Today we’d like to introduce you to Rhian Arp.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story is one that was not straightforward. It began with the suicide of my husband in 2019, which devastated my family and me. I was left as 32 year old grieving widow, trying to raise two young boys (2 and 4 at the time) and teach elementary school full time as my life crumbled apart around me. I feel forever grateful that I had an amazing community who came around me and supported my boys and me during this time. I don’t know what I would have done without it. Within that support, I began doing my own healing work- going on retreats, doing therapy, EMDR, yoga, reiki and other types of energy healing. As I began to heal, I dove deeper into energy work and shamanic healing as a way to not only heal myself, but to understand the spiritual experiences I had started having after my late husband’s death. Slowly, over time, I realized I had the potential to do the very work that I had found so healing. Simultaneously, I realized that teaching was no longer sustainable for me. I was burnout and felt unsupported in the work that I had been doing for the last 15 years. I decided to take a year off to recover from burnout and began to explore the work that was calling to me. I began my yoga teacher training, and I worked hard on becoming certified as a Third Degree Reiki Master in the Usui method of natural healing, a Master Practitioner in Shamanic Energy Healing, and Mediumship (I will finish this certification this fall) through the tutelage of Sera Rose (MSEd, CPC, Reiki Master, Master Healer and Teacher, Shaman and Founder of Shamanic Insight), whom I had met on one of my first retreats and whose skills were foundational in leading me through my own healing journey. As my year off wrapped up, and I was looking at returning to a district facing enormous budget cuts, I knew it was time to officially leave teaching and open my own business. I opened Empress Healing Arts in April of 2026 and began offering services in yoga, reiki, shamanic energy healing, tarot, and mediumship. Most recently, I also became certified as a birth doula through Mother Tree Doula Services. I’m excited to continue to expand the services I can provide to my community as a way to give back to everyone who supported me through my own darkest days.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely had it’s challenges, although most of them have been mental so far. Before opening my business, I really had to come to terms with feelings of guilt around leaving teaching, which I loved and was good at. It made me sad to leave the profession and it breaks my heart that the state of education is so bleak that we are losing a lot of good teachers, including myself. In the end, it was the right choice, but it took awhile to feel solid in making it. Not to mention figuring out the logistics of walking a way from a job with retirement, benefits, and a reliable income. I feel fortunate that amongst the grief of losing both my late husband and my mom in the last 6 years, I also inherited enough money that it has been possible to invest in myself without inciting total fiscal panic.
I also had to move past my own imposter syndrome about whether or not I could do this work, and battle my own ego when my books weren’t instantly filled the moment I opened my business. It’s taken a lot of hard work over the last 5 or 6 months, but I’m finally beginning to see the benefits of all the networking I’ve been doing and the positive word of mouth I have created around town. I am very much still in the beginning stages of my business and I’m sure I will come up against more obstacles over time, but for the time being I’m just continuing to take small steps to create a thriving healing service for the community.
We’ve been impressed with Empress Healing Arts, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My business, Empress Healing Arts, is a multi-faceted healing service business. I focus primarily on different modalities of energy healing (Usui reiki and Shamanic energy healing) and other energy supportive services (yoga, mediumship, tarot, and creating creative packages to fit a variety of events/retreats/life moments). I also recently became a birth doula and look forward to tying this into my existing business.
Usui Reiki is a Japanese technique of energy healing, in which the practitioner channels universal life force through their palms. The practitioner uses a combination of gentle touch and/or hands hovering over the fully clothed body to realign the body’s energy centers (chakras), remove energy blockages, and restore balance to the client’s energy system. This encourages the body to enhance its own natural healing abilities on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels.
Shamanic Energy Healing uses guidance from the client’s intake conversation, the client’s guides, and the practitioner’s guides to create a personalized shamanic healing experience tailored to their needs. This could include, but is not limited to: Cord cutting ceremonies, Sound healing with drums, rattles, and singing bowls, Usui Reiki, Shamanic Reiki (similar to Usui reiki, but more time is spent clearing and aligning the different energetic layers of the client’s energy system), Use of shamanic tools (feathers, crystals, shells, essential oils, etc.)
Usui Reiki and Shamanic Energy healing can both help relax the body, release old traumas/emotions that have gotten stuck in the body, clear energetic blockages that occur from a wide variety of physical and emotional tolls of every day life, decrease stress, increase more restful sleep, decrease muscle tension, increase the body’s natural healing abilities, and increase awareness of your own energy system. They just do it in different ways. Often Shamanic Energy Healing can take the energy healing deeper, but I’m always happily surprised at how much reiki is able to do independent of itself!
Mediumship is an opportunity to give and receive messages of healing to and from our deceased loved ones and ancestors through a human/spiritual translator or medium (me, in this case). Think of it as an opportunity to have a chat with your deceased people! Deep healing can occur on both sides, living and deceased, when things are able to be said that were left unsaid before, or when you can attain the thoughts and advice of those who have left their living body.
Tarot provides the opportunity to gain guidance and clarity through the use of tarot cards and the imagery and archetypes they are connected to. I tend to do readings a little differently than most people by creating personalized questions with my clients input after a conversation about what has been coming up for them in their life, so the guidance they’re seeking is really tailored to their personal needs.
As a birth doula, I empower and support pregnant people and their families as they go through the incredible transition of growing a child, birthing that child, and birthing their own motherhood/parenthood. I aim to make sure everyone I work with has a positive birthing experience, even if nothing goes according to plan. I believe it is my job to listen deeply to my clients, help provide them support prenatally, through the entire birth, and postpartum, give them tools to support each other, advocate for their needs, connect them to community resources, and provide educated information on topics they wish to know more about.
I think the thing what sets me apart from other healers is both the variety of services I offer and my ability to connect quickly with my clients and really provide them a service that resonates with what is coming up for them in their life currently. I also love that I can help clients cope with and clear old and current traumas. I’m deeply committed to healing through a lens of trauma-informed care and equity.
I chose the Empress to represent my business for a specific reason. In traditional Rider-Waite Tarot, The Empress is one of the Major Arcana cards which focus on the life journey of spiritual growth. Specifically, The Empress represents the divine feminine, motherhood, fertility, and abundance. She carries a nurturing energy and embodies the archetype of Mother Earth. The Empress encourages creativity, self love, connecting with the pleasures of nature and the deep fulfillment of slowing down and enjoying sensory experiences, periods of lush growth, and abundance. I am proud of my ability to nurture client’s healing experiences through relaxation and release. I feel like I am skilled at holding space for clients to feel their emotions and let go of what no longer serves them. I help clients empower themselves to heal from past traumas, grow through your life journeys, and reconnect with the pleasures and abundance of life. I spend a lot of time grounding myself in nature and helping others do the same. Empress Healing arts is deeply rooted in the belief of the natural healing powers of the outdoors, universal life‑force energy, movement and breath, art in all forms, and the strength of community.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was a creative, chatty, compassionate, and emotional kid. I loved connecting with others, and I often felt their emotions deeply myself (it was only much later in life that I figured out that I was empathic). I loved to do arts and crafts, dance, and was involved in some form of music my entire childhood. I was a good student in school, but was also a perfectionist- something I have spent the most recent years of my adulthood trying to recover from. I was kind and thoughtful, and often the “therapist” in my friend group.
Pricing:
- Reiki 60 min- $110, 90 min- $145
- Shamanic Energy Healing 60 min- $120, 90 min $150
- Mediumship- Pro bono through fall
- Tarot 30 min- $40, 60 min- $75
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.empresshealingarts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empresshealingarts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590484294147
