Energy and well-being

There is another energy industry in Alberta that isn’t about extracting and producing oil and gas; rather, it uses holistic medicine to keep people healthy.

Based on the ancient premise that your body, mind and spirit all affect each other and your overall health, energy healers balance out the body’s own energy systems to keep a person functioning well.

“I had my eyes opened to this realm when I became sick and I had a session with an energy healer. It was very profound,” says Sydney Sveinson, a Calgary energy practioner who has been studying the wellness field for 15 years.

“Once we correct the imbalances within a person, we see changes on a physical, mental and emotional level and we’re able to experience healing on a deep and lasting level, naturally.” she says.

Sveinson’s clients at Energy Works Integrative Wellness range from academics to executives, seniors to teenagers and everyone in between. A couple of years ago, she was on the brink of a significant expansion, talking with oil and gas companies about offering her services to their employees.

“They were really keen, thinking that this leading edge service would give them an edge to keep their top people and so on,” she says. “But then the recession hit and I didn’t get the contracts.”    

Not only do companies cut back during an economic downturn, so do their employees – a reality which has had a direct negative affect on Sveinson’s business.

“I have a lot of clients who work in the oil patch, or their spouses do. And people are coming to see me less often. I have long-term clients who would come on a regular basis for preventative maintenance; but they’ve been laid off. So, they’re coming less often or not at all because they can’t afford it,” she says.

The economic uncertainty that’s keeping clients away is also affecting people’s well- being because it’s causing stress and fear: influences which Sveinson says inevitably lead to health problems.

“I am seeing a lot more people with depression, a lot more people with acute anxiety issues,” she says. “People are freaked out. They’re so stressed that they’re not sleeping and they’re getting all the viruses going around; so they’re taking more sick days. They’re very unhealthy.”

Before learning how to help heal people with energy work, Sveinson spent many years in the other energy industry as a project manager. She has an affection for the oil patch; but, as a small business owner, she also recognizes the reality that the oil and gas industry drives Alberta’s economy.

“There are so many affiliated businesses that tie into it, that when the energy sector is suffering, everybody suffers,” she says. 

“Conversely, when they’re prospering, all these affiliated businesses prosper. And I’m one of them. I am out there trying to keep people healthy.”

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