Episode #112 Lotty Ackerman Mayer's Healing Journey: From Theoretical Physics to Reiki Mastery – Embracing Energy Healing, Somatic Experiencing, and Spiritual Integration

Reiki is a journey and not a destination , and on this Ready Set Reiki journey , I refer to myself as a guide rather than host , as I too am traveling , supporting others and learning on this Reiki journey as well , and , with that said , I am your guide , tracy C Wright . Joining me today on my journey is Lottie Ackerman-Meyer .

Now she is a mentor , trainer , guide for healers and clients who are seeking deep and transformative shifts through a blend of modern science and ancient wisdom .

Now she is an intuitive healer , a psychotherapist and an Azui Holy Fire 3 Reiki Master and Holy Fire Corona Reiki Master , trained in shamanic healing approaches and a number of other modalities for restoration after trauma , including somatic experiences and interpersonal neurobiology .

Additionally , she holds a master's in clinical social work and a PhD in theoretical physics , with expertise in working with highly sensitive or intuitive individuals . She has provided integrative trauma healing services for over a decade in organizations and private practice to support individual , ancestral and collective healing .

Now , using cutting edgeedge perspectives and traditional wisdom teaching , lottie is honored to support individuals who want to shift from old patterns and find a more authentic way to be in the world and to connect to their innate wisdom and find more ease in their body and life . Lottie , welcome to Ready Set Reiki in life .

I didn't know those words , I didn't know what that meant , right , but you know , I navigated life in those ways and I was , and I am still , you know , a curious person and by , I don't know , by life , I was actually very good at science and I was fascinated by energy , like I remember , when I was a little kid I read in a book that , like atoms , like ,

if you like , they have electrons and , if you like , give enough energy to the electrons , they shift energy levels and then , when they go down , they emit light . And I was fascinated by this . And as a kid I remember I was reading the different salts . We do this , or we go and heat the salt and see all this light .

It was pretty fun , but anyways , and so I was fascinated by all of that and I was fascinated by space and time and I was also fascinated by biology , by ourselves . I was as a kid , I was as a teenager at the point .

I was fascinated by , when I read about epigenetics , how things can pass through generations , also in our cells and our genes , even though they have the same codes , but certain things shift .

So I was fascinated by all of that and I went on to study science and I studied physics and I was very interested about it and I was very fortunate to get a scholarship and I was able to study in a center for theoretical physics in Italy . And then I came to the US for a PhD in physics , which was both a life-changing and a very stressful opportunity .

So , but anyways , and I finished that and I actually came to Austin as a researcher for a few years in the university between the physics and astronomy department , few years in the university between the physics and astronomy department and , um , and how you know , sometimes this one shares , it feels like a line , like if I'm sharing like a line , but life is not

a line , it has all these complexities and things . So it's just interesting to share , and then I share , then , oh , then I stopped doing physics and then I did social work .

It just sounds like what happened , right , but this will be a full hour of explaining this inner shift , but the summary might be that even since I kid , I was also very in my heart , very caring about with , about other myself and our people and our community and our planet and through the years I had volunteered in many organizations and communities and that's

its own story in itself . So at some point I was not passionate about the questions about physics I was researching . What I was researching was very abstract and beautiful . It was the origin of the universe and the energy composition of a universe . So it was beautiful .

But at some point those questions were not the ones that were motivating my life , even though they were beautiful and , honestly , being a researcher in academia is actually very stressful , so I was not that motivating and it was actually very stressful and I'm like I'm done , and so I wanted to support others and our communities and our planet , and so I went back

to school and I studied social work master in social work and to support our communities and each other and our planet , and in doing that I ended up specializing and doing internships in supporting the purpose of trauma , and that's its own story in itself , but maybe as part of that , right when I was learning all these different modalities and how to support each

other . I have had my own know , my own experience how those traumatic experiences feel and to me those experiences were very some of them of how those traumatic experiences feel . It was very body-based and all that I was learning was very like thought-based , you know , and I'm like this is not enough .

Thought base , you know , and I'm like I'm like this is this is not enough .

And so I I was pulled into studying something called somatic experiencing , which is has to do with embodiment and how to , how to connect with the wisdom and the language of the body , to connect with those patterns that tend to be stuck , other than five flight-freeze type of patterns , and how to help release them right .

It was interesting because I was pulled to that modality before I never met any somatic experiencing practitioner , before I have ever had a somatic experiencing session . But I knew how to do that and I did . And that is hard to explain . That training is not like a conceptual thing , it's an experience .

It's a multi-layer , multi-year and multi-layered experience , and so it was many years and a number of years also , not just supporting others but having my own personal sessions , having consultations .

So it was a multi-year experience and it was powerful and beautiful , and it helped me understand my system better and track my own system better and how to energetically track other people's systems as well you know , not all the time , but whenever somebody wants support , you know , in sessions .

So it was a beautiful experience , right , and I have also then been trying to understand , like , like , I spent a number of years understanding our universe , our external universe , and then , with this shift , I spent a lot of time understanding both my own and HR , as a human , as a community , inner universes , and so then I learned other modalities that include

the body but also include our heart and our inner worlds , right , and then I started working as a psychotherapist , mostly supporting cerebral trauma or highly sensitive folks , and that was beautiful .

And then other unfolding happened that led me towards more energy healing practices and Reiki , which opened other possibilities , but I'll speak with those probably in a little bit , so I'll let you .

I was always intuitive and then like , but then sometimes I would have this awareness , this knowing right , maybe a bit psychic , but anyways , and it will come sporadically right , and I would , oh , how interesting , how strange , interesting information , right , and then I will keep going with my life right , and then some other time will come , I'm like how interesting

and I will just keep going with my life . And then there was a period of my life , a fierce back where , um , I know , with some support and to my surprise , my energy system kind of more aligned and , um , through actually some sound and energy healing .

But that was not the point I was , I was experiencing something and to my surprise , um , this kind of awareness came much more consecutive , right , like faster , like with less gaps , and some of them were surprising to me . And I'm like what is all of this right ? I suppose what is people would call a spiritual awakening kind of thing , right .

But what is all of this right called a spiritual awakening kind of thing , right ? But what is all of this right ? And I was actually fortunate that somebody I was connecting with was honest and caring and she also shared with me her journey , because , if not , I probably would have again pushed all these things to the side and continued with my life , right .

But at some point I'm like , okay , this is all very strange and , to many coincidences , what is going on here , right , and some things were surprising , some things I had never heard about and then shared , and this is a thing and I'm like , oh my God , Okay , I don't know , but anyways , it's a long story in itself .

And during that period of time , which was kind of compressed very fast , I was pointing towards Reiki . I had never had a Reiki session before in my life either . I had never .

But I saw that the website of the person I was going to , I mean , somebody pointed me towards and I got all these goosebumps and I'm like I need to go to this class , right , and it was interesting because I need to . I need to . I need to go to this class , right , and it was interesting because I am actually , I tend to be cautious .

Um , and through life I have been , like , always wanted to connect with energy and energy healing , but part of me was afraid . Part of me was like what if ? What if something goes wrong ? And I don't understand what is going on when they're like . You know , I was never afraid that it was not going to work or it would be good , that's fine , that's great .

I'm like what is not good right . Like what if something bad happens , right , anyways .

So I was a bit afraid of it and I remember when I signed up for the class , right a few days before , I read I'm like I was reading what was in the class and actually , and I actually got afraid but I'm like no , no , no , put your left brain and you need to do this . Anyways , I went to this class with zero expectations .

I have never had a Reiki session before . I didn't know what to expect , but I'm like I need to be here . So , and after the class , it was a beautiful experience and also , to my surprise , other things open up and I'm like what is going on here ? And then I will , it allowed . I mean , the energy is beautiful and powerful .

But also through that process , kind of , my perceptions expanded and right after that class , and what was going before and right after that class and what was going before , then I was able to perceive more clearly that some of those patterns that people were coming to me for support as well as my own support , they had energetic imprints and , let's just say ,

things from non-ordinary reality and I'm like what is going on ? So , after being freaked out a little bit , you know , I was very fortunate to connect with good mentors and support , but that allowed me to .

Then I felt the calling , that the way or the knowing that the way I was practicing before was not even though it was it is beautiful it was not complete enough . It needed this extra piece of both Reiki and other energy healing practices that also bring that support and it .

One thing that I did learn through this process , to my surprise , is that there is more support than I could have guessed , not just in each other and in community that for sure you know but also even from the energetic realms and from non-ordinary reality realms . There is also actually a lot of support and that was surprising and I'm very grateful .

But the answer to your question is that no , it took me by surprise and I went to the class without knowing what it was , but I knew I had to be there and I was very coolest in the class and I'm like , okay , so anyways , that's the summary Tracy .

But sometimes it happens , but rarely right . And so there is this , this yes , the effects are not necessarily instant and we can feel better after a session , though . But , um , sometimes life changes takes its time and takes the collaboration of the human to make those changes also happen in one's life .

So the energetic helps , and then as a human , one also have choices that one can make to align with those shifts . So , yes , and sometimes the energetic takes a little bit to land in the physical form to make those shifts . So maybe that's yeah very good .

But what has been the biggest challenge or struggle that you have faced in your own healing journey ?

To summarize , like you know , I have had to navigate various type of systems like you know , I'm not from the US , and other things right and sometimes it brings stress and at some point , you know , at some point , the stress got me and I got diagnosed with a chronic illness which was hard and took a toll on my body , you know , and it was scary at times

and I am very grateful for medical care and I'm also very grateful for also overwork . The stress was system and overwork . Like to go to school I had to work a lot . Anyways , it was an overwork and stress situation that crushed my system , crushed my body , and I got diagnosed with this chronic illness .

But anyways , and so , in conjunction with medical care that I'm very grateful , those energy healing modalities have also been helpful , like Reiki , as well as more body work type of modalities , like kind of sacral work or somatic experiences . Those have been helpful for my life . Yes , that might be a summary .

So what I wish my younger self would know is that there is community of like-minded and like-hearted folks , right , sometimes in the same place , one lives , sometimes in other places and sometimes online . So there is , you know , a number of us who can be in community and support each other , right , and so there is a lot of .

There is actually support in the human realm , in our communities , right , um , and there is also supporting the energetic pieces of all . So , yes , Very good .

Usually I need to know that they are clear in their communication , they're caring and clear , they're respectful , they will understand my pace . They would not go with that agenda to see what they think I need . They would allow to see what they think I need .

They would allow invite me and respect and honor my voice , my choices , my pace and it's kind of like a collaboration . So it needs to be authentic , grounded , respectful , getting compassionate , so ethical , yes , very good , so you're a mentor , a trainer , a guide for healers . What advice would you give someone who's just entering this field of spiritual work ?

Find mentors , ethical mentors , and find mentors , because we need support , you know we all do , and and whoever each of you and each of us feel called to , to seek support and mentoring and collaboration . Um , to just be sure that it feels right , like if it doesn't feel right , something is off .

If anyone doesn't clearly know what is off , then the invitation is to pause and then figure something out you know , such as , yes , to seek mentors that are ethical and they feel right .

It doesn't need to be hiking , it's psychic any good for any practitioner . It doesn't need to be psychic Any healer , any practitioner I think is good . You know , in the book it's also good for anybody , because that way one gets a . Sometimes one doesn't know what is ethical , right .

One lives in a confusing world and we all come with different baggages and experiences , so sometimes one doesn't even know what is ethical , and so you might want to read that book and say like , oh yes , this makes sense , that kind of thing right .

Another book that I love is called Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom , scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer , and she also had podcast , I mean you can find her interviews , I think .

And that book I love because everything is interconnected on earth , including plants , but including everything right , and so that blue book talks about , respectfully and caringly , about reciprocity and interconnection . Um , so I love that interconnection of all of life . Um , another book that I like .

I just I thought I would give books in different areas , and another book I enjoy is called the Gift of the Body A Multidimensional Guide to Energetic Anatomy , grounded Spirituality and Living Through the Heart by Jonathan Goldman , which I think is a different Jonathan Goldman than the Reiki Chants . But either way , it's a good book and I haven't finished .

I haven't finished , I just started , so I don't know there haven't finished , I just started , so I don't know . I'm reading a book by Hiroshi Doi of the Reiki Gakkai about the history of Reiki , which I find interesting and important to learn as a Reiki practitioner .

So I offer individual sessions and those sessions . I have different backgrounds , different modalities , so the sessions I offer depend on each person . So each person always have a say of what modalities feel right for them in their lives , in their time .

So , um , some trendy multimodalities , some are , they're freaky , some of them somatic experiences , something has to do with parts work . They combine beautifully , um , so , before I forget , so I think I , I think I did and I forgot to mention , like when this all unfoldings and I separated my psychotherapy practice from the energy healing practice .

It has practical reasons and everybody , every practitioner , does it differently . So that's how I'm offering in this time in my life . I don't know the future , but so psychotherapy practice , this is something , this is something .

And then I have a separate practice that has energy healing with reiki , um , somatic frameworks , and some has somatic experience and interpersonal biology , that kind of thing . So the session can combine , like you know , mind , body , heart , spirit , all those integrative pathways in however way it feels right for each person .

Right , I also was , I also for this , I I really enjoy it . It's a sound , has been right across millennia and culture partner with for our well-being , right , and it's it's very powerful .

It can like you know , you're a teacher there's a lot of chant , like you know , but , like in so many you know , cultures , it's everywhere right , sound and music , and so it's beautiful and transformative , and so I'm training a . There is a particular , it's a long story in itself .

So there is an autonomic nervous system , has three parts and they have to do with how we connect with each other , how we find creativity and joy , but also our defense mechanisms that sometimes can get stuck like fight , flight freeze , appease those things sometimes can get stuck like five , flight freeze , a piece , those things .

And so this is a particular music that actually sounds normal , common , but is filter to highlight some frequencies that neurobiologically connect with our social engagement system , how we connect with each other , are in the world , and so it helps um , reset our vagus nerve , which is an important part of our autonomic nervous system right for to have space for more

connection with it , with our self , each other in the world , and so I offer that and I I put it in the energy healing practice , I paired it with Reiki and I paired it with somatic approach , depending what emerges . So that's also a beautiful offering that people enjoy .

What I was going to say , yes , but honestly I don't know exactly when the podcast will launch , or even after this episode is in your podcast . I don't know when somebody will read it , will listen to it , right . So the invitation podcast will launch , or even after this episode is in your podcast .

I don't know when somebody will read it , will listen to it , right . So the invitation is we can connect later to check in my offerings and see what is available at the time , because they shift .

So the best way to get a hold of myself and my offerings is my website .

It's called earthskyhearthealingcom , and so in that website you'll see my offerings , and at this moment the offerings are online , since I have found , to my surprise , how powerful and far-rich it can , or it can , connect and help so for my energy healing practice , that's the way you can find me through that website and I invite you to check in , because I don't

yet have a newsletter , but maybe by the time the podcast airs I will so and I think I'm going to offer some breaky shares and things like that . So I don't know exactly all the unfolding , so I invite you .

It's always changing as I unfold as well , so I invite you all to , if you feel called , to check the website to read more about myself and the offerings and see what resonates with you . Yes , thank you , tracy .

How do you describe Reiki to someone who is just hearing about Reiki for the first time ?

I hope it's not disappointing to you and the listeners of the Ready Set Reiki podcast , but the first way I would share it is exactly the same way any other Reiki teacher or practitioners have ever met Universal life force energy . Everything is interconnected and spiritually guided life force energy , because for me it does have a spiritual component to it .

Um , so , honestly , that's the way I would , but it for some people that's enough and that's beautiful and if that's enough , wonderful .

Some people might have other questions , right , and so if people have other questions , then I might go more in depth to maybe the physical background and some of them , and I'll share it , just in case that is helpful for the listeners as well and how we all explain reiki and energy to each other .

So one , uh , I'll summarize it , so one piece I will say is that , like there is a center for reiki research , that there that is ongoing research about Reiki , right , and so I would invite people to check that out if they're curious or hesitant , and that makes all sense . Being skeptical is good .

So in those research I would say of the one I have seen I haven't seen them all and I would love to learn more and they're ongoing , but a lot of the ones I have seen , it's actually very hard to do research .

So for the ones that I have seen , they are more of the testing , its effectiveness Is it effective or is it not effective in certain circumstances , like with depression , with pain , or people healing from cancer , like things like that ? Right and so . The research I have seen is that there is , that it seems to be effectiveness above of the placebo effect .

Right and so , but there is some . You know the limitations of every research has its own limitation , right and so , but it's ongoing and it's powerful . I'm so glad that it's limitation , right and so , but it's ongoing and it's powerful . I'm so glad that it's there . Right Now .

There is not , as far as I know , much research yet because that's harder of the origins or the mechanism of actions of Reiki . When people ask to explain Reiki , they're actually usually asking where does it come from ? Right , how see it ? What is this energy ? Right , so there is actually less research on that because that is hard , and .

But the piece that I would share , by the way , research in science , usually especially experimental ones , to figure out types of energy and get information for energy . They take decades , they take a lot of money , they take a large , large collaboration , sometimes from hundreds of people across the world , to make these big experiments to figure out different energies .

They're usually not smart , but anyways , what I will share is that I think a lot of people might not know is that we actually don't know a lot of our universe . So , for example , which I find beautiful , but for other people it's disconcerting , I don't know , but I find it beautiful .

So of the energy budget of the universe , the one we can see and measure , only 5% of this energy is of matter , of what we know . 25% . If for a type of matter , this is called dark matter , it just means that it doesn't connect much with the light we see , so we just see its fingerprints type thing through gravitation . You know that's its own story .

And 70% of the energy of the universe is something physicists have very little idea of what it is , but what we know is that it's expanding space-time itself . But we actually have no idea what it is right , and so , as a physicist . There is so much that we don't know that , if you ask me , but we don't know what it's like .

I'm like , oh wonderful , we actually don't know much about the universe , so bring it on , it's not a problem to me , right ?

The other thing I would say , and I , um , I was listening to a podcast recently , I don't remember when , and they were interviewing william brand about the center for reiki research and you know he was talking about the research about reiki and one piece of the end I don't remember , uh , the exact words , right , but the person interviewing him I , I think it

asked him something like is there anything that has surprised you through the research ?

You know , I don't remember the exact thing , and something that he mentioned , uh , as far as I remember , is that , like , um , some time he and a collaborator went to I think it was a lab in Stanford and they were trying where in that lab there was these detectors called squint .

They are very precise to measure electromagnetic , weak electromagnetic fields , wicked electromagnetic fields , anyways , they , what the experiment show , is that those that detector did not show electromagnetic field . And what William said , as a scientist , I'm like right on , I think that's that's the way he's like .

Well , what it says to him and I think to me as well , is that , well , it might not just be electromagnetic , it's another type of energy , and our universe has many , many types of energies , some of them we don't understand . So Reiki is one of them . But basically I just explain it as anybody else Universal life force energy , spiritual life force energy .

So I don't know if that helps or not . Very good , thank you .

. Of all the modalities that you have studied , which one has made the most impact on your healing journey ?

I can answer two or three . So at a time , somatic experiencing had a lot with embodiment and to understand myself and each other more and it was transformational . And reiki and shamanic healing and all the type of energy work brought a spiritual energy aspect to it that has been transformational . Right .

So those two , but I wouldn't want to leave out the interpersonal neurobiology piece because that explains that , helps be with our inner world , our inner part .

So I think for me the mind , heart , body and spirit are one and these different modalities , even though they all interact with all aspects of the self , sometimes for my brain they can focus more on each aspect of the stuff , but they're all in contact with it . So it's hard . I am not good answering one thing only . Yes , one thing Okay very good .

It's just that sometimes a lot of society doesn't see it that way . So we all , then no , I don't know well , most of us , uh then , you know , have barriers and like internalized belief that are not like aligned , you know , with ourself . And so it reminds me of I wrote it somewhere it reminds me of a quote I was going to read .

It's a quote by Rumi and he says it's a part of a point by Rumi and says your task is not to seek for love , but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it . And I think for me it's like we are love and it's good to connect with love .

But I think , for me , what I take from that is like , because we have lived in families and societies and generations that might not know how to honor those gifts , and those there are , pays are gifts , and like we create protections and so they .

The invitation is to connect with those protections that maybe we have had since childhood and see what are those truly are serving us now and what other possibilities one has now as an adult right , because we might have different possibilities , and that kind of fits a bit with the holy fire , uh , shedding the um , the layers of the culture create itself .

It's the same piece , right , and so how do that ? I think there are different ways at different times for different people . But and I would also add , to connect with community and to HR , and thank you actually for the podcast to help be in community , which is part of it . So thank you , yeah .

Let's see , I think I'm just grateful to be here and grateful to share with you all the listeners and , um , and you know , I just hope that , as we also work in ourself , we like , have you know we unwind our patterns that have come through our personal history , our ancestral generational history , and also support each other and our planet , you know , for more

love and peace and ease . So I am grateful to be together and honored to be here , and if anybody has any questions , you are welcome to send me a message .

Yeah , thank you .

If you are interested in yoga , reiki or Reiki trainings , reach out to Feather Sister that offers a variety of Reiki classes and Reiki trainings and yoga online and in person in the El Paso area . So I'm sorry .