Maha Rose is Brooklyn’s hub for all things healing. (Photo: Maha Rose)
The Hotspot: Maha Rose in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
The Vibe: Enter the red door of this alternative healing oasis and get ready to leave your shoes and stresses behind. The energy is warm, laid-back, with a barefoot staff that exudes a peace and love vibe. If you’re a Type A New Yorker note that it’s a radical shift from frenetic city to mellow escape, and it just might take a moment to adjust. If you’re skeptical and not someone who understands the concept of “blocked chakras,” or “moving your energy,” then Maha Rose is probably not for you. But if you come in open-minded and ready for their promise to be “committed to the journey of healing and Joy” then you’re golden. Notice that they capitalized the word joy, that’s just the kind of place it is.
Brooklyn’s Maha Rose sets the precedent for positive energy from the minute you walk in. (Photo: Maha Rose)
The Deal: Maha Rose is a one-stop shop for everything healing—reiki, breathwork, hypnotherapy, sound healing, feng shui, plant medicine, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, and astrology are all offered in private sessions. However, Maha Rose aspires to be a community center for healing arts, so they offer $50 drop-in sessions for acupuncture, laughter yoga classes, and even a Buddhist meditation group called Dharma Punx.
The Experience: I dove right in with an Energy Therapy with Reiki and Intuitive Card Reading with Rebecca Conran. Conran is a Reiki energy healer, holistic life and wellness coach, and a psychic empath (which means “she has the ability to experience and feel another persons present, past or future physical and emotional states.” The first thing I notice about Conran is how incredibly calm she is. She exudes a strong but peaceful energy, but she’s very direct and no-nonsense which is ideal for someone who is new to energy therapies. It somehow doesn’t feel like hocus pocus with her. Conran starts by asking what I need help with in my life and does two Oracle card readings to offer insights. The cards and her interpretation feels accurate and helpful, no mind-blowing predictions, just smart guidance. Next Conran notes blockages in my energy which are causing too much anxiety (too much yang, not enough yin). I lie on a table and Rebecca does a Reiki method that involves touch and it feels at times like a light massage.
Maha Rose practices the eastern medicine principles you never knew you needed. (Photo: Maha Rose)
Next up I meet Ro Giuliano for a Sacred Vibrational Plant Medicine Session. An acupuncturist, herbalist and botanical remedy crafter, Giuliano has studied both Chinese and Western herbal medicine. Giuliano is so warm, cheery, and knowledgable it’s impossibly not to feel totally comfortable putting yourself in her hands. Guiliano starts by checking my pulse and tongue, discussing health and emotional concerns, and diet. What’s interesting, is even though her approach is different, she notes the same things as Conran, energetic congestion “preventing the free flow of qi”, a yin deficiency which she notes can cause heart palpitations, panic attacks, and general anxiety—all issues I’ve been having. Next she does a combination of Reiki and Moxabustion, the practice of utilizing the smoke from an herb to stimulate points on the body to promote a state of wellness. With the exception of smelling the smoke, it’s not something you feel or really notice. Next she practices acupuncture around my ears (apparently the ears are the point to tackle to heal stress) and on my legs. Finally an application of vibrational plant essences are placed on the body’s energy centers.
The Verdict: I am told by both practitioners that they have moved around a lot of energy. But, of course this isn’t something that’s tangible. As I am walking out, checking out the gorgeous crystals for sale, I feel calm, happy, like I’ve just woken up refreshed from a nap. But the thing with all healing modalities, whether it is reiki or acupuncture, you don’t walk out a new person, you may not even feel like anything is different at all. I leave thinking that the experience is healing in that it is calming and centering and that’s probably it. But the next day something unexpected happens, I find myself laughing much of the day, happy really all day, and that feeling has lasted all week. “What’s going on with you?” my sister asks. “You seem like you are in such a good mood.” I pause for a minute. It’s true, I am and have been all week. I do feel lighter, like something has been lifted. Hmmm maybe the results are more tangible than I realized.
Maha Rose founders Luke Simon and Leslie Galbraith
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