AMANDA GESTETNER
FOUNDER OF COCOON – Reiki Master
Lots of people ask me where I learned Reiki, when I learned it and how. The truth is, I was born doing it. From a very tiny age, I was very aware of an “invisible, magic ball” that I would hold in my hands. I spent hours playing with this ball and I never questioned it. I instinctively knew that if I directed it at certain parts of people’s body, they would have some form of positive reaction – that somehow, it helped them.
As I grew up and entered my teens, it became too much, too overwhelming and I was far more interested in my social life than any other dimension! I told my mum about my experiences and I still maintain this was her finest moment of parenting me: she told me to consider it a gift and not a curse. Genius. We discussed my options and I chose at that point in time, to ask the Powers that Be to stop as I was scared; from that moment on, everything stopped.
A few years later, when I was around eighteen, I really felt like a part of me was missing that I NEEDED to get back. Effectively, I did the opposite ritual and it came back to me, that it hadn’t gone, it doesn’t go, it was just a choice not to be utilizing it. It also came back that it wasn’t like a light switch, to be turned on and off at my leisure – it was a craft that I was to nurture, to hone and to respect.
That’s exactly what I did.
They say that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Enter my own Reiki Master, all in divine and perfect timely order. And she is BADASSS! It took me a decade to elevate from Reiki One to Reiki Master because she made me live it, sweat it, experience it, work it and walk my talk.
Reiki is so much more than a treatment: it’s a lifestyle, a belief system, a philosophy that takes experience, practice and whole lot of honing!
I moved from London to LA in August 2015 and opening Cocoon is the physical manifestation of a passionate dream.