Mary Walters ~ The Soul Soother

This article was in the February 2024 issue of the Hillgrove Avenue Magazine as a part of their local ‘Women in Business’ series.

“Everything that can affect us, from pollution to viruses to negative news, starts out energetically before it can impact the body,” said Mary Walters, master Reiki trainer and certified practitioner of energy medicine. “Most people come to me for pain, anxiety or simply to find purpose and help in processing life. When you strengthen your energy body, you can better deal with the things you can’t control before they cause physical or mental symptoms.”

Walters, a lifelong La Grange resident, understands there’s a higher power governing life’s journey. After securing her pilot’s license and a brief stint studying aeronautical engineering at Oklahoma State University, her eyesight prevented her from pursuing a high-flying dream. She returned home in search of a true passion and a career that spoke to her heart. A fateful suggestion to explore nursing flipped a switch in her, she said.

“There was this knowing that I very rarely had felt; that this was the right path—I needed to do this,” said Walters, who attended nursing school at Marian University in Indianapolis, and took on the exciting role as an ER nurse.

Ten years into nursing and following a divorce, she embraced her early love of flying and exploration as a travel nurse. In 2012, she took her work global as a member of Holland America’s on-ship medical staff, where she traveled country to country over the next five years. From hospitals to cruise ships, Walters continued to listen to the voice inside her, until it urged her to pivot once again.

“The healthcare system was starting to become more about money than patient care,” she said. “I couldn’t be the kind of nurse I wanted to be any longer.”

In 2018, as Walters reflected on her next step while digging deep into her home library, a book called out to her. Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine was a non-fiction manual that had sat unread for ten years. She considers it a sign to this day that the book resurfaced for her at that moment.

“It wasn’t the right time in my journey, I suppose; but as I read it, again there was this knowing,” Walters said.

By the next year, she had signed up to train as a practitioner.

Having received Reiki years ago as part of a massage, Walters decided to dive deep into “Holy Fire” Reiki, a practice that channels a higher vibrational energy. She attended training at the Michigan headquarters with a goal of becoming a master trainer to not only channel at the highest level but also teach others.

“Reiki meets the person where they are,” Walters said. “We all have our own vibrations or frequencies, and Reiki raises each person’s vibration accordingly.”

The sessions are touchless, the client lying flat on a massage table, or even connected virtually to the practitioner. Throughout the process, an intense sense of calm persists, and often manifests itself in muscle- twitching, tingling or floating sensations for the recipient. Energy work, Walters said, can be quite detoxifying. Above all else, she embraced the intuitive power of Reiki.

“For the most part, the practice is going to do what’s best for you and for your highest and greatest good, regardless of what you think that may be,” Walters said of clients who expect to be treated for a particular pain, and find relief from an often-undiagnosed inflammation as well. “When the body comes into balance, it starts to triage itself.”

When her business formally launched in January 2020, Walters’s Reiki clients became curious about the additional modalities she offered. Eden energy medicine more broadly explores key systems like meridians, chakras, and auras. The work addresses a client’s muscles through kinesiology-based testing.

“While Reiki is very passive, energy medicine is an active session where the client is very much involved,” she said of the more time-intensive practice. “Over the course of the sessions, we’re looking for your chronic energetic issues that are causing your symptoms. If I see ten different people with high blood-pressure, they’re going to have gotten to that place energetically in ten different ways.”

Perhaps the most meaningful revelation for Walters’s clients is that her energy work is not limited to humans. In fact, she said animals are much more attuned to energy, just as they sense higher sounds and frequencies. Through a method known as “let animals lead,” Walters presents an approach that treats dogs, cats and other pets with Reiki in a non-threatening space.

It’s clear that Walters has embraced her love of animals, and her office boasts a sprawling tree sparkling with rainbow-colored lights and dozens of polaroids of four-legged clients. Her business supporting animals and their owners has proven so fruitful that she plans to lean in more on intuitive coaching and the bond between owners and their pets.

“Our animals have a soul contract to be in a human’s life for a period of time, and to work on certain lessons with that person,” Walters said. “Our pets know everything about us, about our jobs, all of our emotions, and they communicate that to me almost telepathically.”

Owners will approach Walters seeking help with a behavioral issue, and in much the same way that she channels energy, she engages directly—and most recently virtually—with the animal as the subject. She works to better understand those life lessons, and indirectly, heals both owner and pet.

“A lot of times, the animal and the human will have the same issues, like anxiety,” Walters said, noting that most owners will prioritize their animal’s care before their own. “They’re mirroring the human’s issues to get the human to focus on their own issues.”

Today, Walters finds the growing popularity of these sessions linked to a shift felt within one or two meetings. Reiki sessions tend to work well as a series for her clients, but offering her services virtually has made it easier than ever to seek help. A constant learner, she’s also enhanced her offerings with training in frequency- specific micro-current, a treatment that can be combined with her energy work to deliver care through nerve-targeting paddles.

Walters is most fulfilled sharing her practice, and the concepts behind energy medicine, with clients far and wide. In addition to a robust YouTube channel @Innergizingreiki, she offers private classes to small groups interested in diving deeper into popular energy themes like “calming stress and anxiety,” “balancing hormones” and “releasing pain.”

In reflecting on her journey as a healer, Walters has no doubt that she is where she’s meant to be.

“This is what I was seeking for patient care,” she said. “Now I’m targeting the source, rather than just handing over a pill. I feel like I’m actually helping because I’m directly addressing those issues.”

Women in Business