December 25, 2010

Reiki is a form of energy work that promotes harmony among body, mind, and spirit, and is currently available at the Initiative for Women with Disabilities Elly and Steve Hammerman Health & Wellness Center (IWD) at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. Located at 301 East 17th Street in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, the IWD provides respectful, high-quality gynecological, medical and wellness services for women and adolescent girls with physical disabilities.

Reiki is offered as a wellness service, along with acupuncture, hairstyling, massage, nutrition, and reflexology. The IWD charges only $5 for a 30-minute reiki session, which is a bargain when considering that a typical one-hour reiki session can cost anywhere from $40 to $200. The IWD also offers affordable group classes in tai chi, meditation, belly dancing, Zumba, mat pilates and yoga.

According to the IWD, reiki has benefited the recipients with increased feelings of relaxation, security, and peace; a sense of self-empowerment; and an increase in self esteem.

“All too often, women with disabilities, because we're always touched medically and by therapists, physicians, different medical personnel, we lose a sense of our bodies,” said IWD Director Judith Goldberg. "Our goal is to bring us back into our bodies through all the complementary and other modalities we have here."

Programs are open to women and adolescent girls with physical disabilities. For further information, visit the IWD website at http://iwd.med.nyu.edu or call (212) 598-6429.

Dave Gorczynski is president of SPARK, a non-profit organization that has provided free energy work sessions and workshops across New York City since 2002. He writes a regular column about energy work and meditation for the Compact News in New York City's Chinatown. E-mail him at dave@sparkenergy.org.