The call centre boss who retrained is Rudding Park’s first energy healer

It was a series of life events that made Michele Leathley re-evaluate her career and embark on a new path.

The fomer call centre manager had relocated from Yorkshire to Scotland to manage over 150 people in a busy call centre. Over the following few years various life events occurred - divorce, family death, illness, redundancy, relocation.

All of this emotional stress started to manifest itself in several physical symptoms for Michele.

“I knew something was wrong in my life but I didn’t know what the answer was,” says Michele.

“I tried drinking, smoking and partying too much but that didn’t help.” And so she started experimenting with various types of alternative and holistic therapies alongside medical treatments, to try to help relieve these physical symptoms.

“You name it, I tried it - reiki, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, reflexology, homeopathy, kinesiology, massage as well as exercise, yoga and meditation,” explains Michele, who grew up in Masham.

Then Michele tried a special type of Energy Healing, ancient healing methods which are over 3,000 years old and extremely powerful. And then a special Life Activation Energy Healing session. “Energy healing is an ancient form of natural medicine that helps to restore the balance and flow of energy throughout the body, to help you get to an optimal state of physical, emotional and spiritual health.

“Due to the wear and tear of life, our energy fields can develop blocks over time and become unbalanced. This can manifest itself in physical and emotional ailments – low energy, negative emotions, fear, anxiety, stress etc. Energy Healing can help with this.

“When I found this type of Energy Healing, after a few sessions, I realised that this was the most powerful and transformational solution for me.

“I felt calmer, more more balanced, better equipped to deal with these inevitable life experiences which pop up out of the blue from time to time and you need to deal with. I felt energised, empowered and much better able to manage my own energies - physical, mental and emotional. Like a factory reset for my body, soul and spirit.

“I decided that I would like to learn how to do it myself and so I found school in London. I hadn’t really thought about what I would do with it other than helping friends and family. I thought of it more as a hobby.”

But the process made her reasses her entire life. “I started to feel very disatisfied with my job and all the corporate politics. I just didn’t have the passion for it anymore. I thought there must be more to life than this.”

She spent her savings training as an Energy Healing Practitioner and, after four years of practicing and training, initially in the North of England and then in London and Canada; Michele became fully qualified. 

“It was very important to me to have face to face training and to become fully qualified and accredited. Every year we are re-evaluated which I thihnk is very important. I believe all training should be done face to face rather than via the internet

In 2018 Michele quit her job in the corporate world, after 20 years, to set up her own practice in her home, at Allerton Castle North Yorkshire.

Now a qualified Energy Healer, Reiki Master, Crystal Therapist, Life Activation Practitioner and Meditation Instructor - the only one o nfht Nroth of England - Michele devotes her time to helping people who feel like she used to feel.

“Most people come to me through word of mouth which is great. Some people are sceptical and it is difficult and sometimes impossible to explain why certain things work for people.

“People are often scared of what they don’t understand.”

To this end when she started out she told people she made candles from essential oils, which she does but it was only part of the story. “I had to go into hospital earlier this year for an operation and had to take some time off it made me reevaluate what I was doing and I realised that I didn’t need to hide behind my candles. Now I tell people what I do.”

 Her specialist treatment is the Life Activation, which she explains as including “several energetic alignments and activations and sparks a process of transformation and recalibration of your self, to energise the body, balance the emotions and calm the mind.”

As Michele says it is hard to explain Life Activation.The best way I decided was to give it a go.

Sitting in Michele’s studio named ‘ The Temple’ the atmosphere is immediatley calm.

She says it is down to the crystal grid and the fact the spends an hour ‘cleansing’ the room every morning of bad energy. It smells great too with essenstial oils in a diffuser, the sound of gently running water and relaxing music. For an hour Michele goes through an almost ritualistic series of movements using more essential oils and crystals which invovled me either standing or sitting. It is in credibly relaxation and meditative. At the end I rest for 20 minutes. I didn’t feel a massive amount at the time, but there was a definite heat from her hand placed gently bur firmly on my shoulder. She sent me home with a goody bag including a spritz of essential oils, epsome salts, a crystal, a bottle of water, a bar of chcolate and one of her candles.

Michele’s artisan soy candles and aura cleansing sprays use essential oils. She only makes them on the nights of the full moon and new moon, in her crystal gridded studio. Even after having the therapy it is hard to put into words. I did feel incredibly relaxed and destressed, which Michele says is its main aim, with some practitioners renaming it stress management rather than life activation which I can understand.

Michele has been appointed as Rudding Park Spa’s first-ever resident energy healer. Michele will offer energy healing and Life Activation from the multi-award-winning spa complex near Harrogate.

“I’m really looking forward to bringing these very special, ancient and sacred energy healing techniques to Rudding Park. The location is perfect, surrounded by nature, very beautiful and magical, the energy there is amazing,” says Michele.

Michele will be based at Rudding Park 1-2 days per week initially. To book a session with Michele at Rudding Park Spa visit https://michele-leathley.com

Alternatively she has her own studio and does home visits.