JERELYN CRADEN
Special to the Haliburton Echo
A bit of backstory.
The history of healers dates back to prehistory, with early practices like shamanism involving spiritual intermediaries and herbal remedies, evolving into more formal roles like priests and religious figures. As societies developed, formalized roles like the Hippocratic physicians emerged in ancient Greece, emphasizing natural causes for illness and creating a more systematic approach. In the Middle Ages, folk healers, or cunning folk, used traditional practices, and barber surgeons provided basic surgical services, eventually merging with formal medical practitioners. Today, traditional and modern medicine coexist, with many modern pharmaceutical products derived from traditional knowledge and practices.
Enter, Sharon Heilemann, born in Weston, Toronto, a Haliburton cottager since the 70s and full-time resident since 2020.
​
Like many who venture into the world of natural healing, Heilemann had first suffered from a health problem that mainstream medicine wasn’t able to resolve. “After a year and a half of pain,” she said, “sadly, my doctor just blew it off.” Then, one day in 2001 when Heilemann, a successful hair stylist, was working on a client, her back pain became so intense that a co-worker (an esthetician who was taking a course in reflexology) told her: “Sit down. I’ll get rid of the pain.”
​
​ “Twenty minutes later,” Heilemann said, “I had zero back pain, and I was able to go back to helping more clients.” It was this surprising and welcomed relief that inspired her to learn all she could about reflexology.
​
“I went to every bookstore possible that sold reflexology books and, basically, taught myself.” At the salon, when a client would mention experiencing a physical pain, she would place her hands on the area, which helped every time. “I became more and more fascinated by this energy and, eventually, enrolled in a full-time ten-month reflexology course and earned my certification.”
​
At first, Heilemann alternated her hairstyling clients with healing sessions. “Then, when my schedule was filled with healing sessions,” she said, “I cut my hair clients back to two dozen.”
​
It didn’t stop there.
​
“I became a healing junky,” she said, “certified in numerous healing modalities: acupressure, cupping, Tuina massage, Reiki, Indian head massage, complicated shoulder. But it was in 2016 when Reconnective Healing (RH) changed my life.”
​
Heilemann, who has always practiced out of her own home, describes RH as energy healing. “It’s about letting energy, light, and information come through me to you. Your healing can come in many forms: your health, your relationship, your career. There’s no end. I learned how to become a catalyst, a conduit, a channel, however you want to think of it. Energy comes through as my hand moves over a client’s body. When it stops over an area, and my hand won’t pull away … that informs me of an imbalance.”
​
Two years ago, Heilemann became a Certified Zone Technique healing practitioner. Today, 95% of her healings use the Zone Technique, which she describes as: “Reconnective Healing on steroids.” Results have proven extraordinary.
​
For several weeks, local resident Brian Daoust suffered from arthritis and bursitis in his hips. Referring to the pain, he said: “I had 4:30 in the morning wake-up calls.” When he heard about Heilemann’s Head to Toe Natural Healing, he checked out her website and made an appointment. “I really believe that she believes she can help everybody. That’s her mindset,” he said. It was after his sixth visit that he not only slept through the night, “I woke up with no pain. And I didn’t have to walk down the stairs one step at a time like before, I walked down like normal.” Daoust still sees Heilemann for maintenance visits. “It still comes and goes,” he said, “but now I have more better days than before.”
One month after local resident, Maggie Thompson, continued to suffer with symptoms from a head concussion, “Sharon used a concussion protocol on me, and I couldn’t believe the difference. I healed so much faster.” Even Thompson’s chiropractor was impressed. “Sharon also helped with my frozen shoulder. And, when I get a migraine, she does the Zone Technique on me, and it’s like night and day.”
Pharmacist, Lauren Wilson (Haliburton Village Pharmacy/Beer Store Plaza) also sings Heilemann’s praises. “As a pharmacist—and admittedly a very skeptical person—I typically lean towards conventional therapies. However, Sharon’s ability to accurately sense and treat my upper back/neck ailments has truly astounded me. I usually only require one treatment for full relief of pain. I have since referred several of my patients to her and have returned for treatments myself numerous times.”
​
The Zone Technique was created by chiropractor, Dr. Thurman Fleet, in 1935. In 2019, Dr. Peter Goldman, who learned the technique from Fleet, opened a school for Zone Technique. Initially, developed for chiropractors only, Goldman soon recognized that a healer of any kind could use it. “Because it’s not about subluxation or moving a bone,” Heilemann said. “It’s about bringing in energy to that person.”
The Zone Technique breaks the body into six zones or systems. The glandular system, elimination system, nervous system (sympathetic or para-sympathetic), digestive system, muscular system, and circulatory system. Heilemann presses six points at the back of the head, each connecting to one of the six zones/systems. She asks which is the most sensitive to the touch, and upon hearing the response, is informed about the system that needs to be balanced.
​
The spine is the negative pole – the brain the positive pole. When there is an imbalance in the spine, it cannot send the correct message to the brain stem in the head. “I will stimulate four points that relate to that zone/system with light acupressure,” Heilemann said, “and then I touch the four points…my hands are on your body and I will send energy through, and when that’s done, I’ll go back to your head and you’ll tell me if there’s any sensitivity to that one primary zone and, if not, your body has been balanced and all of the energy can move unblocked throughout your body. You get over 50 million red blood cells every second of the day, so those red blood cells are now free and can release old and damaged red blood cells through the lymphatic system, and your body begins to heal.”
​
Generally, sessions are fifteen minutes in length. The number of sessions needed depends on the individual – everyone heals at their own pace. “Some people come in when they’ve been told they need full knee surgery or reconstruction shoulder surgery, and heal 100% in one visit, six visits, or four visits.” She tells of a client who, after his sixth visit, went back to playing hockey and chopping his own wood … no pain. “That was after he was told that he needed full reconstructive shoulder surgery. And, I’ve had it happen with knee surgeries where patients were told there was nothing more that could be done, and after a Zone Technique healing and a few points of Reflexology, they were completely healed.”
​