By Michelle McLemore • Photos by Susan Ayer and Michelle McLemore

I stepped carefully upon the stone walkway, treading past raised garden beds, massive shade trees, and garden ornaments and recalled the echo of curiosity and caution which accompanied my first visit to this magical place. It was nearly fifteen years ago for Level 1 Healing Touch energy therapy class at the home of Barbara McConnell in Grass Lake.

I mused momentarily about how much I had changed—no, evolved. And then, there at the door was Barb. She observed out loud how my hair was more gray while hers was more white, and I noted she held the same sweet smile and grandmotherly appeal, with the same disarming sparkle in her eye—the sparkle, I had come to learn, was a hint at the uncommon knowledge and extraordinary experiences she embodied from her twenty years as a Healing Touch® Certified Practitioner and Instructor.

Imagine sitting in a chair or lying comfortably on your back dressed in loose clothing. A heart-centered, gentle voice says, “Do I have permission to offer Healing Touch for your highest and greatest good with unconditional love?” The new client often tries to interrupt to say “yes,” but then is caught by surprise—and sometimes an emotional grateful rush—when they hear the unexpected offering of love. An off the body palm scan is done to sense, and assess, energy flow and potential blocks or imbalances anywhere in the body or biofield. (To “follow the energy” means to hear what the body’s energy says it needs and to follow that guidance.)

With gentle finger and palm positions on joints, around the skull, sometimes on acupressure points, and other times over organs or other body systems, the client may feel tingling, temperature changes, or energy movement within the body. Some people see colors, images, or have heightened intuitive experiences. Almost always by the end, the client feels physically and emotionally lighter, mentally clearer, and more emotionally stable and grounded regardless of what may be waiting at home.

Healing Touch® is an energy therapy modality developed by Janet Mentgen (RN, BSN) in the late 1980s from careful observation during nursing situations, analysis, indigenous healer interviews, research on healing properties of touch and the subtle energy anatomy and life energy (also known as Qi, Prana, Chi, and Ki) across cultures. The practitioner becomes like a straw for universal energy or earth energy to move through and be directed into the energy field and body of the client via light touch or hovering palms around the body. This can balance and influence internal energy frequencies to the cellular/molecular levels and into the Hara Line across time aspects. It can remove energy blocks, promote healing, calm the mind, and elevate the client’s overall frequency for new, or higher quality possibilities in mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual aspects of life. Healing Touch is safe for all ages (including in vitro), non-intrusive, and effective on plants, and other species, as well as humans.

Mentgen structured her discoveries into a consistent curriculum by 1989 as “Healing Touch.” The modality became certified by the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) and classes still today may be used for re-certification credits because of the curriculum’s uniformity and science basis. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) lists an “Imbalanced Energy Field” as a Class 3 Diagnosis. McConnell defines it as, “A disruption in the flow of energy surrounding a person’s being that results in disharmony of the body, mind, and/or spirit.”

Over time the program expanded into Healing Touch International and now is known as Healing Beyond Borders, as a non-profit international educational organization. The modality is used in over 100 hospitals in the U.S., has been taught in colleges and university medical programs, and taught around the world. Research studies are ongoing and published frequently in peer-reviewed respected journals.

McConnell’s introduction to Healing Touch was a two-part invitation during a trip to Hawaii. While visiting her daughter, McConnell and her husband Bill were invited to a seminar at which the speaker said, “Everything that happens to you is perfect.” McConnell admitted initially she had her doubts about the concept, but then she acknowledged intervention occurs in our lives. “Everything truly happens for a reason. If we allow ourselves to be present and grounded, it will teach us a lot.” Shortly after, while babysitting, she met a Healing Touch practitioner and inquired about it. The lady told her to “look it up because it was everywhere.”

When McConnell returned home, she did just that and as synchronicity would have it, the first class was at the Mercy Center…the next weekend. It was last minute, but she called to see if there was a spot available, and there was. The teacher encouraged her to come for a treatment first so she could get a better idea of what it was about before she made the investment.

Bill went along and watched the pendulum used during assessment. McConnell recalled, “At the beginning of the session, it wasn’t moving. By the end, it was moving strong. Even with his engineering mind, he admitted, ‘Something was making it move.’” Barb was intrigued with each level. Upon completion of the five levels to become a full certified practitioner, she immediately started steps to become an instructor as she knew she wanted to be able to share it. Her husband took classes, as well, and has been her faithful helper throughout it all.

It took 17 years to become a Level 5 instructor as the process is very involved to ensure instructors teach in a manner that courses can retain their AHNA credentialing. As of Nov. 4, 2024, it’s been 20 years that she has been teaching. “There were a lot of aha moments along the way,” she mused with eyes twinkling and a slight bemused smile.

Like Janet Mentgen, McConnell had been in health care. She was an LPN who worked in industry and then personnel. At one point, she had three plants of employees reporting to her. She worked in nurseries, then ER, and she loved every different experience. Along the way she trained with Dana Young of Beyoung, now Younify, and learned about the energy frequencies of essential oils and their uses for wellness.

Healing Touch added a new dimension of awareness and ability for McConnell’s work with people, animals, and general healthcare. I still recall an experience she recounted in my Level 1 class at her house. We were all seated in her comfy basement class area. Pillows, carpet, low light, shiny faces–the more you work with energy, the more likely it is that your face will start to look dewy or glow after a couple hours. She told about a time she happened upon a large bird that had been hit by a car. It wasn’t moving, but she began immediately doing the brush away field technique. After a few minutes, it came to and was able to walk, and then fly away rejuvenated.

McConnell recalled her mentor, Janet, emphasizing, “I’m charging you to teach people to feel and assess the energy. And most important, make it possible to follow that energy—give them the insight to follow it. Sure, we have the techniques, and they work, but connect with Source and do what you are being given.”

Another time she was working with a vet experiencing phantom pains around his amputated lower legs. McConnell was led to “sew” around the field of the amputation and the pain disappeared.

Certainly, she has encountered skeptics over the years. In the early years she did community talks and had booth space at different community events. Once while doing public chair sessions, a minister walked up and began condemning her. “He said, I shouldn’t be there and what I was doing was evil.’ I was able to maintain my composure because I understood—he was not in a place where he could listen nor understand [the truth]. So, I said, ‘I honor where you are and I’m not what you think I am.’”

She offered to give him a mini session which he refused. Intuitively she felt his wife was experiencing neck pain and she offered to get rid of her pain. The wife hesitantly agreed to sit for a session and found great relief. She relayed the success to her husband. “He came back, didn’t quite apologize, but acknowledged that I had helped his wife. He conceded there must be something to it.”

The beautiful thing about giving Healing Touch is its universal benefit, a benefit and lesson that was emphasized in every class I took with Barb and other HT instructors: “Working on others is working on yourself.” In holding space, allowing intuitive universal energy to flow through us to assist others, there is healing and regulation for us as the channel, or power cord so to speak, even beyond what we should have done in self-care and self-preparation before connecting with a client.

McConnell explained that sometimes, the work can lead to unexpected and quite visceral self-healing. “At times, working on another may trigger a release of something stuck in your own self, despite grounding and shielding. The energy connects you.” Sitting in her armchair next to her crystal altar and collection of spiritual mementos, she slowly described a visit to a patient in a hospital room who had been a victim of domestic violence. Three times in the hospital room, McConnell experienced extreme dizziness, to the point that despite various grounding and other intercessions, she had to leave the room to reset and clear before starting again. It was only later as she was pulling up to a stop sign that the epiphany surfaced: It had been a prior experience of her own. “I felt lighter and more at peace after understanding.” Working through her client’s experience opened her to work through her own, simultaneously.

I’ve always thought of energy work/sharing as deeply personal and the greatest zone of unconditional love. When someone lives and breathes the work, they are sometimes blessed with gifts of new techniques. McConnell humbly experienced this blessing stemming from a 2020 heart attack.

She recalled, “The heart attack was a breeze, and I came home in a couple days. But the doctor put me on quite a few blood thinners. I had a vision: my heart was having difficulty processing the thinners. I told the doctor, but he didn’t change anything. Three months later, I had a brain bleed and a stroke from too many blood thinners.”

She and her husband had been driving their motor home up north to her mother-in-law’s home. That night in bed, repetitive questions alerted Bill to a problem, and he called 9-1-1. Her lesson of “everything happens for a reason” is clearly evidenced in the series of fortunate events involved.

“We went to the hospital in Petoskey where a wonderful neurologist happened to be in town. He said, ‘Most would go to surgery to remove the dead cells, but I believe the body will heal itself.’ (Removing any dead cells might have damaged or eliminated memories or certain functions).

She thought, “Perfect.” The doctor was confident the body could heal and recall all the memories. The timing was amazing. Her original doctor did not listen. The stroke waited until she was near a doctor whose philosophies aligned with hers and that he was the one on call in her hour of need.

It was during the following hours that the mystical gift occurred. McConnell described, “I could feel everybody working on me. I asked my guardian angels to bring the unconditional love in a way I could receive it for my highest and greatest good and that I could recognize it coming in. The next morning when I woke up, I felt like I was in a cocoon. I could feel the peace, the calm, and wonderful things going through my body. I knew it was reorganizing my cells.”

She felt rejuvenated and Bill was amazed. She healed with no adverse effects.

McConnell could recall in detail everything about the experience and later felt guided to make an energetic cocoon for a friend who had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. The friend had tried chemo, but decided it was too painful and called in hospice. She wanted to live with dignity. She accepted McConnell’s offer. The friend used the cocoon and before long her doctors told her she was in “radical remission.” They didn’t know how it happened and clarified that the cancer wasn’t spreading. The woman is still alive today.

In 2021, McConnell called a friend to whom she dictated the experience and cocoon directions. “I began giving it to my level 4 and 5 students and instructors. Janet used to say, “You can’t hold on too tight [to techniques gifted to you] or they would go away.” McConnell’s eyes shone and a slight tremble seemed to pulse through the field around her.

“I want it to be out there and used,” she enthused, still visibly awed by the gifted knowledge and its blessing in her life. “My daughter believes it’s best if I formally publish it, so steps are not mis-explained by others, or its source not attributed appropriately. I get emotional because it’s awesome. Why they chose me to share it with…” she shook her head and looked down at her hands in her lap—hands that show wrinkles and age, yet energetically, still radiate the strength and grace we all share when connected and living true to our luminescence partnership.

McConnell further not, “People can get caught up in fear of what is going on with our country. I know how to stay grounded. I don’t teach being in fear. If you are worried about getting sick, work on your immune system. I never got Covid. I was not in fear of doing so. Energy work should be part of everyone’s life. I hope people will try it. We don’t know when we wake up tomorrow what will be. If people want peace and calm today, they need to experience Healing Touch.”

I sat across from her, feeling the impression of all the former students and clients that had walked through this same space. And then I looked at her—really looked to see her. She, at 80 years old, sat with a reserved smile. Knowing. Empowered in her presence. Peaceful/comfortable in her Being. Without the business and rush—she had come into herself. Her field was wide, confident, loving. She was still enthused about Healing Touch, this existence, and teaching others, but in a graceful elegance rather than the sprightly, busy whirlwind of 15 years ago.

Those that grow in their energy-understanding and practices become like powerful transformers. They are capable of moving mountains while sitting comfortably in an armchair, drinking a cup of tea, keenly aware of what is in front of, as well as beyond, their physical eyesight and proximity. The guides have recognized her zeal and commitment to share wellness with compassion. May others, stirred by her journey or words, follow the invitation to learn more for their sake and those they care about.

You can find classes in Healing Touch® by looking online at healingbeyondborders.org/ and visit the Healing Touch clinic in Farmington Hills with information available at healingtouchcenter.info/Healing_Touch/Welcome.html.

Michelle McLemore is a freelance writer, energy wellness practitioner, stress management guide, and workshop presenter for schools, businesses, and one-on-one clients. Her background as an English, history, psychology, and writing teacher supports personalizing client self-care for creating balance and enhancing vitality. Learn more at michellemclemore.com or facebook.com/MichelleMcLemoreHealingGuide. You can reach out ro Barb McConnell at barbmcconnell7@gmail.com.