Calmness and tranquility pervades the uncluttered, warm space that is rich with dark wood and smells faintly of tea.

Mary Rieger, who has been on the Hill since 1976, is the founder of Healing Arts of Capitol Hill. She opened her door in November of 2000 to practice acupuncture and now includes other holistic healers, including massage therapists, and most recently, a past life regression and Reiki therapist, and two psychotherapists. “It gives me joy to offer so many ways for families to care take their health,” Mary says.

Acupuncture
I went to Mary on the advice of a friend because I had horrible allergies – my eyes were murky, and prescription drops didn’t help. Now I am simply allergy-free. Of course, everyone wants to know if acupuncture hurts. There are some spots that feel nothing, some that make you wince, and some in between, but any pain quickly fades away. Acupuncture treats the body as a whole, physical and mental. My ease of mind is evident – I am less scattered, more grounded, a better parent for it.

Mary suggests a beginning block of treatments to get the body on track, after which the frequency of treatments is up to you. “It’s amazing how it can help – people who are really sick, or with pregnancy, fertility treatments, joint and muscle pain, anxiety, depression,” she explains.

Children can greatly benefit from acupressure – mine have. Mary uses special Japanese tools for children that do not pierce the skin. Acupuncture works wonderfully alone or in conjunction with other healing arts.

Massage
Reya Mellicker and Ruth Anne Keister use therapeutic massage, including Swedish, deep tissue, Shi’atsu, and prenatal as a healing art. Massage increases circulation, which is often the root problem of many physical conditions – headaches, insomnia, always feeling cold. Massage therapy is no longer seen as self-indulgent, but as a path to wellness.

Reiki
The Japanese healing art of Reiki is a shifting or harnessing of energy, to allow it to flow through the body, and is done fully clothed and without touch. Reya Melliker is a Reiki Master, as well as a massage therapist.

Dr. Serena Cekan is a new member of Healing Arts of Capitol Hill. Her profession in healing is two-fold; she does past life regression therapy as well as Reiki. Often the two disciplines work together, and they blend with the benefits of acupuncture and massage. Serena feels the quality of the energy by scanning her hands above the body, noting the quality of the seven chakras (centers of being along the body, including the solar plexus, heart and throat). She then moves away the energy that is not helpful, such as energy belonging to others, or energy that is stuck in one place. “If you have an injury, the body will respond by sending a lot of energy to that part to heal it. … There can be a lot of emotion, and you’ve got stuck energy,” Serena explains. “You can be hurt physically, you can be hurt emotionally. People who are sexually abused shut down their sexual chakras.” The lasting effects of Reiki include relaxation, higher immunity, reduced heart rate and blood pressure, and lessening of pain and anxiety. There are no negative side effects, no chance of harm.

Past Life Regression
Past life regression, the other part of Serena’s healing, is a mental exercise in finding why one is drawn to a person or geographical location, enduring a chronic feeling (perhaps repression or anger), or an unexplainable aversion to something – like a fear of swimming, or a strong loathing of dogs. “All of us have had many, many lives. Very rarely do I find someone who has had only two or three,” she says. Past life regression therapy can help us understand ourselves, bettering our relationships with others and with ourselves (and maybe with dogs).

The session includes visualization, not hypnosis, as Serena walks one through a series of mental paths that will lead to realization of former selves. One person that Serena met always felt tired and weighty. During the session, Serena felt braces on the woman’s leg. “I was a slave,” the woman realized. The result is that this woman has now shed the chains that she has retained at some level within, and is now so very happy and unburdened. The benefits of self-understanding can result in stronger attachments to loved ones, and a validation of the path chosen in work and life.

Mediant Energy Work
Dr. Andrew Parfitt offers mediant energy work. It is difficult to explain what he does, because as a scientist, formerly with the National Institute of Health, Andrew hesitates to assign words to what he does not fully understand – the energy and what he does with it, why, and how. After calming himself, he places his hands over clients as they lie fully clothed. Where to put his hands “is something that occurs to me … but I have grown to trust it,” he says. Andrew does not want to know why a client has sought his services; the less he knows, the more clarity he has in treatment. “It is the process of being compelled to a certain place [of the body]. The freer I can be … the more effective.” Andrew has not yet worked on a pregnant woman, but imagines the experience to be akin to when he worked on a mother as she held her baby to her chest, “an appropriate combination … really very nice,” he states, in his lovely British accent. Like with Reiki, there is no possibility for harm when working with energy.

Psychotherapy as a Healing Art
Amy Hunter and Josh Greene, licensed independent clinical social workers, recently joined with Healing Arts of Capitol Hill to help individuals and families live to their full potential by working through issues under clinical supervision. Josh explains how psychotherapy fits in at Healing Arts. “Healing is about the mind and body and how they are integrated. I think it’s helpful to talk out loud about an experience,” he says. “There may be people who are already engaging in the healing arts … who want to go deeper.”

Amy points out that, “People respond differently to different modalities of healing … some people respond better to body work … some to ‘talking’ therapy.” There are also issues that may be realized in healing, and she can help people “explore more with the help of psychotherapy.”

Amy and Josh are married (to each other), and also offer therapy to couples as a couple.

Give Inner Peace a Chance
Yours truly is not a gentle free spirit, but an often brusque, beef-eating, right-leaning sass who is utterly amazed at what Healing Arts of Capitol Hill can do for a person. It is a center of wellness – even walking into the tranquility of it can to do a body good. See for yourself, perhaps at the meditation session, held every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., free and for all levels of experience. Do yourself a favor; give inner peace a chance.

Healing Arts of Capitol Hill, 320 G St. NE. 202-544-9389 or www.healingartscapitolhill.com.