This is a story about two people who stand back to back, yet still face the same direction. Each needs the other to fulfill their life’s destiny. It is the story of an addict and a healer who are really one and the same. Life is a matter of perspective.

In 1987, I was unaware of the train wreck that was about to dramatically affect my life. Drug addiction leads to behavior that is sneaky, subtle, and unpredictable. It took me a long time to realize there was a disease progressing in my home. My husband Rob lived the good life in the 70’s and 80’s, enjoying great success as a corporate executive. He was in great physical shape and ran seven miles a day, until an unexpected fall caused serious back injury. It was then that Rob started taking pain pills. In the early 90’s, we lost our family business and Rob had to file bankruptcy. He sunk into deep depression, which exacerbated his growing dependence on painkillers.

Many relationships cannot survive the pressures of financial ruin and drug addiction. I would like to say we lived happily ever after, but when you live one day at a time, every moment is a new one so there never really is an ending. There is no predictable outcome to anything in life. However, Rob is in full recovery now and we are alive today and able to share this story.

Looking back now, I can attest my survival to my habit of keeping journals. This was my form of therapy. It helped me try and understand what purpose I was serving in this marriage and in life. As I listened to the still, small voice inside me (which often became very active and very big!) my intuitive senses were sharpened. Each journal entry becamse another stitch in a fascinating yet painful tapestry, but I couldn’t see the beauty in the pattern until many stitches had been put into place.

Every night, for many years, I would massage Rob’s back and then gently place my hand on his lower back when we were sleeping. When I was semi-awake, I would feel a warm, exhilarating tingle down my left arm and out through my hand. I started having dreams about moving objects without touching them, and I knew I was being guided to learn about human energy fields.

The miracle of this story begins when Rob and I were introduced to RoHun therapy in winter, 1995. RoHun is a rapid-acting form of psychotherapy that combines both psychological and spiritual techniques in a unique holistic process that has proven to be a powerful tool for transformation. RoHun actually removes negative blocks in one’s energy system caused by faulty thoughts and cellular memories of emotional and physical trauma. It uses the electromagnetic fields surrounding the body to integrate, align, and heal a person.

Rob went somewhat reluctantly into his first series of RoHun treatments. He had already tried many times to battle his addiction, with little success. In one sense, he was hoping that RoHun could break the hideous cycle of addiction once and for all, but another underlying motive was to prove to me that this alternative healing stuff was just a bunch of malarkey.

The power of shifting energy fields affected Rob quickly and dramatically. With help from his therapist, he began to understand how his own thoughts and perceptions were affecting his body. Somewhere in his subconscious mind, Rob was starting to understand that there was a better life waiting for him, right here on earth. It’s there for all of us to find sooner or later, but RoHun enables us to find it much quicker than traditional talk therapy or twelve step programs alone. Rob and I have experienced a new way of thinking and being that has allowed us to survive the worst conditions with peace and hope. Because RoHun has given me such a clear sense of direction in my own life, I am becoming a certified RoHun therapist myself.

Rob is now drug-free, as well as being free from the pain that had plagued him for years. He actually wakes up smiling! The other miracle is that after so much abuse, his liver and kidneys show no sign of damage… just what was that vibration I felt coming from my hands into his lower back for all those years?

The person who has an addiction and begins the recovery process is very much like the person who is healthy, yet yearns to have more spirituality in their life. Each person has a hole in their soul which needs to be filled. Rob and I have found a way to mend and nurture our souls, and the two divergent paths have intertwined. It’s all about trusting a higher power that can heal us through forgiveness, understanding, and the highest vibrational energy of them all, love. This is how an addict and a healer became one, standing back to back while still facing in the same direction. Up.

by Linda Rosenthal