On the spot: Aytug Izat
Healer Aytug Izat uses relaxation techniques such as massage, meditative breathing and discussion to treat his patients.
By Brian Baer
fredericksburg.com
Date published: 9/15/2004
On the Spot looks beyond regular newsmakers to highlight the varied residents who make the Fredericksburg community what it is.
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Aytug Izat, 61, of Spotsylvania County is a healer.
But not like the guys on TV during the '80s, he said.
He doesn't touch anybody's forehead and make them fall over to a chorus of hallelujahs.
His healing lately takes place in the back room of a new shop on Caroline Street in downtown Fredericksburg.
That's where Izat and business partner Marcia McFadden opened Running Buffalo Trading Post and the School of Integrated Holistic Healing Arts a couple of months ago.
Izat’s healings involve relaxation techniques such as massage, meditative breathing and discussion, among other treatments.
His work ranges from helping people trade wheelchairs for walkers to helping a heavy smokers kick the habit. Some of his clients also suffer from headaches, other pains or more serious conditions such as heart or kidney ailments.
Much of his treatment addresses anxieties and fears. Izat was living in New Jersey during 9/11, for instance, and treated countless area residents for stress.
His broadest work, however, may have come after a major earthquake struck Istanbul in 1999, killing 13,000 people. Izat, who is Turkish, estimates he saw thousands of people in Istanbul who were struggling to deal with the tragedy.
No matter the patient, however, he said his model is roughly the same.
"I teach them how to get better," he said, "by showing them they have more power than they think they do."
Describe the energy of the Fredericksburg area?
It is two kinds. One is sorrow for the wars. But people are nice for the most part and are very friendly. We are getting along.
In short, what is your job?
I help people to understand themselves and that they have the healing power inside. I don't accept "no" as an answer. Connect yourself to the creator's power, be aware of it and you never fail.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Be yourself. I'm trying to become myself.
How do you separate yourself from some of the more prominent TV "healers"?
Date published: 9/15/2004
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