My dog, Foxy, and I are enjoying the refreshing shade outside of the Starbucks on 7th street. A tall woman dressed in bright purple scrubs approaches the table energetically. I catch just a brief glimpse of the warm smile before she slips on her face mask. I can hardly believe the woman standing before me is already 79 years old. Her Atrium Health name badge reads “Spiritual Care”, and I can’t think of a better label. Whenever I am in Rosemary’s presence, I feel cared for and unconditionally loved. She often uses words like thank you and appreciate, and cannot stop herself from saying good things about other people.
I asked Rosemary if I could interview her because she is an inspiration. Her story tells of having many callings in life (we do not have to stick to just one) and how we have glimpses into our calling early on in life.
Before we begin the interview, she thanks me for a book recommendation, saying that she loved the way the author opened up the concept of time. She goes on to say how we all have power in the present moment to change, even to change our past. We can heal our past and make it new. Rosemary can see this happen through her work giving Healing Touch sessions at the hospital and even in her own life.
Rosemary spent most of her life as a wife and a mother of 6. She then became a grandmother of 10 and a caregiver for her own mother until she passed at age 93. Once Rosemary’s children were grown and her mother had passed, an opportunity emerged for her to embark on a new mission in her life. At the age of 72, she decided to go back to school to explore Energy Healing because a nurse friend told her about a class that she took on it. Rosemary has now been a certified practitioner of Healing Touch for 2 years and gets paid through a grant at the hospital. Nurses from all different units of the hospital request her help with anxious patients…patients who do not find relief with standard meds for pain or anxiety. These consist of patients screaming or crying to no avail or suffering from fears like claustrophobia. Patients suffering through withdrawal who cannot have painkillers, request Rosemary’s hands to ease their pain. Rosemary has also volunteered at the Pink House (for Breast Cancer Patients and Survivors) and Hospice.
How did you get called into Healing Touch?
“Always in my heart I knew that there was this.” She says holding her hand over her heart. When she was in her early twenties, she read the book, Dear and Glorious Physician by: Taylor Caldwell. While she was reading this book about St. Luke’s performing of healings, she heard an inner voice say, “YES! We used to do that.”
She then recalls an experience when she was 42, where she had a peritonitis infection that she believed would kill her. The medications didn’t seem to be working and she had a near death experience. She woke up in the middle of the night knowing she was going to die. “It wasn’t like going through a tunnel or anything like that. Because of the pain, I had on a lot of heating pads, but all of the sudden, I wasn’t hot anymore. I became a part of everything. In other words I wasn’t just me. I felt my energy expanding out. It was like going through a veil and then feeling liquid love pouring over me.” After that experience, everyone told her she was different. She could feel how she was different– looking at everyone with all the love in her heart, and seeing how we are all one. Later on, when she was learning about spiritual healing at the Level 3 Healing Touch class, she believed that she had experienced a spiritual healing in that moment of infection. All she could feel was joy. She thinks that was the beginning of her call to be a healer.
What are some of the experiences you have had healing people?
Her very first experience of giving a session to someone outside of the class was going with another practitioner down to a Baptist Church. An elderly woman who needed a surgery was too afraid to have it and kept putting it off. “By the grace of God, I had just happened to read of the method of the Chakra Spread being used for pre-surgery the night before. So that is what I did.” After she did this method, the woman said, “That just knocked the wind right out of me! I was seeing such colors! I saw my surgery, the whole thing, and even my scars! I believe you were here to let me know that I could go through this.”
Another case that sticks out was a young man working through drug addiction at the hospital. After working on him, he said, “You changed my life. I am so glad I consented to this.” He no longer carried the guilt from his past. This was a healing of his past.
Several patients working through addiction have mentioned having heavy black energies pulled out of the solar plexus area or down their legs and out their feet. Or the patient who refused to have an amputation. She believed she would rather die than have a prosthetic. She was so sick. During her second session she saw her mother, who was deceased, and they had a conversation which lead to the patient having the amputation. Rosemary being with the patient pre- and post-op and until her discharge gave her great comfort.
What obstacles have you faced in your healer’s journey?
Rosemary faced both internal and external obstacles. Internally, she had doubts about her healing abilities and was not sure if she would complete all 5 levels of training and go on to certification. But during her Level 4 class, her teacher gave her some advice that transformed how she began each session. She felt more grounded and confident after that. “Everyone would tell me about their positive experiences!“
Externally, the hospital wasn’t a welcoming place to energy workers when she started there in 2016. It took patients telling about their experiences, and the staff members feeling the benefits, to make the powers that be take notice. Rosemary remembers learning about the nurses’ retreat and hearing that it consisted of things like classes on how to chart. She wondered, “Where are the massages and the pedicures? What kind of retreat is this?” So her and a friend decided to offer 20 minute Healing Touch sessions at the retreat. Now the slots for Healing Touch sessions fill up quickly and there is not enough time to give all the nurses a session at the retreat!
What part does your faith play in your work as a healer?
Rosemary questioned issues in the church ever since she was 9 years old and never liked the ways people were made to feel guilty or left out. She believes we are all connected and we are all one. When she meets someone at the hospital, she tells them that she holds their feet to remind herself that she is a servant of all God’s children. She is there to remind them of unconditional love. She wants to bring everyone back to that place of belonging and wholeness. Once she touches the client’s feet, God is flowing in her and the client. She feels like God, the client, and her are all doing a dance, and it cannot get anymore perfect than that.
As we part ways, Rosemary wraps me in a bubble of light that I can immediately feel. And that’s what everyone, not just healers need—
to bless and be blessed.
So thank you, Rosemary.
About the Author: Julie Glaser is a healer who creates sacred spaces for people to share, release, and grow. She’s in the habit of being in awe and wonder and writes to share her own experiences and curiosities with other inquisitive souls in the process of transforming.
Spiritual Direction and Healing Touch Energy Therapy 