Love Letters to Our Bodies
Conversations on health, healing, and happiness for and by African American women. An exploration of the mind, body, spirit connection. and opportunities to hear from spiritual teachers and holistic health practitioners.
Love Letters to Our Bodies
The Power of Reiki and Sound Healing
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Your body may be holding more than you realize, and healing may begin by learning how to listen. In this episode of Love Letters 2 Our Bodies, Adriana Parrish, founder of East Bay Healing House, joins Gwendolyn Mitchell to explore how energy work can support emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Rooted in her own experience with grief, Adriana shares how Reiki, sound healing, and mindfulness became both personal practices and a path to serving others. Adriana unpacks how these modalities help regulate the nervous system, release what the body has been holding, and create space for restoration. She offers insight into what people may experience in a session, the role of intention and intuition in healing, and how these practices can support those navigating chronic illness or intensive treatments like cancer care.
Key Points From This Episode:
• Introducing Adriana Parrish and her work in Reiki, sound healing, and mindfulness practices.
• The concept of the wounded healer and how Adriana’s grief led her into the healing arts.
• Unpacking the modalities of sound healing and Reiki and the science behind it.
• What people may feel or experience during Reiki and sound sessions.
• Common misconceptions about Reiki and reframing it as gentle energy work.
• Unpacking how sound healing uses vibration to release stored emotion in the body.
• Encouraging curiosity and firsthand experience over fear or skepticism.
• The role of trust, safety, and connection in receiving healing practices.
• How Adriana maintains her own energy through grounding and self-care.
• A reminder that healing can begin with rest, breath, and slowing down.
Quotes:
“It felt like I was in my own grief and my own healing. And one day, I just woke up from the fog, and it was very clear, in terms of what my next move was.” — Adriana Parrish [0:04:07]
“[With Reiki, it’s] about four sessions before one begins to feel a shift of whatever the thing is that we're working on.” — Adriana Parrish [0:09:20]
“[Reiki] is just really meeting people where they are. It's moving the things that have been stuck with us and that we're needing to get moving, to create balance within one's own energy, and to call on universal life energy force to help do that.” — Adriana Parrish [0:09:54]
“[Reiki] is a very gentle relaxation practice, and it's just helping the body's natural ability to bring and call in balance.” — Adriana Parrish [0:19:28]
“What excites me the most is these practices becoming more integrated for people within education, within our hospital systems. People need this alternative wellness just as much as they need a doctor.” — Adriana Parrish [0:35:26]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
East Bay Healing House linktree
Love Letters 2 Our Bodies is sponsored by Moyo Institute, Inc and the Lloyd Symington Foundation
Gwendolyn Mitchell on LinkedIn
MOYO Institute, Inc
instagram.com/moyoinstitute
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