By Colby Gaines
The newly opened Wellness Awakening Center at 85 East Fairmount Avenue in Lakewood, New York, offers a therapeutic experience for anyone willing to listen. After the owner and founder, Joy Reiss, learned of spiritual sound hearing years ago, she hasn’t let off the pedal in striving to help others. Reiss has since achieved a diploma in sound healing and is now a sound healing practitioner, but even bigger than the diploma was the realization of the gift that she had: “I can’t do surgery, I can’t fix a broken bone…But what [doctors] can’t fix, I possibly can,” said Reiss.
Sound healing is the practice of using specific instruments and vibrations to balance and heal the body, mind and spirit. These vibrations help tap the brain into a state of meditation and peace, which subsequently allow the recipients to release stress, anxiety and tension. “We listen with our ears, but the vibrations from the sound of each instrument go into the body on a cellular level and start repairing,” said Reiss.
The healings offered at the Wellness Awakening Center take place in either individual or group sessions of up to eight people. During these sessions, Reiss uses Tibetan bowls to survey the energy field in one’s body, sense where it may be low or high, and then relocate and evenly distribute the energy throughout the body. She then applies a tuning fork to clear the body’s meridians, or internal highways. Finally, she concludes by using Japanese chimes, American Indian hand drums and gongs to send frequencies to the mind that create peace and well-being.
The success of the local business so far has allowed Reiss to travel and show others her gift of healing. “I keep getting speaking engagements now, too. People are asking to come and talk to them and demonstrate what we do here. I bring my gong, a crystal bowl and a Tibetan bowl, and demonstrate to everyone how they work…People love it. I put them in what’s almost like a trance, they fall asleep, they don’t want to leave.”
But the Wellness Awakening Center isn’t just a location for people who are generally stressed. It has allowed Reiss to connect with countless adults and children with illnesses, disabilities and trauma, too. “I recently bought tuning forks that are attuned to your brain waves, because I’m getting ready to work with children that have had behavioral problems,” said Reiss. “There’s something for everyone.”
Reiss recounted a couple of memorable experiences with her spiritual healing. “I treat a cancer patient that I’ve been seeing for almost a year now—she’s had zero side effects from the chemotherapy and radiation. She keeps handing my business cards out, telling others around her, ‘Go see her, she won’t let you feel this way’. Obviously, I haven’t undone anything the doctors were doing, but I helped the patient with the side effects from the drugs. I don’t cure people, but I heal them. Because healing something doesn’t mean it no longer exists; but it no longer controls your life.”
Reiss described another experience with a veteran. “I’ve worked with a war veteran that has PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). They’re doing extremely well now…It’s amazing to see. I’m very grateful that I have the ability to help people.” Reiss has worked with those with Down’s Syndrome, Autism, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, abuse victims, men, women and children alike. “I would work all day to try and heal someone if I had to,” Reiss said. “I love humanity and I love to help other people.”
When asked what she wants people to know about the business, she said, “It works. Every time I go into the group room and bang those gongs, that same frequency goes right through me, so it heals me also. It’s truly a great experience, I can assure that.”
Aside from sound healing sessions, there is also a retail section where you can buy Himalayan salt lamps, tarot cards and incenses. Sessions at the Wellness Awakening Center are available by appointment, and more details can be found by calling 561-701-1455, or emailing wellnessawakening43@yahoo.com.