When you step into Illuminate Healing Studio, leave your shoes at the entrance and leave any reservations or fears behind.
The spacious space at 200 Emerson Place in Davenport was once a lawyer’s room, a place for litigation, but is now a place for relaxation. The studio is run by Becky Nakashima Brook, who has lived in the Quad Cities for 20 years.
Becky Nakashima Brook is the owner of Illuminate Healing Studio, one of many businesses at 220 Emerson Place in downtown Davenport.
Gary L. Krambeck
She offers Sound Healing, Yoga, Thai Bodywork and Reiki sessions – Reiki is what opened the doors for her.
Brooke Nakashima was originally a hairdresser and found she found it rewarding to help others find the transformation they were looking for, but she soon began to feel burned out.
When Nakashima Brooke had three young children and wanted to find a way to help them get sick without having to take medicine right away, she discovered Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing technique based on the idea that the laying on of hands can restore energy from within the body.
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Nakashima Brooke learned through training in the practice that hosting healing sessions is much more rewarding than doing hair, she said.
The main roommate’s Illumination Healing Studio as seen from the entrance.
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Nakashima Brooke initially hosted sessions from her home, but since she’s in her own space at Illuminate Healing Studio, she says her business is taken a little more seriously.
Although Nakashima Brook believes in the efficacy of sound healing and Reiki, she says she doesn’t see her practice as a replacement for Western medicine, but rather as a helpful addition.
“I don’t want to seem anti-medication,” she says, “I think they’re helpful and sometimes they’re really necessary, but this is a good adjunct and it really helps ease people’s pain, whether it’s mental or physical.”
Brooke Nakashima said she tries to practice Reiki daily, and also meditates and does yoga regularly, and that the “gentle approach” of these practices, as opposed to rigorous physical boot camps or diets, helps her feel more emotionally and physically balanced.
Becky Nakashima Brook says sound healing is a practice that has been around since “the beginning of time.”
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All sessions at Nakashima Brook start at $70, and while the Thai bodywork and yoga sessions are more physical, the Reiki and sound healing experiences are more relaxing.
In a Reiki and sound healing session, clients lie on a heated pad, then a blanket is placed over that, and finally eye pads are placed over the eyes. Nakashima Brooke uses harmonious tones and sounds with instruments including percussion, glasses and metal bowls to achieve a state of calm.
Through a brief pre-session questionnaire and the energetic signatures she picks up during the session, Nakashima Brooke can help address a range of common ailments, including sadness, depression, anxiety and eating disorders, she said, explaining the story as ambient music played in the background in her studio’s office space.
Nakashima Brook uses a variety of instruments to express resonance and calm in sound.
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“A lot of it is about empowering people, seeing change and teaching them how to heal themselves,” she said.
Nakashima Brooke says she has experienced the benefits of Reiki and sound healing herself, and scheduling her own sessions helps her stay balanced and adds more knowledge to her work, she says.
“It always puts me in a different state of mind.”
