I'm terrible at it. I'm very inflexible. I've been sat at a desk for 30 years. But it's great. And there's a real spiritual side to it, which is lovely. Anything like that, meditation. And like I say, find something that you're passionate about. I mean, I write a lot. I write for online magazine as well here in the UK.

And that's my passion. I love that. for me and being creative as well puts you into a different state. And I think, yeah, just baking, painting, you know, you don't need to show anybody else. don't need to, you know, you don't need to grade it or, you know, it's just, it takes you out of that, takes you out of your head, doesn't it, in a way. And you can just create something.

Katie: Yeah, that's such a great point. It takes you out of your head. think that people, you know, they look at spiritual healing and they think, I need to do something. I have to go to church. I have to pray. And then they get overwhelmed by that, right? But really, it's just stepping back and getting out of your head. I love that you keep bringing it back to passion because you're right. Like that feeling that you get when you really love something that you're passionate about. you like that's an energy. And we all feel that when we're in it.

Natasha: Yeah. I think the Japanese call it Ikigai, is your Ikigai. So find something that you're passionate about. And none of this is like, you know, can, being in your head is then saying, I'm rubbish at painting or I can't do that. Or it's not about that. It can be as rudimentary as you like. It's just being creative and just feeling that. There is a shift in your energy, you can feel it. It's feeling that release if you like. So yeah, find what you're passionate about. It can be anything.

Katie: Yeah, definitely. Well, you took your passion and kept running with it and went on to get a master's in parapsychology. So tell us, tell the listeners what is parapsychology?

Natasha: So parapsychology is everything that we experience outside of our normal senses. So outside of hearing, sight, taste, et cetera. It's what we experience outside of that. So metaphysical phenomena, if you like. And then, you know, a lot of the masters, it was fascinating by the way.

You know, we did things like alien abduction and, you know, all the figures and stats around that, you know, and near-death experience and all sorts of things. But a lot of it was about ⁓ trying to make metaphysical phenomena fit within the sort of parameters of the science box, if you like.

And if it doesn't fit in that box, science doesn't recognise it. And to me that didn't make sense. felt like saying, well, science needs to make their box bigger because, because, but also, you know, because things like thoughts, we all have thoughts, we know we have thoughts, they're energetic, science can't prove we have thoughts. 

Katie: So interesting. Mm-hmm. Right. Because I see this, it's here, yeah.

Natasha: That doesn't make sense to me at all but it was fascinating and we covered so many topics and you know it was just it was a really really interesting course basically.

Katie: That's amazing. And then you went on to write two books, I believe, right? Tell me more about your books and kind of what they are. I think they're both different.

Natasha: Yes. They are. The first one, Freedom of the Soul, is like a proactive workbook. And this was really triggered because ⁓ I wanted to give people tools like that we've been talking about, you know, because life is difficult, it's a lot of overwhelm. But when my middle daughter got to about 17, we were having a chat one day and I realized that her group of friends all suffered from different mental health issues and quite severe ones like you know self-harming you know really quite severe apart from my daughter and she seemed to be the one that sort of held them together and supported them. But it terrified me because here's a group of 17 year old girls and they are all suffering terribly.

And then one of them came round for tea and she discovered that my daughter had been attuned to Reiki as well because she was attuned at 11 and that I did Reiki and she wanted to know all about it, much to my daughter's embarrassment but she did. But I noticed she became really animated talking about, you know, listening.

And it just sparked that idea and I thought, right, I'm going to write something about energy management, about these tools, about these ideas and concepts, about doing different meditations, about the chakras, you know, different forms of breath work that you could do, just so that they could see there are other tools that you can use. There are other pathways that can help you feel less the anxiety that they were obviously feeling the being out of control and that sort of freefall feeling that obviously was affecting them and also looking at the news all the time which is so negative I think you know there's a lot of fear as well so that's what initiated the first book so it's freedom of the soul and then last year I wrote the Red Magus which well it came out last year and it's a novel, it's a story, but I also do past life progression and future life progression and soul continuum work. So I sort of wanted to explain to people what that was all about, but without teaching. I weave that into a story really, and it became a bit of a drama, ⁓ it's a bit of a drama, a bit of a thriller.

Katie: Yeah.

Natasha: and ⁓ I just thought it was really, you know, people can take it as pure fiction if they want to, other people will take it on different levels and that's fine. But I had great fun writing it and weaving all these spiritual themes through it and you know throwing in crystals and essential oils and all sorts. Yeah.

Katie: That's amazing. I love how you're able to kind of weave those things into like a fiction novel because, you know, it can be hard for someone to want to pick up like a self-help type book, right? But on the other side of that, they can read a novel and then get, you know, something out of that.

Natasha: Yeah, exactly. And the best compliments I've had are from people who've said, I would never pick up a book about past life regression. I would never go to that subject, but actually I really enjoyed it. And I thought, well, that's great. That's great, because it's just got someone else to maybe just start thinking about it or think, maybe there's something in that or, you know, it's just, I see it like… sort of allowing energy, just my ripple to move out gently and you know maybe it'll sway somebody, maybe it'll interest somebody, you know and they'll go off on their own path.

Katie: Exactly, yeah, that's beautiful. And I think you're right, you know, that ripple effect is so powerful. yeah, you know, so where can people read these books? Where can they get them if they're interested?

Natasha: Both of them are on Amazon and ⁓ the Red Magus is also on Barnes and Noble. ⁓

Katie: Lovely! Congratulations on that. It's so hard to write a book. It is a process. That's amazing. Well, so how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about maybe your services or utilize you as Reiki? Can you do Reiki virtually or is it really only something that you can do in person?

Natasha: Thank you. Yes, it's a process. It is a process. Yeah, definitely. No, you can do Reiki virtually. I have a long standing Theta Healing client ⁓ and she's just become a tune to Reiki 1 and she lives in Leeds and I live in Suffolk. So we did it all by Zoom and she had the most amazing healing process afterwards. So clearly you can, know, yeah, it's how distant healing works. You know, I have a client in India and I send him treatments distantly energetically and he loves them. So you know that that's how energy healing works. It's all to do quantum physics all a bit above my head ⁓ but we know it works so yeah yeah yeah. So my business is called Dandelion Therapies so people can look me up ⁓ www.dandeliontherapies.com 

Katie: We know there's science there. It exists. Yeah.

Natasha: And I'm also on Instagram, Natasha Joy Price, and you know always happy to chat or you know see if it's something that people could be interested in or if it's going to work for them, past life regression, future life progression, between lives, theta healing, Reiki, compassion key, well I do that as well which is a lot of it in a child work. So yeah and it's fascinating. Everybody's different, every session is different. Really, really ⁓ interesting work.

Katie: Yeah, well, that's amazing. I implore people to go to your website and yeah, to learn more because you offer so much more than just Reiki and you know, your yeah, you know, your your expertise really goes beyond and so that's so exciting. And then just to know that virtually, you know that you have clients all over and you know that it's still like it's helpful for people. I'm just awed by I think, you know, your passion really takes you to this place.

Natasha: Yeah, yeah, it is. It always fascinates me. You know, we have when we first when I first started, it had to be locally. But now you can talk to anybody across the world. I was talking to a lady in South Africa this morning. You know, it's just it's so easy now, isn't it? the internet. Absolutely. And of course, sorry, I was just going to say my podcast, you know, is lots of listeners in America.

Katie: Right. Well, thank you

Natasha: In fact, more than in the UK.

Katie: Thank you for bringing that up. And yeah, definitely. Where can people tune into your podcast?

Natasha: So I'm on Apple, I'm on Spotify, Amazon Music, ⁓ lots of different platforms. So... Yeah. Balm to the Soul.

Katie: Fabulous. All right, so all the main platforms and what's your podcast name again? Love it, love it. Well thank you so much for being here, for being a guest today on watching mental health and for really breaking down the importance of spiritual healing in line with mental health. We need our spiritual energy in order to feel happy overall and so it's important that we think about that and so I just appreciate your time and expertise today.

Natasha: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's lovely to chat to you.
Katie: Absolutely. And for everybody watching, this is watching mental health and we are basically published every other Wednesday. So check out my website at katierosewaechter.com and you'll see all the latest episodes as well as Spotify, Apple, YouTube and where you see all your podcasts. With that, have a great day everyone and we'll see you next time.