I am a published writer and a reiki healer. I feel that I can help others heal with the words I write. I was called to healing late in my life when I was given the name Afiyah by my spiritual guides on a beach in Tobago in 2006. Previously, I was named Gemma by my parents and never entertained the idea of a name change. For two years after that momentous occasion, I refused to use it. I knew it meant the healed one in Arabic but saw it more as a coming of age present since I had turned fifty that year.

But I had been ignoring the truly phenomenal physical and spiritual changes that was occurring within me since that time until the death of my twin flame Marlon in 2008. He came to me many times charging me with the responsibility of fully embodying the empowering and healing energies that I had received on that beach. And when he was not actively convincing me that I was Afiyah other spiritual influences joined in the chorus, singing, you are no longer Gemma. She is gone. You must become Afiyah totally.

Who could ignore those voices that spoke so loudly and lovingly from the Other Side of the Veil? I plunged right into my healing practice. I took early retirement from my Public Service job, something I had always wanted to do but had kept putting it off. By divine decree, I got permission to leave. I wasted no time and put in the request to leave the Public Service that same day. Gradually I got into my reiki healing practice for which I had been attuned to use that healing modality since 2002. I became a reiki master a few months later and with my growing experience plunged deeper into the field of energetic healing. My clientele grew as did my knowledge of the human body’s energy system.

My two children were grown and my job as a public servant was over. I was free to pursue my life calling. While the job I had done in the Trinidad and Tobago Public Service for thirty-four years had been gratifying, it had never been my heart’s passion. It had put food on the table and a roof over my family’s heads but inside me I always harbored dreams of writing.  I found great solace in putting down my thoughts on paper and the more I did the louder my intuitive voice got. I just had to share it with others.

And I did that in 2006 with the publication of my first book, a collection of poetry called The Blue Notebook. I got both negative and positive feedback from my first outing into the publishing world, but I listened to only those that encouraged me to continue. It seemed that I said things there that resonated with women who not only identified with the pain recorded in that book but also the empowerment that was suggested in each poetic revelation. I salute all my encouragers!

Since 2008 I have worked to embody the energies that the name Afiyah afforded me. Transformation has been difficult at times but nonetheless immensely rewarding. I continue to write and have published three other books that continues the theme of emotional healing, empowerment and awakening to our true selves and divine purpose which I began in the Blue Note Book.  All my books are self-published.

Along with my writing and healing practice I also give talks on Energy Medicine Healing (particularly emotional healing) and personal empowerment for practical use by everyone in to-day’s challenging world.