Crystals have held our fascination for thousands of years by their energy and sheer beauty. Their powers have been used by knowledgeable healers in every culture on Earth, and in spite of firm rejection by many religious and scientific circles, this healing tradition has survived and is beginning to thrive in this tumultuous 21st century.

These particular mineral growths have a natural form, due to their molecular structure, that is a conduit for the subtle energies of the Human Energy Field (HEF) or human aura, visible to certain sensitive individuals, and through the use of specialized equipment such as Kirlian photography. Because of the way they are formed, through a very slow process involving pressure, temperature, minerals and water, crystals have an organic, almost living quality about them. They naturally pull the subtle energies from around them through their own energy field and transform them in the process, purifying, balancing and harmonizing them, much like an osmotic filter purifies water. This process happens passively when crystals are put in a home or workplace, or in a therapeutic situation when they are placed on and around the body, allowing the healing force of the crystals to work through the person’s energy fields. They can also be used in a more active manner, whereby the therapist actually handles the crystal, moving it in and around the person’s HEF. What this does is to magnify the therapist’s own healing energies, produced by his or her intentions to help the client heal, thereby increasing the therapist’s potential healing energies many times over.

The effects of using crystals as healing tools are manifold. As we said, they purify the energy fields around them, and when used in a therapeutic setting they become the “surgical” tools of the therapist. He or she will use them to draw out stagnant or otherwise unhealthy energy; to “sew” gaps in the HEF in order to prevent energy loss; to replenish the field with light, healthy energy; to balance the entire HEF; etc. Only a Crystal Therapist who has been trained to use crystals in this way should attempt this type of therapy, because the improper use of crystals can have nefarious, and sometimes dangerous effects. If you do not have formal training and are interested in using crystals to heal, laying them on and around the body is a good way to start using them, as long as your intentions are positive and healing.

The inexperienced person trying to use crystals to heal others may run into potentially harmful situations, and should therefore seek professional training before attempting to do crystal healing. Unless the crystals are being used with an intention of doing harm, these situations affect the person trying to use the crystals to heal, not the person being healed. I personally have run into a few of these situations, and I learned very quickly, in a big way, to respect the protocol I had been taught in order to avoid these problems. The last such experience I had actually scared me so much, I abandoned Crystal Therapy for about 10 years. But I came back around, this time with extra precautions and very specific intentions of using this for the greater good, for myself and for others.

The most common type of crystal used in the type of therapy I practice is a clear quartz crystal. Because of its transparency, it is very versatile and can be used for just about any type of intervention. Other types of quartz used are rose quartz and smoky quartz. Amethyst is a type of quartz that has a purple color due to the presence of iron and aluminum. Citrine is amethyst that had been heated, thereby changing the color to yellow or orange. These crystals are all have different qualities and are used for different things. For instance, smoky quartz is useful for ridding the body of stagnant energy, especially in the lower legs and feet. Amethyst does a wonderful job of “brushing” out the energy field, ridding it of parasitic or lingering influences from an outside source. I use rose quartz when treating the 4th or heart chakra, or with a person who has obvious feminine/receptive energies, and citrine is very useful for treating the solar plexus or 3rd chakra. Many other crystals have various uses, including tourmaline for trauma and as a mover of stagnant energy, lapis lazuli to stimulate and balance the 6th chakra energies, pyrite to stimulate the 1st chakra and to ground primal energy, etc. Other types of crystals have various forms and colors - there are hundreds of crystals, each with a particular use and function, but the object of this essay is to explain the process behind their use rather than the properties of each and every one. Some folks wonder about the various forms of quartz that can be found. A typical quartz crystal has a point and a base, and a body with a hexagonal section. The point is made of 6 facets that do not necessarily all meet at the same point, but are all present at the end of the crystal. Some crystals are “made” by carving them from a block of quartz, the crystals of which are so tiny that they form a large unit instead of single quartz crystals. These crystals are faceted to look like regular crystals, except that the base is usually rounded and the point is very regular, since they were made on a machine. Their effect is slightly more diffuse than a true quartz crystal, but they are nonetheless quite useful. Still other quartz crystals, much more rarely, have double points. Their base is found in the middle of the crystal. These crystals can be used as a “bridge” between two different chakras, or 2 different levels of the HEF.

Each of us can be affected differently from having a crystal therapy session, but you will typically feel relaxed and “clear” at the end. Some people report feeling light-headed, hyper-aware, fluid, etc. One person left her first session claiming that a knot that had been present around her solar plexus area for the past 2 years had completely dissipated. We had previously done counseling work using NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to give her more choice in her actions, and the crystal session allowed her to free herself of the stagnant, blocked energy. My sessions can be done sitting in a chair, but I prefer to have clients lying on a massage table so they can get the maximum benefit from their experience. The client remains fully clothed, and although I am fully involved with his or her HEF, I usually do not physically touch the client, except occasionally for balancing the minor chakras. A session will typically last from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the needs of the client at the time of treatment.

I encountered this type of crystal therapy almost 20 years ago when I was living in the south of France. It was transformational for me, and actually was the starting point at which I began moving in the direction of becoming a Natural Health Consultant. Using crystals to heal people made me realize that I had no practical knowledge of the physical body, and that pushed me to become a Naturopathic practitioner. During my naturopathic training, the school I was attending offered NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which then inspired me to go through with getting a Master Practitioner of NLP. So I went from working with subtle energies, to healing the body and lifestyle, and finally to helping people change their behavior and become conscious of their full potential. The mind/body/spirit connection is complete. At this time I am following a study program on Family Constellations, as practiced by Claudia Mengel, inspired by the work of Bert Hellinger. My teacher, Andrea Bosbach, is a student/assistant of Claudia Mengel, and this work is truly amazing.