Ancestral Roots Reiki
name origin
Ancestral Roots was motivated by the understanding that our ancestors are with us and that we are never truly alone. One of my first visitors from the other side was my paternal grandfather who passed when I was just 12yo. My experience with Reiki is where I first began to understand that we really can communicate with the other side, and that random visions and answered prayers were actually not very random at all.
Ancestral Roots was also influenced by evolving understandings of intergenerational trauma and the recognition that we carry both inherited wounds and ancestral wisdom.
Reiki is an energy healing practice and was my portal to the world of spirituality and understanding of multidimensionality.
Reiki in its essence refers to the concept of life force energy.
(rei = universal & ki = life force energy)
This concept has been understood by many indigenous communities and still today in many cultures. Here, it is acknowledged as an essential part of human wellness.
baltimore roots
It is no surprise that we found our roots in Baltimore, Maryland, where much of my maternal lineage has lived.
Just as our bodies carry trauma through memory, emotional charge and sensation, the land also holds charge and history.
When we enter into conscious relationship with the land, we participate in shifting the narrative, not erasing what has occurred, but engaging repair in the present.
Our unfolding
What began as a small offering of Reiki sessions quickly revealed itself to be something much larger.
Emerging trauma research has expanded our understanding of the nervous system and the essential role of the body in healing. The most recent best practices for trauma are mind-body (somatic).
Simultaneously, many scholars and leaders in recent years have named the limitations of dominant diagnostic frameworks and the ways mental health systems have historically reflected oppressive dynamics, including the exclusion of cultural, spiritual, and ancestral contexts from care.
ARR was shaped at the intersection of clinical therapy and spirituality/energetics. We acknowledge that healing is inclusive of mind, body, emotion, culture, lineage, and spirit.
incorporating ancestral & ENERGY HEALING
OUR APPROACH
The focus of energy healing at Ancestral Roots Reiki is the understanding and restoration of universal life force energy. Universal life force energy is the essence that each of our bodies carries.
In many Eastern, African, and Indigenous philosophies, imbalance in life force energy is understood to contribute to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual distress. These traditions recognize that when energy becomes disrupted or stagnant, the body and spirit reflect that disruption.
A large part of our work centers on ancestral and intergenerational healing. Through our clinical work, we have seen how trauma often has roots beyond a single lifetime. Intergenerational trauma may be carried biologically through epigenetic stress responses at the cellular level, and relationally through family patterns, survival adaptations, and ways of bracing that are passed down over time. Many traditions also recognize that ancestral wounds may be carried energetically within the body.
Chronic stress and trauma shape the nervous system and the fascia (the body’s connective tissue network). Fascia plays a dynamic role in holding tension, bracing patterns, and stress responses. When the body has adapted to survive, these patterns can become embedded physically and energetically, influencing posture, breath, emotional regulation, and overall well-being.
In Western science the phenomena often described as “life force energy” is increasingly explored through the framework of the biofield, defined as the organizing field of energy and information that surrounds and interpenetrates the human body. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), a division of the National Institutes of Health, recognizes biofield therapies as an area of ongoing research within integrative health sciences.
While terminology differs across traditions, there is growing recognition that trauma, stress, and relational experience influence not only the nervous system and cellular function, but also the broader energetic systems of the body.
At Ancestral Roots Reiki, we draw from both spiritual traditions and science-informed frameworks to guide our understanding of energetics. Energy healing supports homeostatic balancing, softening of held patterns, and the restoration of vital life force.