Collective Spotlight: Katherine Harris
Meet Katherine! She is an energy healer and clinical aromatherapy practitioner, and the owner of Crow Lady Healing.
Why did you want to become an energy healer and aromatherapist?
I spent my 20s learning all I could about crystals, essential oils, herbalism and alternative healing because I found it all fascinating. Then I became a labor and delivery nurse and have spent 25 years being with women through the journey of labor into parenthood. I’ve tried to integrate aromatherapy and Reiki into my nursing practice, but it can be tricky to do it in the hospital setting where there are lots of barriers, which is part of why it is nice to be able to do sessions with people 1:1 again. I stopped for a while around the pandemic because I put all my energy into coping with the pandemic as a nurse.
I’ve been doing Reiki with crystals for 27 years and over the years I have added many different energetic techniques including EFT and emotrance, which are wonderful, but I love Reiki and usually end a session with it because it is so gentle and powerful. I love working with people to help them create shifts to help them be more centered, balanced and whole in the world. Being an energy healer is fulfilling an urge that I can’t really ignore. I feel like I have gifts and knowledge that can really help people so it almost feels like an obligation to share them. And adding in the power of essential oils and their magic just intensifies the possibilities for healing. Essential oils are such a potent way to experience the magic of plants and calm the nervous system. I feel like both aromatherapy and energy healing are so powerful and such beautiful ways to trigger someone’s innate healing mechanisms that I just want to share their magic as far and wide as I can.
What have you gained from this work?
So much! I love connecting with people. My sessions are very much a dynamic back-and-forth. We often laugh - a lot. And we get some deep healing work done at the same time. I feel like my years as a labor and delivery nurse have taught me how to be with someone through an intense experience and come out the other side. I love being able to help people. I love offering a healing option that is gentle but powerful and can help them create big shifts in how they actually feel. It can be very magical working with people using energy therapies and being in a place of deep sacred intention. I also love how differently people respond to both essential oils and energy work. People are so complicated and interesting. I’m always learning something new from every experience. This work is a calling and I feel so blessed that I am able to do it.
What do you hope your clients feel after working with you?
I hope they are able to feel like they are really heard and have been in deep presence with someone. I hope people feel that I support their own innate healing energies, just helping that awareness and possibility rise up in them. I hope people feel more comfortable and connected to essential oils and plants after the session and feel that positive plant energy from the roll-on that they bring home. And I hope they feel relieved and empowered to do their own energy work on themselves to help them continue the progress we have made, creating changes in their own day-to-day life.
How does your work inform your understanding of the world?
I do feel really blessed in my work as a nurse, energy healer and my home life as a parent and spouse that I have so many opportunities to try to be present and loving. And so many opportunities to realize and learn what a challenge that can be! The learning I get from trying to be present even when things are chaotic or not-how-I-would-like-them-to-be has been an ongoing challenge that has taught me resilience and the healing power of laughter. I feel so lucky to be able to be with people as they navigate demanding and difficult times and I feel grateful to have some tools to help them both as a nurse, and as an energy healer to move through those times, and remind them that there can be peace and flow amidst the struggles and there is possibility for change and healing.
What's your favorite season of the year, and why?
I’d have to say my favorite season is spring. I am definitely a plant person and a flower person and a bird person, so the sudden burst of joy and energy is really magnificent for me. I do also love the other seasons, and how their appearance makes me appreciate the next one. But spring, with the return of the birds and those gentle wafting spring breezes across carpets of violets and flowering trees! That really does it for me.
What has made you smile recently that you feel the need to share?
My somewhat-grown kids; 21 and 18 are really really funny and they usually make me laugh every day and also surprise me with insights about how they see the world. It’s so interesting! I also feel really lucky to love my work as a labor and delivery nurse as much as I do. It is so intense and challenging to be with people as they bear children and then take on their new role as parent. It’s a huge transformation in a very short period of time and I am so impressed how many people do it with so much love, humor, and strength. Witnessing that definitely makes me smile.
