People often ask me what makes my energy work different from Reiki or from the energy healing they may have tried elsewhere. The short answer is where I trained. I spent eight years at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, four as a student in the professional program and four more in advanced training and teaching. Brennan Healing Science is the foundation of every energy healing session I offer in Worthington and Columbus, Ohio, and of my virtual sessions by phone or video.
This post explains what that training is, what it taught me to perceive and work with, and why it matters when you are choosing someone to work with your energy.
Who Was Barbara Brennan?
Barbara Brennan was a NASA research physicist who later trained as a therapist and healer, and in the 1980s founded the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. Her two books, Hands of Light and Light Emerging, brought a detailed, structured description of the human energy field to a wide audience and remain the core texts of the school. She died in 2022; the school continues, and graduates practice around the world.
The Four Dimensions We Work With
Brennan Healing Science describes a person in four dimensions, and a session can move through any or all of them:
- The physical body. What you feel, where you hold tension, what hurts. In my practice this is where my craniosacral training and the energy work meet.
- The auric field. The layers of energy around and through the body, organized around the chakras. Much of the hands-on work happens here: clearing, charging, and restructuring.
- The hara. A deeper line of intention that runs vertically through the body. When the hara is aligned, people often describe feeling clear about what they want and able to act on it.
- The core star. The school's name for the essence of a person, underneath personality, history, and defenses. Work at this level is quiet and often the most moving.
What the Four-Year Program Involves
The professional program is not a weekend certification. Over four years, students study anatomy and physiology, learn to perceive and work with the energy field with their hands, and practice specific techniques such as chelation (a full-field clearing and charging that moves from the feet to the head), chakra restructuring, spinal cleaning, and work with the hara line.
Just as important, every student goes through their own personal process in the program. You cannot hold a clear, steady space for someone else's healing while avoiding your own. That requirement is, in my experience, what separates this training from most of what is available.
After graduating I stayed on for four more years of advanced training and taught at the school. I later added Reiki, Ken Kole's Unwinding the Meridians, and angelic energy healing, and I became a Diplomate-certified craniosacral therapist through the Upledger Institute. I have been doing energy work with clients since the mid-1990s.
What a Brennan-Trained Session Feels Like
You stay fully clothed, usually lying on a treatment table. I begin by listening, with my hands near or lightly on the body, to what is present in your field that day. I do not follow a fixed sequence; I respond to what I find. Some clients feel warmth, movement, or deep relaxation. Some feel very little during the session and notice shifts afterward. Both are normal, and I describe this more in how energy healing works.
Because this work engages the whole person, emotions, memories, and images sometimes come up. When they do, we work with them gently and at your pace. Nothing is forced.
Why Training Matters When You Choose a Healer
Energy healing is unregulated. Anyone can use the words. That is not a criticism of other approaches; many sincere people do good work. It does mean the responsibility to ask about training falls on you. Questions worth asking any practitioner: Where did you train, and for how long? Did the training include anatomy? Did it require you to do your own healing work? How many years have you practiced?
I wrote more about this in how to find the right energy healer, and about what sessions typically cost in Columbus in this guide.
An Honest Word About Evidence
Energy healing is a complementary practice. It is not a substitute for medical or mental-health care, and the mechanisms the Brennan model describes are not established by scientific research the way medical treatments are. What I can tell you is what three decades of clients report: feeling calmer, more connected to themselves, and more able to move through what they came in carrying. I am glad to work alongside your doctor or therapist.
Working With Me
I see clients at my office in Worthington, serving the Columbus area, and by phone or video for clients anywhere in the United States and Canada. Sessions run 60 to 75 minutes at $150, and package options are available for ongoing work. If you are curious whether this is a fit, call or text (614) 653-8111 for a free 15-minute consultation.
Sharon Hartnett, CST-D
Barbara Brennan School of Healing graduate [year] and former faculty member [years taught]
Lighten Up Therapies, 6797 N High Street Ste 333, Worthington, Ohio 43085