This is a guest post by Janine, Certified BodyTalk and Holistic Health Practitioner and Certified Reiki Master/Teacher

Reiki holistic wellness for the workplaceWorkplace health challenges such as postural discomfort and repetitive strain injuries arise for a variety of reasons. The symptoms you feel or see in your back, neck, shoulders or wrists are merely your body trying to communicate with you, and by quickly medicating the symptoms, we miss the opportunity to listen for the actual cause. Consequently, the symptoms often return.

Rather than endure bothersome side effects of pain killers and muscles relaxants, holistic healing therapies can assist you in recovering quicker from pain and tension naturally, without pills.

In BodyTalk, the practitioner draws upon your whole story – lifestyle, genetics and history – to establish a personalized approach. The techniques are designed to restore effective communication between all cells in the body-mind complex so your body can and will heal itself.

A certified BodyTalk practitioner is trained to look at and listen to the whole person, incorporating the emotional, physical and environmental factors that influence workplace challenges. This way the true underlying causes of disease and discomfort can be revealed and addressed for lasting change.

Reiki is another holistic therapy. It is a system of subtle, vibrational therapy facilitated by light touch that has no medical contraindications. It focuses life force energy drawn by the client to naturally balance the biofield and strengthen the body’s ability to heal itself. The results assist to release the tension and pain in the muscles, tissues and joints. Reiki has been documented in many U.S. hospital studies, shown to effectively decrease pain and induce relaxation to speed recovery from injuries and illnesses, assist in pre- and post-operative care, and reduce chronic pain.

Innovative employers recognize the effectiveness of holistic healing therapies and want to give employees more options to meet individual needs and preferences relating to health and workplace wellness. As a result, we’re glad to see holistic healing therapies become increasingly available in the workplace.

One example is Halton Healthcare Services (HHS), who provides their employees with a unique holistic wellness program called Kailo. Kailo originated in Iowa in 1997 and began as a two-year pilot project for HHS in 2005. It includes relaxation methods like yoga, tai chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction, as well as sessions in everything from cooking to crafts to brain gym. The Kailo program contributed to HHS receiving a GOLD Quality Healthcare Workplace Award by the Ontario Hospital Association in January 2014.