Andrea recently completed her Complementary Therapy Placement, here at the Hospice.
She was introduced to Willen Hospice after completing an online course with Marie Duggan’s Butterfly Touch Therapies and wanted to gain practical experience of using her Reiki training to help people receiving end of life care.
To begin with, Andrea says she was unsure how she could help our patients and recalls;
“I remember my first day at Willen Hospice, walking through the car park and thinking “I’m not worthy of being here… how can I help these people when even the medical profession can’t save them”.
By the time she left that first day she had a true understanding of how our therapies improve the quality of life of our patients.
“Every day I spent at Willen Hospice reminded me that we are not there to save people, we are there to offer comfort, support and provide an increase in wellbeing.”
Every patient finds their own way to improve their wellbeing, some may learn to shut out negative thoughts and worry for a short time, while others may benefit from relaxation sessions.
Andrea details how patients and their families would look forward to her Reiki sessions as they’d often have to endure many more daunting appointments on their end of life journey.
“It means everything to them and it means everything to me and I’m so proud to be able to do my bit to help.”
Andrea is looking forward to continuing her work at Willen Hospice in the future.
Find out more about our Complementary Therapies here
