We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vara Kaiser. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vara below.

Vara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

When I started my business in 2022, I had been a stay at home parent for 10 years. My background was in social work, and we had become foster parents in, but I was not working outside of my home to make income. Foster care is actually a big reason for why I became interested in Reiki-I was raising kids who were very young but had a lot of trauma already, and it was hard to find interventions that supported their level of need. I decided to go the spiritual route, and got interested in Reiki as a modality to support them. It did and does help kids, but I will say that I realize now, the real reason I found Reiki was for myself.
I have done a lot of deep healing since I started this journey, which allows me to trust myself and move through traumas from my past, especially childhood in different ways, how I’ve worked through my own hurt deeply informs my practice in my business.
So after being at home for a long time, on a whim, I took a part time position at a crystal shop, and one thing led to another and I got trained in reiki at that business and started my own reiki business within a few months.
What I’ve learned from starting my business, is that I can trust my instincts, that taking a risk can be SUCH a fun adventure, and that I am capable of expanding and doing something totally new and unexpected- I have the ability to change and adapt.
I love what I do, and I have learned so much about myself, but I probably wasn’t brave enough yet to do spiritual work before I started that job at the crystal shop. When I think about starting Fox and Hawk (my business) earlier or later, I know that the timing was just right for me to begin when I did.

Vara, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an intuitive healer, and a Reiki Master- I provide one on one and group energy healing sessions for women. Energy healing is a holistic practice where healers channel universal life force (or healing energy) to a client’s body to help balance, heal and remove blockages from the body. For people that are not familiar with energy healing I like to offer this explanation from my own life: after reading and studying how trauma impacts us, I had a different understanding surrounding the energetic impact of our life events. Basically, our day to day living, does impact our body on an energetic level, both positively and negatively. To give an example, when we go through an event in which our voice and stories are forcibly silenced, that may show up in our bodies as tightness in the throat or jaw clenching. Our body has received the message that our voice is not wanted, and that manifests as a physical symptom, like muscle tightness. So, what can we do with that?
Each person is unique and so is their energy, so there is no one size fits all energy work prescription, and that’s where the intuitive part comes in. I’m very careful to emphasize that a client is their own expert in every session. A client is their own best healer, because they are truly the singular expert on their own life so in that way, our sessions can be a beautiful space to co-create the healing experience. Clients bring their expertise, and I bring mine.
As a person who’s done their own emotional healing work for over a decade, I also value and prioritize being trauma informed in my energy healing sessions. Making sure a client is safe and comfortable is paramount because it’s the springboard for healing. I will offer narration so a client is comfortable with the process, I am always hands off as a way to maintain safety for the client and I am frequently checking in with the client to gauge what they are experiencing throughout the session.
I am also a social worker, and training to be a therapist now, so I am incorporating my graduate level learning of therapeutic techniques into my healing sessions as well. Letting my practice grow as I grow, has been one of the joys of this work- it’s natural for my business to evolve with me, and I’m so excited to begin offering more therapeutic services in the upcoming year.
At its best, working with me is a gateway to transformation and moving through unneeded energy that’s been stored in your body. At the very least, it’s an extremely relaxing experience, where you can be assured you are safe and given unconditional positive regard.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

So many times! But the big one that comes to mind was just 6 months after I started my business, I found myself without a physical space to work out of. Overhead is expensive, and I was having trouble finding a place that I liked and could afford. So, I found myself packing up all of my healing tools, and putting it all away, not knowing if I would continue. On a whim I began offering in home sessions, where I would travel to peoples houses. Surprisingly, I had many interested clients, and I sustained my business that way for 6 more months. For me, that was such a surprising twist, because doing in home services was not something I had even thought of originally, but in a pinch, it kept my business alive until I could find another physically landing place that I was excited to commit to. So many times I thought I would just stop doing the business all together, since it was not going how I wanted it to go, but since I maintained a little flexibility I was able to continue it and gain some loyal customers. I also proved to myself that I am resilient and innovative, and I love that about myself now.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

My group sessions and events are my main way that I meet new people. I will sell crystals at vendor fairs, host monthly moon circles and collaborate on wellness events. Getting the chance to meet people in person, is what I love to do(though many people also find me online), and that way I gain clients who genuinely align with my offerings. Potentially your healer would be a long term relationship, someone who you continue to visit as you go through various life stages, so it helps if you feel safe with them, like they understand you and have insight into the place you’re in.

Contact Info:

• Website: Foxandhawkenergy.com
• Instagram: @foxandhawkenergy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076756376184&mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Empirical Affair Photography and Israel Nichole Photography