Bonnie Lee Strange of Williamstown is an educator by profession and brings the same kind of sensitivity and passion to treating clients with Reiki and other alternative therapies as she does to teaching elementary school students.
“Basically, what I do is do healing energy work,†she said. “I don’t use every healing option with every client, of course. After reading people’s energy, or from their requests, they decide which direction the session will go.â€
She mostly practices Reiki, but she’s also an empath or an intuitive healer.
“So when I’m in a person’s energy field I can kind of feel things that are going on with them physically, emotionally sometimes,†Strange said. “And I just sit with them for a while and give them feedback of what I’m feeling and base my work on the table with what it is I find in their energy.â€
She’s trained in both Usui Reiki and Karuna® Reiki.
“The Usui Reiki is an ancient Japanese laying-on of hands,†she said. “It’s just a gentle laying on of hands in which the person who has been attuned supplies energy for the person that’s on the table. And it can go to their physical, their mental, emotional, or their spiritual needs.â€
“The energy of Reiki goes to the root cause of the problem. Often I tune into old trauma, fears, memories, events, accidents that happened in the person’s childhood or youth,†she said.
Reiki and other alternative or complimentary therapies are gaining in acceptance, and North Adams Regional Hospital recently opened a Wellness Center where Reiki is one of the therapies practiced.
Strange is part of a CAM (Complimentary Alternative Medicines) group of practitioners affiliated with North Adams Regional Hospital. The group meets monthly to find ways to support the community and each other.
She has taken classes for all levels of Reiki, and discovered empathic abilities through it — she found she might get an ache, pain, feeling, or emotion that would give her a clue of what was bothering the client and help her provide feedback to the client.
A Reiki session lasts from an hour to an hour and a half. The client is fully dressed. The practitioner will lay her hands on or near the client’s head, stomach, legs, feet, and back.
“People either fall right asleep or they’re so fascinated by what they feel that they’ve never felt before that they want to stay right with it,†Strange said. “Some people feel nothing.â€
“And some people feel so much they just are overwhelmed with the sensations that are new to them, so it depends on the individual,†she said.
People seeing her might have very minor complaints such as not feeling up to snuff to very serious conditions such as arthritis or cancer.
“I used to think it was after they’ve tried everything else that they would come to something like this,†Strange said. “But I’m beginning to find more and more that people are starting with this kind of work.â€
If she feels people need more help than she can give them, she will refer people to other health professionals.
Strange is an educator with a master’s degree in administration. She teaches sixth grade at Pownal Elementary School, where she is also an administrator.
She has been involved in alternative therapies for about seven years.
“It’s not something that I would have sought. I never even had heard of it, but about that many years ago, I had some symptoms, very painful,†she said. “I was in bed. I couldn’t lay flat on my back in bed and didn’t understand what it came from. Doctors were checking me for various illnesses. Everything came out negative, and it went on for way too long for me.â€
Finally she began to investigate in bookstores and found books about energy healing with the hands. This was also the same time a family member was very seriously ill.
“So I began to pick up books that had to do with healing of the hands, and I put my hands in various places,†she said. “And I would do more healing in a few days than it seemed I was doing in a long time in physical therapy.â€
She noted that she is skeptical about a lot of it and it has to prove itself to her, so to speak.
“But as I began to heal, and as I began to feel so much happening with the energy, then I began to be very interested in it,†Strange said.
She finds people in this area becoming more and more open to these therapies and finds much greater acceptance of such energy work by local people in the medical field.
During the school year she sees up to two clients a night and also on weekends. Not surprisingly, she has more open times during the summer when school is out.
In addition to treating clients in private sessions, she teaches various levels of both forms of Reiki.
“With children in a classroom, the thing that really drives me is being able to help them find their talents, help them find who they are and what they have to offer this world,†she said. “And when I work with my [Reiki] students, when I attune them, and when I sit with them and train them I somehow am able to tune in with their spiritual gifts and in what ways that they’re intuitive or what ways they are healers, or what their special abilities might be.
“I don’t know why that happens, but that excites me as much as having a sixth grader find out he’s an artist,†she said.
Strange works in a spacious room at her family’s home on Hancock Road.
She also practices dream healing, angel meditations, works with crystals and, with a lifelong strong connection with nature and animals, she does healing work with animals. She specializes in doing distance intuitive readings and healing work. She has had training in therapeutic touch.
“It just is so very interesting to me all the ways that people use the Reiki energy, and ... the types and varieties of things that I’ve provided for people, and the feedback that I’ve gotten has been very, very rewarding,†Strange said. “It’s interesting, it’s fun, it’s enlightening. I’ve developed spiritually so much more since I’ve been doing this work than I ever had in my past.
“And it’s just such a joy watching people heal and allowing them the energy to perhaps do that,†she added.
She can be reached at 458-3076.
Strange will be giving a free talk and demonstration of Reiki and intuitive healing at the Williamstown Public Library on Feb. 28 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
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Berkshire County Homes Celebrating Holiday Cheer
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
There's holiday cheer throughout the Berkshires this winter.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
We asked the homeowners questions on their decorations and why they like to light up their houses.
In Great Barrington, Matt Pevzner has decorated his house with many lights and even has a Facebook page dedicated to making sure others can see the holiday joy.
Located at 93 Brush Hill Road, there's more than 61,000 lights strewn across the yard decorating trees and reindeer and even a polar bear.
The Pevzner family started decorating in September by testing their hundreds of boxes of lights. He builds all of his own decorations like the star 10-foot star that shines done from 80-feet up, 10 10-foot trees, nine 5-foot trees, and even the sleigh, and more that he also uses a lift to make sure are perfect each year.
"I always decorated but I went big during COVID. I felt that people needed something positive and to bring joy and happiness to everyone," he wrote. "I strive to bring as much joy and happiness as I can during the holidays. I love it when I get a message about how much people enjoy it. I've received cards thanking me how much they enjoyed it and made them smile. That means a lot."
Pevzner starts thinking about next year's display immediately after they take it down after New Year's. He gets his ideas by asking on his Facebook page for people's favorite decorations. The Pevzner family encourages you to take a drive and see their decorations, which are lighted every night from 5 to 10.
In North Adams, the Wilson family decorates their house with fun inflatables and even a big Santa waving to those who pass by.
The Wilsons start decorating before Thanksgiving and started decorating once their daughter was born and have grown their decorations each year as she has grown. They love to decorate as they used to drive around to look at decorations when they were younger and hope to spread the same joy.
"I have always loved driving around looking at Christmas lights and decorations. It's incredible what people can achieve these days with their displays," they wrote.
The Wilsons' invite you to come and look at their display at 432 Church St. that's lit from 4:30 to 10:30 every night, though if it's really windy, the inflatables might not be up as the weather will be too harsh.
In Pittsfield, Travis and Shannon Dozier decorated their house for the first time this Christmas as they recently purchased their home on Faucett Lane. The two started decorating in November, and hope to bring joy to the community.
"If we put a smile on one child's face driving by, then our mission was accomplished," they said.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
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