Heal the world

Alice McInerney introduces practitioners of four forms of therapy, so you can test them out for yourself

Meditation and yoga Bommie & Xi

Bommie and Xi met at the Osho Centre in India – Osho was a controversial Indian spiritual leader who advocated meditation, love and creativity as three of the cornerstones of happiness – and his philosophies are fundamental to the pair’s beliefs.

Bommie has practiced yoga for 18 years and has been a teacher for eight. He has done vipassana, which is a ten-day silent meditation, 16 times, and meditates for at least five hours a day.

From India, he moved to China with Xi, and now teaches yoga at home every Wednesday from 7.30pm to 9.30pm and Sunday from 3pm to 5pm (80RMB per class).

Bommie and Xi regularly invite people into their home as a sort of refuge, and hold a weekly silent sitting every Thursday (free) – though they use some vipassana techniques, you can meditate however you like as long as you’re silent.

Xi also practices reiki (a form of healing through the palms), and holds ‘Reiki Share’ every Monday at 7.30pm, when guests practice healing each other (40RMB for two hours, including refreshments).

The couple also offer two-to-five-day yoga and meditation retreats. They cost around 500RMB and are held in both English and Mandarin. Previous locations include the Hong Luo Monastery and Taishan.

Bommie and Xi run the Sushumna Center. Visit www.blog.sina.com.cn/shushumacenter (Chinese) or email sushumna9@gmail.com for more information on classes.

Chakra healing and tarot cards Marianne Niederer

Niederer is based in Shanghai, but comes to Beijing every six weeks for sessions at Kocoon. A former Christian missionary, it was a chance encounter with a medium that totally changed her perception of life.

She believes that you need to balance your seven chakras (energy centres in the body) to improve the flow of qi (vital forces), which, in turn, can trigger self-healing. According to this approach, illness is a result of our chakras being distorted, or even stagnant.

In order to balance the problematic energy centres, Niederer says she has integrated a variety of practices to form her own techniques and will soon be certifi edin Quantum-Touch, which follows the notion that you can heal by using touch to create high-frequency life forces around a patient.

But it’s not all just chakras; Niederer also combines tarot and Lenormand cards with a pendulum to solve individual queries during a healing treatment, and even says she can heal from afar (as energy can be honed in with the right intentions).

A spiritual healing session is 600RMB for 60 minutes; a tarot reading is 300RMB for 30 minutes. In Shanghai, she has two meditation groups, and hopes to set one up in Beijing this month.

Through these groups she performs exercises such as aura drawing, which helps train the sixth sense, and also holds workshops to train psychological and spiritual development. Places at these sessions usually cost around 100RMB per person.

Neiderer is available from Monday 21 to Tuesday 29 and is holding a free introductory talk on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 from 7 to 8.30pm at Kocoon.

These talks are limited to 10 people per evening and a reservation is required. Kocoon will also be bringing over two practitioners from Hong Kong in the next few months, so look out for Eric Faider and Brigitta Dünki, who both specialise in ‘Body Harmony’, a practice containing the essence of 60 different healing methods.

Kocoon Third Floor, Nali Garden, 81 Sanlitun Bei Lu, Chaoyang district (5208 6068; www.kocoonspalounge.com). Open 11am-9.30pm daily. 朝阳 区三里屯北路81号那里花园三层

Reiki and colourpuncture Amy Li

Amy Li incorporates both colourpuncture and reiki alongside counselling and physical therapy techniques. First off, colourpuncture involves focusing coloured light on chakra points on the skin in order to energise powerful healing impulses. Violet or blue cures insomnia; red stimulates the immune system; while yellow improves the memory.

Li believes you can’t solve problems unless you help yourself. As a result, she customises programmes to help people release locked up emotions.

Once a successful businesswoman, Li felt unfulfi lled until she discovered meditation. She says that most of her clients are successful business people and that alternative treatments have come a long way since the days they were practised by dreadlocked hippies.

She hopes to help others, and prefers group work, but is available one-onone at Oneness Yoga (1,000RMB for 90 minutes). In September, she is bringing over her reiki master Hans Rendler.

In December, Subodhi Petra Schweizer, who has been trained in various therapeutic techniques (including counselling, ‘Dynamic Bodywork’, tantra and different forms of massage), will also be at the centre.

Oneness Yoga Room 811, East Tower, Van Palace, 2 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang district (6561 4895; www.onenessyoga.cn). 朝阳区光华路2号 旺座中心东座811室. Contact the centre’s leader Kathy Li on 159 0115 2133 for more details.

Massage healing Francis Lim

Singaporean Francis Lim is Kocoon’s visiting practitioner during September, and he specialises in therapeutic massage. With over 20 years of experience, his clients include the Singaporean prime minister’s family and the Indonesian royal family who fly him in when they need treatments.

He specialises in the treatment of disabilities caused by injury, stroke and other physical ailments. From the age of seven, he learnt massage techniques from a family friend who was skilled in fi xing joint dislocations. When his father was paralysed by a stroke, a senior monk in Thailand massaged his father and enabled him to walk within a week.

From then on, Lim studied under the guidance of the monk and learnt the various approaches to massage that could be incorporated to treat a wide variety of ailments and conditions including frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, painful joints, migraines, insomnia and open wounds.

On Tuesday 1, at 7pm, Lim will be giving a free introductory talk and demonstrating his techniques. And from Wednesday 2 to Sunday 6 a session with him at Kocoon will cost 600RMB for 60 minutes.

Kocoon Third Floor, Nali Garden, North Building, 81 Sanlitun Bei Lu, Chaoyang district (5208 6068; www.kocoonspalounge.com). Open 11am-9.30pm daily. 朝阳区三里屯北 路81号那里花园三层.

Other alternative therapy centres

China Culture Center Specialises in Chinese traditional practices.

Kent Center, 29 Anjialou, Liangmaqiao Lu, Chaoyang district (6432 9341/1041; www.chinaculturecenter.org). Open 9am-6pm daily. 朝阳区亮马桥路安家 楼29号.

Fine Yoga Yoga teacher training and other related courses. Room 501, Fifth Floor, Tower A, SOHO New Town, Chaoyang district (5900 3192, 139 1176 7521; www.fine-yoga.com) or contact sherrirao@yahoo.com.cn for more details. 朝阳区SOHO现代城A 座5层501室.

Gurdjieff Discussion and activity group on Gurdjieff’s teachings (www.gurdjieff.cn). Contact amywxp@gmail.com for more details.

Purple Bamboo Park Tai chi Master Zhang Zi Chen gives classes every Saturday and Sunday at Purple Bamboo Park. Contact culchina@ yahoo.com for more details.

Yoga House Yoga and meditation retreat with activities in Chinese (www.inyogalife.com). Contact lvweike@gmail.com for more details.