Laurie Berke
Animal Reiki Master, Healing Paws Reiki
Laurie Berke spent 35 years working on Wall Street. It was exciting, it was rewarding, she traveled all over the world. That was then. This is now.
Sophie's Story
It was 2 years after the loss of her beloved German Shepherd Dakota before Laurie was ready to bring another animal into her heart. A face on Pet Finder, a very uncomfortable drive to an urban SPCA shelter, and a brief getting-to-know-you walk, and a 7-month old German Shepherd Rottweiler pup was going to her forever home, just days before her time was up. She had been found in the dead of winter, abandoned, thrown out of a car, surviving who-knows-how. Laurie will tell you that Sophie was the hardest thing she's ever done in her life. She will tell you that there were times when she sat on the kitchen floor and cried, asking why this dog had come, why was she so difficult, why couldn't there just be peace and ease, why why why....... The answer is that our animals choose us. Our animals are our teachers. They can be a mirror, showing us exactly who we are, or they can be an obstinate force showing us exactly who we should be. Sophie came to change Laurie's life. Reiki came to make the journey extraordinary.
The Japanese Healing Practice of Reiki
So Laurie studied the Japanese healing art of Reiki, and after several years found her guiding light. Her teacher, Kathleen Prasad, is internationally known for her pioneering work in the field of Animal Reiki. In 2004, she founded Animal Reiki Source®, a world-renowned teaching academy and the foremost center for Animal Reiki information. She has developed the Let Animals Lead™ meditation-based method that is transforming the emerging world of animal Reiki. Kathleen is also the president and co-founder of the Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA), a nonprofit whose mission is to improve the lives of animals by promoting the use of Reiki in animal shelters, sanctuaries and rescues worldwide through education and training.
Laurie Berke is now a third-level, or Shinpiden, practitioner and teacher of animal Reiki in the Usui Reiki Ryoho Lineage. She has traveled to work with exotic animals and birds, with rescued farm animals, with horses, and practices extensively with companion animals and their people in North Carolina and Florida. She also volunteers to offer a healing Reiki space to shelter and rescue animals in need of comfort and ease. Laurie creates a quiet space, a pause in the day-to-day, to connect with the universal spiritual energy that flows through all sentient beings, and to deepen the bond between our animals and ourselves.
Laurie believes that the extraordinary transformation in her beautiful Sophie has been supported and guided by Reiki. A dog that was fearful of abandonment and wildly distrustful of the intentions of humans became the gentle, joyful, lovely being that she always truly was. And so did Laurie.
“If we just pause for a moment now and then to allow the beautiful connection between all living beings to come to our attention, if we occasionally stop “doing” and try just “being,” we begin to experience our animals through our hearts. We can tap into that loving, compassionate energy that opens hearts, comforts the physical body and brings a deep sense of well-being to the spirit.”