Interview with Vivien Schapera - The RV Book Fair 2025

Hello Vivien, in The Complete Guide to Crystal Surgery, what inspired you to create this new approach, and how has it evolved since you began?

It all began in the 1990’s when one of my clients asked me to teach her what I knew about crystal healing. I said “yes,” but I did not realize just how much I knew about the topic. Anyway, she picked up one of the crystals and she said: “I love it when a crystal looks like a tool,” and this bell went off inside me “ding, ding, ding” and that was the very moment of inspiration. Most crystal healing techniques are very familiar – like putting stones on chakras, or carrying stones in your pocket, or wearing them as jewelry. In Crystal Surgery, we use the crystals in specific, tried and tested, combinations that can do very detailed adjustments to both the energy field and energy body. It took me 25 years to download and research all the information and then I wrote the textbook. When I look at how much information there is, I have to admit that I must have got a lot of support from the etheric realm, because it is truly 100 years’ worth of research that got done in quarter of the time.

How have your studies in Psychology and the Alexander Technique influenced your healing practice?

There is an immense influence on my work from both Psychology and the Alexander Technique, and then, in turn, my expertise in Energy Healing and Crystal Healing has influenced my understanding of these other two disciplines. It is through the Alexander Technique that I became so sensitive to the energy field, my intuition was awakened, and I noticed that I could hear what my clients were thinking. This led into me trying out some Energy Healing as well. Of course, my knowledge of Psychology was very, very helpful. Psychology is what is known as a “soft science” and I was able to apply the methods used in psychological research to do my research on the crystals. Essentially, the net result has been that I have a unique understanding of how Body (the Alexander Technique), Mind (Psychology and the Alexander Technique) and Spirit (Energy Healing) fit together. Here’s the magical thing about crystals – they are physical objects (body) with intelligence (mind) that conduct etheric (spirit) energy. Crystals form a bridge between the three.

Your memoir Everyday Magic touches on your childhood in South Africa. How did those early experiences shape your spiritual outlook?

I will be honest and say that I don’t think my experiences in South Africa so much shaped my spiritual outlook. They more developed my character, my personal philosophies, my attitudes and my personal mission. My personal mission is to help people develop their potential. I do my best not to be prejudiced, which if we are honest, is very hard because we are definitely taught what to think by the culture that brings us up. Having said all that, I should point out that after I wrote Everyday Magic, I saw that the spirits had somehow inserted themselves into every chapter of the book, and so yes, the book is indeed about how the spirit dimension influenced my life. The point here is that this spirit influence was not a South African dynamic, this is a global dynamic, and even in Apartheid South Africa, the spirits were with us.

You’ve written on diverse topics, from weight loss to spiritual practice. How do you decide what to write about and what was your first book?

My first book was How to Establish and Maintain a Strong Client Base which I wrote in serial form in 1996, for my colleagues in the Alexander Technique. It was a handbook and I created a weekend workshop to go with it. I wrote it because Alexander Teachers asked me to. The one said to me: “Vivien, we all struggle to establish a practice and you’ve already done it twice. What is your secret?” I thought I would write her a letter with the answer, but again, I had no idea just how much I knew. This year I completed a full revision that includes a whole new section on digital marketing. Again, this was done in response to a young man in Australia writing to ask me for the updated version, which is what got me to haul the abandoned rewrite off the back burner, and out into the world. I used AI to help me in two ways. The one was to ensure that I was writing something that couldn’t just be accessed by putting a question to AI, and the other was to ensure that I gave people comprehensive information, even if it was beyond my personal expertise. It’s a great book now, combining the narrative and insights of my 44 years of business-building experience with the full range of knowledge that is out there, on the internet. That’s pretty much how I decide to write a book – I respond to a need that comes to my attention if I see that I have something unique to offer. If not, I rather let someone else write the book.

What differences do you see between teaching Energy Healing work online and in person?

There are some distinct advantages to teaching Energy Healing online. It is much easier to focus on the energy, because one is free of the distractions that occur during face-to-face interactions. To explain, people are adept at projecting their energy when in-person and they are projecting an overlay, not what is going on underneath – in the same way as when people ask how we are, no matter what, we say “Fine, thank you.” We could call this “the social face.” In energy work, we need to look underneath that and that’s easier online than in-person. The other big advantage of online, is reaching the whole world instead of only the region where you are physically located. This is a massive advantage.

For someone new to crystal healing, what’s the best way to begin safely and meaningfully?

There is nothing unsafe in crystal healing, so I can basically answer that part of the question very quickly. The most meaningful way to begin is to trust that if you feel attracted to a crystal, then it’s the right one for you. I think the least meaningful way to approach crystals is to look in a book, or look on the internet, to find a crystal with a specific benefit, and then purchase it. It just doesn’t work that way. Acquiring crystals is like acquiring friends – by mutual attraction. Once you feel interested in a crystal, that is the time to look up its properties, and I assure you, it’s a totally fascinating discovery when you realize why the crystal was calling you.

Vivien Schapera is an award-winning Teacher, Practitioner and Writer living in Cincinnati, OH, USA. In private practice for over 40 years, she is also the founder of three schools, and the author of numerous blogs, vlogs, and books, including Everyday Magic, The Complete Guide to Crystal Surgery and her most recent 2025 publication, How to Establish and Maintain a Strong Client Base a handbook for people who want to earn a living doing what they love.

For more information, please visit www.CrystalHealingTechniques.com.

Interview published in The Relatable Voice Magazine - December 2025 as part of The RV Book Fair 2025. Downolad the full magazine at https://www.relatable-media.com/the-relatable-voice-magazine