We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allison Kennelly a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Allison, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
One of the defining moments of my career came when working with a new infant client that was unable to feed and maintain weight. His mouth had severe structural issues that were impeding his ability to suck and gain milk from a bottle or breast. Because he could not effectively nurse, he was undernourished and failing to gain weight. The doctors he visited either missed or ignored the structural issues and chose to focus solely on the weight gain struggle. They decided the only option was to have a feeding tube inserted. I knew that life on a feeding tube would be challenging and much of daily living that we take for granted would not be achievable for this child. He would forever be at the mercy of tube feedings for his sustenance and eventually his muscles would atrophy from lack of use and development. To me, it seemed like he was being given up on and I refused to accept that.
After his parents entrusted me to begin treatment, I did extensive CranioSacral Therapy three times a week and within a few weeks we saw progress in his ability to not only maintain, but gain weight. The feeding tube, which was once a foregone conclusion, was completely abandoned and now years later he is a healthy and happy child about to start school.
This instance was a defining moment because I saw clearly the fact that many of our health care systems leave huge gaps in treating the patient’s health, the consequences of which can be dire. I saw a preoccupation with fixing symptoms rather than eliminating root causes, often without the concern for the long-term consequences for the patient. This instance solidified my goal to always heal, rather than chase symptoms, and my belief that the overall, long term well-being of our clients should always be in the front of our minds.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I began my career as a Speech Language Pathologist, but quickly became very frustrated by the medical system I saw at work. We were treating symptoms rather than seeking out the root cause of the problem and working to heal or address it. Around this time, I had the opportunity to experience CranioSacral Therapy as a means to support my own health. This form of therapy addresses dysfunctions affecting neurological, motor, and sensory systems. It is a gentle, non-invasive therapy that releases restrictions in soft tissue which frees the body to heal itself. CranioSacral Therapy can help with anything from ADHD to muscular dystrophy and is commonly used to treat colic, chronic neck and back pain, migraines, emotional challenges, learning disabilities, and even strokes. In my case, it helped me regain mobility after a complex surgery. It was one of the few techniques that provided me lasting relief and after I felt its potential firsthand, I knew I wanted to incorporate it into my practice. I believed that this could be the answer to my mission to help my clients heal what was ailing them. I then spent the next few years training to become a CranioSacral Therapist through the Upledger Institute. I continue my work with Upledger today as a teaching assistant.
As my work with CranioSacral Therapy expanded and my cases became more challenging, I felt something was missing and my knowledge was incomplete. While CranioSacral Therapy touches briefly on energy, it does not expand on how supporting a healthy energetic system can promote the body to heal itself. I felt drawn to expand my knowledge of energetic healing. In researching energetic healing methods, I learned Pranic Healing was a technique that was being used in select hospitals with great success and was supporting those with challenging illnesses that eluded other medical options. Pranic Healing is an energy healing modality that focuses on cleansing and energizing with prana, or life energy. Pranic healing facilitates change not only in the energetic body, but facilitates mental, emotional, and physical changes as well. Cleansing and providing new energy to the energy body accelerates the rate at which self-healing can occur in the physical body. My fascination with this new form of therapy led me to Master Choa Kok Sui’s Pranic Healing courses and I became a Certified Associate Pranic Healer. I am continually amazed at the impact of energy on health.
I found that CranioSacral Therapy and Pranic Healing, when done in tandem, are more effective than either is on its own. Results come faster, changes are deeper, and I can address a broader range of ailments. I have successfully used Pranic Healing with clients with a vast array of concerns including kidney failure, depression, migraines, stress, muscle tension, nervous system dysfunctions, vision challenges, and decreased mobility, to name a few.
My journey that began in speech therapy has winded and twisted. As I kept the goal of healing root causes, not treating symptoms, in the forefront of my mind, it led me to CranioSacral Therapy and Pranic Healing. These two modalities share the commonality that they support the body’s self-healing mechanisms. The treatments are gentle, rather than the dramatic procedures associated with modern medicine. They allow the body to heal itself, naturally, without chemicals, operations, or other harsh treatments. It is the ability to help clients feel meaningful, natural change, rather than chasing symptoms and side effects that is what I am most proud of and what keeps me excited about my work.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The vast majority of my business comes from client referrals. I find the best way to foster new clients is to treat your existing clients really well. Personalized care and thorough, considered, treatment that actually addresses the underlying problem is what I practice because I want to see my clients significantly improve. It is the only way I feel that I live up to the term “healer” and it brings me peace knowing that I have done everything that I can to improve my clients’ health. Many of the people I treat have been suffering from chronic conditions and/or a particularly difficult circumstance. For them, the culmination of all the treatments they have received elsewhere has been little relief or only a temporary reprieve. When I am able to methodically treat them with consistent, diligent work, and they experience a sustained improvement in their health for the first time in years, they spread the word. And since my practice is done from a distance, I am able to treat people anywhere on the globe.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The biggest pivot of my life came in 2020. I decided to move in the spring and found myself house hunting as the pandemic lockdowns began. Before moving, my practice had been largely in-person CranioSacral Therapy and Pranic Healing sessions from my Phoenix office. Now, I was itinerant, with no set base of operation, at a time when in-person treatment was being suspended. I had the precarious juggling act of finding a home, running a business, and redefining my practice while hopping between Airbnb’s.
My amazing client base followed me during this transition and adopted the distance/remote Pranic Healing and CranioSacral Therapy model. A positive, yet unforeseen, consequence of this transition was that my clients found distance sessions to be even more effective than in-person sessions. Their feedback cemented my belief that this would be my new way of practicing going forward. My clients and I are still loving these distant treatments. They are able to integrate the work we have done from the comfort of their homes without needing to jump in the car after a session to fight traffic to get home. I am also able to treat people on other continents that would have been previously unable to meet me at my office.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.azpranichealing.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azpranichealing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AZPranicHealing