Tag pet health

How a Let Animals Lead® session works

Nancy Crowe 1 Comment

If you are considering Let Animals Lead® to support a beloved animal’s well-being, it may help to know more about what happens during a typical session. Let Animals Lead® is a meditation-based form of Reiki, a stress relief modality that also promotes healing.

Getting there

For in-person appointments in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, which last about an hour, I come to your home, barn, or clinic. When I arrive, we can get acquainted and talk about whatever concerns you may have. Then I’ll find a comfortable place to sit or stand near the animal. After I say a silent prayer and gain the animal’s permission to share energy, I will enter a peaceful, meditative state. The animal is free to lie still, stand, move around, eat, get a drink of water, go out for a pit stop, etc. The energy, which means the force that animates all living things, will go to work wherever it is needed.

Why it works

It works for two reasons. First, the energy comes not from me but from a higher power: God, the Universe, All That Is. There are many names. I’m the conduit, not the source. Reiki is not affiliated with any particular religious tradition, but at the same time, it is based on the notion that the energy comes from a safe, loving place where all living beings are connected.

Second, I am sharing the energy with the animals rather than doing something to them. During a session, cats or dogs will often come closer, curl up next to me, or settle in my lap, but they sometimes prefer to be a few feet away or even leave the room. That’s OK; I won’t chase after them. However they want to participate in a Let Animals Lead® session, or not, is up to them. It’s really not the same model of the Reiki client lying on the table and the practitioner moving around him or her using the hand positions.

That’s why it works. More often than not, we don’t know how, and that can be hard to get our heads around. I’m a skeptical journalist who never expected to be doing anything like this, and I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t see the benefits.

Peaceful presence

A Let Animals Lead® session is not about fixing the animal or getting rid of what’s wrong. It’s about creating and sharing a peaceful space that promotes whatever healing needs to happen. The animals usually have a better sense of that than we do, which is all the more reason to let them lead.

You and any other humans or animals present are welcome to participate and may also benefit from the session, but I generally keep conversation to a minimum during the meditation. After about 30 minutes, I will gently bring the meditation to a close and we can talk about any feelings, questions, or impressions that arose. Most animals (and humans) feel relaxed and rejuvenated after a Reiki session.

We can then discuss and/or make an appointment for further sessions. The benefits are cumulative and it helps the animal to get to know me over multiple visits, so I generally recommend a series of three sessions over 10 days to three weeks, depending on the animal’s circumstances and needs. Then I’ll be on my way, and you are encouraged to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Let Animals Lead® and animal communication

I sometimes send distant Reiki energy as part of an animal communication session. However, a Reiki session is a time of meditation and quiet healing, and an animal communication session is about gathering information and insight. So, while there is some overlap between the two, the objectives are different enough that I handle them separately. Please see my animal communication page for more information.

curious tortoiseshell cat

Four things to know before hiring an animal communicator

Nancy Crowe 1 Comment
curious tortoiseshell cat
Whether you have a mischievous kitten, an anxious dog, or a sad horse, you’ll likely benefit from working with a well-chosen animal communicator. (Image by Doris Metternich from Pixabay)

Most people who contact me for an animal communication session are trying to solve a problem — a seemingly intractable behavior issue, adjustment to change, or painful end-of-life concerns. I’m sure many of them never thought they’d consult an animal communicator.

It’s hard to make decisions when you’re upset, dealing with a million other things, or both … so here are a few points to remember as you seek the right animal communicator for you and your pet.

1. You’re already on the right track.

Considering a discipline based on listening to the animal and his or her needs means you are willing to listen and learn. Maybe animal communication is a new concept, but you love your animal. You’re willing to at least think “outside the box” in order to help.

Even if you decide working with an animal communicator is not the right move at this time, you’ll be closer to finding what will help. So stop, take a breath, and give yourself credit for this alone. 

2. Trust your research AND your gut.

Referrals from people and businesses you trust are time-honored for a reason. You can also contact local metaphysical shops. Some, like Catalpa Tree Shops here in northeast Indiana, maintain directories of healing arts practitioners. A worldwide directory of animal communicators, with paid listings and ads, is on author/teacher Penelope Smith’s Animal Talk website. (I am not currently listed here, as I did not find it especially helpful before, but you never know.)

Whether you get an animal communicator’s name from a friend, directory, or random Google search, spend some time on his or her website and/or social media pages. Pay attention to how you feel as you read. Are you calmer, or more anxious? Clearer or more confused? Does the person follow the Code of Ethics for Interspecies Telepathic Communicators, or any other code of ethics or guiding principles?

3. No one is 100 percent accurate.

I am human and can’t do everything perfectly. With God’s guidance and my own self-care, I can be present, clear, and helpful to the animal and his or her family. Any animal communicator claiming 100 percent accuracy is best avoided.

4. You’ll learn something.

If you’ve chosen a communicator with whom you feel comfortable, chances are very good that you’ll find a valuable takeaway. It could be information you can act on immediately, such as moving the litter box to a quieter place or telling your horse where you’re going as you’re loading. It could be insight into how your animal views her place in your household, or his feelings and needs as his life on earth is drawing to a close.

Animals see our gifts and struggles in a way that even the humans closest to us cannot, so you may even learn something about yourself. Nothing is ever lost by listening.

Two hands and a paw

When humans mistreat one another, animals feel it

Nancy Crowe

When people are cruel to one another, animals feel it. This happens when they experience trauma – such as witnessing the fatal shooting of one of their humans, as Renee Good’s dog did.

I would tell you it also happens when they sense the grief and pain their humans feel over such events, even far away. A horse told me last week he knew human cruelty was “out there” and that it made his beloved person feel angry and discouraged. Then he showed me an image of himself with all four feet planted firmly on the ground: “There is good.”

A few days later, after I read about the killing of Alex Pretti, one of our cats climbed into my lap and gently kneaded my chest, looking into my eyes and purring. This face-to-face kneading was a departure from her usual facing-out, turning-around-a-few- times kneading. Of course she had no idea who Alex Pretti was, what ICE is or what immigration means. No doubt she picked up on the energy and images I carried away from that news story. She knew it was something happening in the human world, and she was there providing evidence of what is good in said world.

I don’t know much about policy or politics, but I know that treating people as if they don’t matter is not only wrong but unnecessary. We can be fair to strangers of all stripes. We can ask better questions. We can, and must, create a kinder world for animals and ourselves.

(Photo by Anastasiya Lobanovskaya/Pexels)