Outside traditional medicine and psychology, there are many approaches to healing that do recognize these nonempirical dimensions of the self and reality. These include such practices as acupuncture, shamanic healing, tai-chi, spirit releasement, herbal therapy, Reiki, and psychic healing. Soul-Centered Healing is one of these "alternative" approaches. It recognizes that there are conditions, phenomena, entities, and energies operating at these psychic and spirit levels which can cause a person conflict, pain, and confusion. The primary aim in Soul-Centered Healing is to help a person identify whether there are problems at these levels, and if there are, to help resolve and heal them.

As is so often the case, healing is not a matter of "curing" someone, but of clearing things out of the way so the natural healing process can take over. Like removing the thorn from the lion's paw; once removed, the healing begins.

The obstacles Soul-Centered Healing most frequently deals with are: 1) sub-personalities who are causing conflict for the conscious person. 2) spirits, some benign, others not, who are intruding into one's psyche and soul; 3) past-life interference and karmic relationships; 4) energetic blockages of the chakras, meridians, and auric field; and 5) the psychic intrusion by extra-dimensional beings whose reality is in consciousness, not matter. There are other phenomena and conditions, but these are the most frequent.

In Soul-Centered Healing, there is no predicting one's course of treatment. Any or all of these elements might be present and come into play during the healing process, or it may be something very specific. What is occurring at these psychic and spirit levels for each person is unique, and the course of treatment will unfold as the inner world reveals itself. The point is not in being able to predict one's healing journey, as it is to assist him or her in finding or clearing the path they are on. For one person that may involve past-life experiences erupting into consciousness; for another, it may be an intrusion by spirits; and for yet another, it could be sub-personalities dominating the conscious self and causing anxiety and fear.

While every person's inner world and healing journey is unique, what is common in the practice of Soul-Centered Healing is to work directly with each person's higher self. The higher self is a soul consciousness within each person that functions separately, and at a different level from the conscious self. As a soul consciousness, the higher self knows it is the Light. It knows, or can find out, how everything fits between the self and soul. It knows about one's present life, and it has knowledge of past lives as well. It can communicate directly with ego-states and assist them through their sharing, release, and integration. The higher self can also tell when someone or something is not part of the soul, and it can remove spirits or other intruding entities who will not vacate on their own.

In Soul-Centered Healing, the higher self plays a central role in providing information, guiding the process, and bringing Light into areas of the self where it has been blocked or disconnected.

Soul-Centered Healing works with the higher self to identify sources of pain and conflict which lie at a psychological, psychic, or spiritual level of the self. If a person, for example, is experiencing panic attacks, it's possible that an ego-state at an unconscious level has been triggered and its fear is breaking through into consciousness. The aim of healing in such cases is to identify the ego-state(s) involved and help them to share their experience to the conscious mind, release their pain, and move to integration.

It's also possible that a person's problems are being caused by spirits, discarnate souls, who are interfering with a person at a psychic level. The higher self is able to discern what is, and what is not, part of the soul. It can determine whether a person is being harassed or even intruded on by spirits. When this is the case, the higher self plays a central role in evicting and breaking energetic ties with spirits. This kind of spirit interference is not unusual and can cause a variety of symptoms depending on the person and spirit involved.

Besides ego-states and spirits, the higher self may also identify past lives as the source of a person's pain and distress. As a soul function, higher self has access to the soul's knowledge and experience and can retrieve information when needed or asked. This includes information about areas where a person's life is being affected or confused by the soul's experience in other lifetimes. Marital conflict, fear of abandonment, or depression, for example, may be a soul issue as well as personal, and have its roots in a series of past lifetimes. This intertwining of lives is not at all unusual and they can be healed and resolved just as present-life ego-states are.

While these three phenomena are the most frequently encountered, there are many other conditions and phenomena that the higher self might identify as a problem. It might find that one of the person's chakras is blocked, or that someone or something in the person's physical environment is toxic to them, or higher self might identify that pieces of the soul are missing and need to be retrieved. This is the part that's unpredictable. Once you access the higher self and inner mind, you never know what you're going to find that is occurring at the psychic and spirit levels. The higher self has the capacity, though, to assist the healer in addressing most situations.

By resolving blocks and removing obstacles, the aim of Soul-Centered Healing is to help a person open their deepest connections to the soul's Light, and to bring Light into areas that have been closed off because of fear, pain, or threat. When this opening happens, it is the Light that does the healing. Like bringing blood back to a starved limb, the Light brings life. Living each day in this Light leads a person to become more clear, centered, and confident about who they are and the choices they make.