I have been an avid Reiki practitioner for about two years, ever since I went for my first healing treatment just days after the horror of the 2016 presidential election. Its stress-relieving and anxiety-fighting properties have worked wonders for me, keeping me focused and undoing months of damage from various traumas and anxiety.
For those unfamiliar, Reiki is a Japanese word that means cosmic life energy, or life force. Healers with proper Reiki training can channel this energy into others through light touch, doing everything from relieving emotional and mental stress to speeding up the body’s natural healing processes. can do.
For the first time in my life, this is the type of “therapy” I’ve been able to keep up with fairly consistently, and I try my best to book sessions every few months. So, naturally, when I started hearing about Reiki facials, I thought: had I decided to try one. As a beauty editor, skin care is one of the most important things to me. It’s a form of self-care that I take very seriously. Add in my go-to method for healing my soul and it’s a match made in heaven.
I researched where I could get a facial in New York (surprisingly, most Reiki facial therapists are based in Los Angeles) and found out that infusing Reiki and other forms of energy healing into my work I met Julia Marchevkova, an esthetician who takes pride in her work.
When I contacted her about my skin (and mind) concerns, she sent me the Dynamic Skin Assessment, a tool that allows me to customize any facial to a client’s specific needs. For me, she tailored her glow-inducing O2 Revitalizing Facial to my extremely dry summer skin.
It’s a pretty long session, and I definitely can’t complain about this, but it includes a pumpkin and peptide enzyme mask for purification, ultrasound exfoliation, and a microcurrent machine programmed with a calming turquoise frequency. Applied collagen and hyaluronic acid sheet mask, and of course lots of Reiki. During almost every treatment there was a pause for a quick session of soothing touch to key pressure points on the face.
Oh, and needless to say, all the while I was clutching a lab-made quartz connected to a computer that was channeling healing currents “based on a mathematical sequence that travels through the chakras, nerves, and meridians of the body in my hands.” Ta. Hmm, how COOL is that? (Very!) Also, I was lying on an amethyst and tourmaline biomat. This biomat uses “deep-penetrating far infrared rays and an influx of negative ions” to help relax the body and stimulate its natural healing powers.
So why is it worth injecting energy healing into your facial session? Malchevkova explains:
Facial energy work involves the universal healing life energy, or chi, and helps clients recover at a cellular level. My clients report having more energy, clarity, and optimism, fewer aches and headaches, and an overall feeling of more energy, calm, and feeling like they just came from a vacation. I am. Needless to say, Reiki and other healing techniques help us easily and effortlessly enter the meditative alpha state. This is a state of vitality, renewal, recharging, and renewal. It’s like having energy healing, meditation, and a facial all in one session.
Overall, my facial was as much about skin care as it was about deep healing. In between relaxing and silent Reiki treatments on my forehead and jawline (which, by the way, was clenched really badly from stress), Malchevkova squeezed out all the blackheads on my nose and unclogged my jaw. Ta. It was enough “woo woo” to leave me feeling mentally reset, and enough “skin care” to have noticeable results when I left.
I emerged from her midtown studio with a fresh, glowing face and virtually weightless. Not only did it have an amazing effect on my complexion (think who didn’t apply it) Any Do you have to wear makeup for the rest of the day? ), it also made me feel cool, calm, and collected as I headed to the office, even though I knew I was about to walk into the worst storm of the day.
My only question as I leave is, can I start? every When should I receive a Reiki facial?
If you live in the New York City area and would like to try an energy healing facial for yourself, check out Marcevkova’s services here.
