Kathmandu:

It is spiritually oriented. It’s not something you do for money but with a sincere wish to help others. I felt I had a calling for it,” says Dr Paula Horan who has been working as a massage therapist and is famous for popularising Reiki energy healing in India.

She says, “Massages help you release suppressed emotions that have been buried deep within you and helps you become free from it. Massages help you to relax and reduce tensions. But one needs to visit the right place and get it done by someone who knows the right way of doing it, as it requires high levels of sophistication.”

With her knowledge and experience as a psychologist, Reiki master, author and seminar leader, Dr Horan has inspired and brought a positive change in the lives of many. Though Horan studied sociology and English literature in Britain, she went on to do her MA (focusing on dance therapy) and her PhD in Psychology from California. She feels that she has finally found what she loves doing the most working as a massage therapist.

A first of its kind Kathmandu Academy of Spa and Health Sciences is being opened here. It aims to be one of the most professional and reputed spa training centres around. Further explaining her venture she says, “In the West it has become very sophisticated. We want to help educate people about jobs for healers in Nepal, give them an indepth knowledge.”

“The mindset that people have about massage centres here was the same as in the US. But the attitude has changed and people now understand the true essen-ce of massaging and its be-nefits. That is what we want to do, change the negative attitude of the people to a positive one,” she adds.

“The most incredible therapists in the world are believed to be Thais, and we hope to train our therapists with even greater skills than them,” she says.

Dr Horan feels that it is not only necessary to have skilled hands but one should have a meditative presence as well. By tuning in one should know which skill you have to choose at a particular time on a person because each one has a completely different effect on each person.

For those interested in taking the course, the minimum qualification is Intermediate level. They have four different modules. The first and second module will be of eight days, after which you will be qualified to work in the day spa they plan to open here or one of their centres in India. “But Module 4 is very advanced. After learning that, one will be able to cure people the way orthopaedics do,” says Dr Horan.

Besides this they will also be giving intensive training for the Management level students, who will get a chance to learn about the therapies along with managerial studies.

(Dr Horan will be giving a talk on ‘Spa Therapy as Career’ at Wild Earth, Bansbari on November 24 at 3:00 pm. Call 4374178)