Finding the Right Balance: Reiki Master Brings Healing Techniques to Hillsborough

Susan Martinez has turned a lifelong interest in spirituality into a career helping others.

Now a certified yoga instructor and Reiki master/teacher, Martinez has brought the integrative wellness services of Healing Lotus Yoga & Reiki to Hillsborough, based in the In Balance facility at 236 South Branch Road, where she has been teaching yoga for several years.

“My passion is to share what has helped me with others,” she explained. “I want to serve people holistically.”

A self-described “very sensitive” child, Martinez was interested in metaphysics at an early age and took her first meditation class in 1981. “I was interested in spirituality and finding out who I was. I learned it is very important to stay balanced.”

After pursuing martial arts, she began training with a Korean yoga master who lived in Hillsborough. The Princeton resident got so much out of it that she went on to become a yoga instructor.

To Martinez, yoga is “a deep and beautiful tradition with many branches, not just the physical. It addresses the physical, emotional and spiritual levels of human beings.”

When chronic illnesses (Meniere’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia) hit her in 1997, one of her yoga students introduced her to Reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction that also promotes balance, healing of the body and reduces pain.

A Rutgers graduate who taught high school Spanish and worked in social services for many years, Martinez trained with one of the 22 original Reiki masters and began a journey of ongoing education and training that has evolved into her current program.

Today, she offers classes, workshops and individual sessions in yoga, yoga therapy, Reiki, aromatherapy, guided visualization, relaxation techniques, yoga philosophy, mindfulness training, life coaching and spiritual counseling.

Martinez will lead several upcoming workshops at the Hillsborough Township Public Library, including a March 29 session on “Crystal/Gemstone Healing” and an April 11 workshop on “Yoga for Gentle Cleansing & Detoxification.”

“I work with each person as an individual to develop a plan to help them find harmony and balance in their lives and healing, it they need it, to help them reach their highest potential,” the soft-spoken Martinez said.

Science is “just beginning to catch up with” Reiki, which is based on the use of “ki,” the universal life energy, she added.

“Everyone’s experience can be different but Reiki has many benefits—it can be preventative, reduce daily stress and enhance talents and creativity,” she said.

She pointed out that Reiki is becoming more mainstream, being used with cancer patients in hospitals and to help with unwanted habits or addictions.

In fact, both yoga and Reiki can work complementary with traditional medicine, she said. She often works in conjunction with clients’ physicians and is partnering with the Drexel University College of Medicine on a study about using yoga therapy to treat fibromyalgia.  She can be reached through email at yogasu@comcast.net or by phone at 908-420-5889.  Healing Lotus Yoga's website is www.healinglotusyoga.com.

As for her own health, she said, “Today, almost all of my symptoms are gone. The body has an innate wisdom and capacity to help itself.”