ThetaHealing (Russia)

ThetaHealing 🇷🇺
Location: Russia
Definition: A practice of holistic spirituality, treating physical, emotional and psychological problems through meditation and therapy
Keywords: Russia – FSU – Healthcare – New Age – Gender – Women – Religion – Occult
Author: Tatiana Loboda
Affiliation: Department of Sociology and Philosophy, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia

By Tatiana Loboda, Department of Sociology and Philosophy, European University at St. Petersburg, Russia

ThetaHealing® (registered trademark) is the official name of the practice (‘healing technique’) developed in the USA by Vianna Stibal. According to Stibal, the ThetaHealing technique can ‘heal’ on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. A person trained in this method is called a Theta practitioner. Since 2000, Stibal has taught this technique and issued qualification certificates. Theta practitioners can ‘heal’ themselves, relatives, friends, and clients. The name of the technique contains the letter of the Greek alphabet theta (θ), which in neurophysiology denotes one of the rhythms of the brain during deep relaxation. Theta practices allegedly work their ‘healing’ in this rhythm. Stibal claims this technique can cure many diseases and solve psychological problems through reliance upon ‘unconditional love’ of ‘Creator Of All That Is’ with the help of special meditation (Stibal 2010: 6, 46).

ThetaHealing is an informal New Age social practice. New Age in a broad sense is a theosophical and anthroposophical expectation of an early coming of the ‘Age of Aquarius’ and ‘spiritual’ world transformation. In a narrow sense, it is a variety of alternative ideas and activities, including a mix of spiritualism, science fiction, popular psychology (Hanegraaff 1998: 97). Many of these trends represent an alternative to the value system of social institutions such as medicine and established religions. It is conceptually difficult to draw a line between some of them; however, not all supporters of alternative ways (for instance, homeopaths) share New Age ideas. Holistic spirituality is a group within alternative spirituality and includes characteristics such as (1) an alternative approach to the treatment of bodily diseases, (2) a neoliberal discourse regarding personal (emotional, financial) well-being as the main value in life, and (3) a gendered practice. The majority of holistic spirituality supporters are female (Heelas and Woodhead 2005; Sointu and Woodhead 2008). ThetaHealing belongs to the field of holistic spirituality. There are fields similar to ThetaHealing: the Reiki, CosmoEnergy, Challenging, Regressology and Dr Joe Dispenza’s teaching. Practices they have in common are ‘viewing past soul lives’ and ‘manipulating energy’ to treat physical, emotional and psychological problems. In general, the boundaries between these fields are a matter of personal opinion, and practitioners in their own practice often combine different approaches and teachings.

Methods such as semi-structured interviews, participant observations and text analysis were used in my research on ThetaHealing conducted in 2017-2019 in Saint Petersburg (Loboda 2020). The research consisted of 22 interviews with Theta practitioners from Saint Petersburg. 19 were women, three were men, aged between 22 and 66, with a median age of 43.5 years. 21 people had higher education of whom 11 held two or more university degrees. In addition, I attended seven meetings of Theta practitioners in the club where the method was taught and where insight retreats as well as ‘Theta healing sessions’ were held. I analysed 35 textual sources about ThetaHealing: books by Stibal, blogs of ThetaHealing instructors, video footage about meditation and the personal examples of ThetaHealers.

The Theta practitioner’s work with a client, either in person or by phone, is as follows: they sit opposite the client and hold their hands (but not necessarily so). The client usually closes eyes and the ThetaHealer tunes in to the ‘theta wave’. The client articulates the problem, for example, infertility, and the ThetaHealer meditates and walks into the ‘7th plane of Existence’ to appeal to the ‘Creator’ about the cause of the ‘disease’. Usually, the ThetaHealer explains to the client the psychosomatic cause of the ‘disease’, which is called a ‘negative subconscious belief systems’, for example, fear of being a mother. The ThetaHealer offers to change the ‘negative belief’ to a ‘positive’ one, for instance, that being a mother is safe. Beliefs are formulated in such a way that they are related to the client’s personal experience and feelings. For example, the fear of being a mother may derive from the violence experienced by the client’s mother in her childhood. That is, deliverance from the fear of motherhood is followed by the necessity to forgive one's mother and other negative beliefs’ that may be associated with this. In ThetaHealing it is claimed that the success of the healing is largely achieved due to the ‘energy of unconditional love’ with which the ThetaHealer accompanies all belief changes. As a result, during several consultations (‘Theta healing sessions’) with the help of the ThetaHealer the client should be able to articulate the problem with its root causes and reinterpret it, and thereby, recover, resolve the problem or suffering and find their new ‘Self’. ThetaHealing resembles an accelerated practice of a longer and more expensive psychotherapy (see Illouz 2008). ThetaHealing is considered to be one of the therapeutic techniques which belong to the cultural landscape of coaching, trainings, and ‘self-help’ books (Perheentupa and Salmenniemi 2019).

All the informants in my research had experience of attending the Orthodox Church (and some, in addition, the Catholic Church or Buddhist teaching) but generally were not regular church-goes. The ThetaHealers explained their favouring of alternative spirituality over established religions by their unwillingness to follow a strict code of behaviour and, as they said, to have an intermediary in the form of clergy between themselves and God. The ThetaHealers were convinced that they, themselves, were responsible for their lives and their decisions, and that God provided them only with ‘energy support’, but did not direct their lives. During ThetaHealing courses, they learned to analyse their lives (and the stories of their future clients) in the following format: "Why did I do this to myself?" Because practitioners do not blame the social structures for their failures and lack of resources and do not expect support from the state, ThetaHealing echoes a neoliberal social policy.

Of my informants, three women earned their living entirely by offering Theta sessions, and 16 women combined their Theta earnings with other employment. Usually they conducted between one and five Theta sessions a week. To attract clients, they used social networks, personal websites and open clubs. A single session can cost from 500 to 5000 roubles, the prices mostly depend on the number of qualification certificates (awarded by THInK) that are held by the healer. Between three to seven sessions are held with the each client, aimed at resolving short-term emotional problems, problems of personal growth and health issues. Almost all clients are middle-income working women. Their problems often concern finding a partner, infertility, emotional burnout in marriage, the struggle to combine their professional and domestic roles, and a general feeling of losing the meaning of life (tiredness from the monotony of daily routine).

According to the official website, in July 2020 there were 5,864 Theta practitioners in Russia, 89.5% of them were women. My research suggests that women use spiritual techniques to release the emotional stress caused by traditional gender roles (Loboda 2020) that researchers have described as the ‘working mother contract’ (Temkina and Rotkirkh 2002). Women can gain emancipating potential as they strengthen their agency and try to become psychologically more independent and well-adjusted personalities. However, at the same time they do not try to go against the existing gender order and do not refuse the ‘contract’ but prefer to ‘normalize’ and adjust their femininity in order to better exercise emotional family management and continue working in their professions.

ThetaHealing is spread throughout the world. According to the official ThetaHealing website, over 32 thousand people globally have completed at least one certified course. The number of followers is growing rapidly: since 2018 the number has increased by 30 percent – from 24,560 to 32,756; Stibal herself claims that there are now about 300 thousand Theta practitioners in 30 countries. There are official ‘country event coordinators’ in Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Greece, India, Netherlands, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latin America, Philippines, Lebanon, New Zealand, Russia, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. There may also be ThetaHealers in other countries who have completed courses abroad and then returned to their homeland.

To be officially considered a ThetaHealer, one has to attend certified courses conducted by people of the ‘instructor’ level. Stibal has founded the ThetaHealing Institute of Knowledge (THInK) to affiliate all certified Theta practitioners. She has also developed core curriculum programmes that must be taught in a unified system and at an equivalent cost in all countries (depending on the course, the price varies from 20,000 to 60,000 rubles). Students are allowed to develop their own courses, but must certify their content with Stibal. The practice of ThetaHealing (which includes meditation, terminology, and the worldview) can be learnt from books, videos, and in clubs free of charge – the number of people interested in ThetaHealing in such a way is impossible to calculate. However, without taking courses people cannot register on the official website and are not allowed to consult clients through the official system. A Theta-healing instructor can independently conduct training and issue certificates on behalf of Stibal. A ‘Master certificate’ confirms advanced training, being awarded on completion of 11 courses on various topics related to ThetaHealing (for example, ‘Disease and Disorder’, ‘Dig Deeper’, ‘Manifesting and Abundance’, etc.).

References

Hanegraaff, W. J. 1998. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. New York: Suny Press

Heelas, P., Woodhead, L. 2005. The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality. Oxford: Blackwell

Illouz, E. 2008. Saving the modern soul: Therapy, emotions and the culture of self-help. Berkeley: University of California Press

Loboda T. (2020) Spiritual strategies of women for achieving agency on the example of Theta-healing in Russia. [Dissertation]. St. Petersburg: European University Sointu, E., Woodhead, L. 2008. ‘Spirituality, gender and expressive selfhood’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 47: 259-76

Stibal, V. 2010. Theta Healing: Introducing an Extraordinary Energy Healing Modality. UK: Hay House UK

Temkina, A., Rotkirkh, A. 2002. ‘Sovetskiye gendernyye kontrakty i ikh transformatsiya v sovremennoy Rossii’, Sotsis, 11: 4 – 15

Perheentupa I., Salmenniemi S. 2019. ‘Treading the tightrope of femininity: Transforming gendered subjectivity in a therapeutic community’, European Journal of Women's Studies 26(1): 1-15

Recommended reading

Salmenniemi, S., Vorona, M. 2014. ‘Reading self-help literature in Russia: Governmentality, psychology and subjectivity’, British Journal of Sociology, 65(1): 43–62

Sointu, E. 2011. ‘Detraditionalisation, gender and alternative and complementary medicines’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 33(3): 356–371 Woodhead, L. 2008. ‘Gendering secularization theory’, Social Compass, 55(2): 187-193