Volume 8, Issue 5 / Nissan 5765 / May 2005
A Healing Touch
"I was never very religious or very Zionist," says Greg Goltsov, who grew up in Reading Massachussetts. "But I'm Jewish and I wanted to know about my heritage and my roots. When I heard about birthright Israel, I thought, "Hey, it's Israel, I'm Jewish I ought to go to Israel." That was three years ago. Besides a few brief trips back to the States, he never left. "It just feels like home," he says.
Greg had just completed several years of study at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, which he attended after receiving his BA from Brandeis. "I wanted a break," he says, "and had decided to take a year off to drive across the US. Then I thought, Hey I'm taking time off anyway, I might as well go to Israel and then travel through Europe. Then I thought, This is rare opportunity to be on this side of the world on someone else's ticket. Why not stay there as long as I want?"
"It was a wonderful wonderful trip," he continues. I went to the Old City, and took some free, drop-in classes at Aish Hatorah. It gave me a chance to learn about Judaism. I learned more about my heritage in one and a half months than I did my whole time in Hebrew school. I still don't choose to live that way, but it was an amazing experience that I was lucky to have. I'd get up every morning, sit and stare and the Western Wall. I took out a notebook and would write whatever was pouring out of my soul."
This was followed by a stint at the Jewish Agency's Kibbutz Ulpan program at Kibbutz Ein Dor near Afula, which provided the opportunity to learn Hebrew while working on the kibbutz. In February 2003 Greg returned to Jerusalem. "Whenever I thought about going to Europe, I'd think, nah but I want to be here."
He seriously began to think about making aliyah. He flew back to the US in May to wind up matters, and returned less than two months later with Nefesh B'Nefesh. The Jewish Agency emissary was absolutely wonderful," he says. "She helped me with everything." His first home was the Jewish Agency's Ulpan Etzion in Jerusalem. "It was a great place to land," he attests. "I came and I didn't have to worry about apartments or landlords. I was free to deal with all the paperwork and to figure out what I wanted to do."
What he wanted to do was to utilize the skills he learned in America to help Israelis. Greg had developed his own form of energy healing that combines the skills he learned at the Brennan school, with quantum touch (he is a certified practitioner) and Reiki (in which he is a master).
In the fall of 2004 he opened up the Jerusalem Holistic Healing Center, operated by an all-volunteer staff, which provides treatments based on energy healing. The center works with trauma victims and people with all sorts of ailments. "We want to help empower people so they don't feel helpless in their own lives," says Greg. "It's a way of tapping into those parts of us that conceal our deepest emotional and physical pains.
"Energy healing isn't a magic wand that makes things instantly go away. But it helps to go through it. While feeling the loss, the suffering associated with it doesn't have to be.
"Our thoughts, feelings, and emotions are tangible things than someone with energy training can help to heal better than traditional therapy," he continues. "I used to be the biggest skeptic in the world. But this is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced."
A light touch by the practitioner can make bones move and can affect people's internal organs, Greg explains. The writer of this article can attest that at the end of a 45-minute session, a painful bump on her foot had disappeared.
Registered as non-profit in Israel and the US, the Jerusalem Holistic Healing Center www.jerusalemhealingcenter.org also incorporates a variety of programs: classes that teach people to do healing techniques, talks from experts in various fields, Tibetan yoga classes, and lectures on healthy eating. "It's a resource that's always accessible to everyone regardless of how much they can pay," states Greg, who earns a living retailing small appliances and electronics to customers in the US via the Internet. "The doors are always open. Our vision is to have a place where people can come and have their needs met."
There were times when I'd wonder whether this was the right thing to do," he reflects. "But I'd picture myself going back to America and it just seemed wrong. But whenever I think clearly about my life I just want to be here. There are always challenges and difficult things and culture clashes but the way you look at these things always changes the perspective. When we deal with what needs to be dealt with and move on it makes for a different life experience."
Written by: Shifra Paikin
Photo by: Shimmi NachtailerTo download this file as a word document, click here.
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