Despite a fulfilling career as a nurse, Susanne Raht has taken her vocation to heal in a new direction.

Susanne, 37, boasts a stellar and selfless career in conventional medicine. A fully-trained and registered nurse, she's worked in intensive care units in her native Germany as well as a variety of hospitals in the UK. She has also been part of Emergency Response Unit teams overseas and her experience includes working with refugees in Chad and also as part of post-tsunami relief teams in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

But alongside her inspiring work in the field of 'traditional' medicine, Susanne has always had a passion for complementary and alternative healing.

Now she has taken that passion one step further – setting up a practice, Gentle Treatments, where she offers Reiki and Bach Flower treatments.

Susanne, who lives in Bristol with her partner and young son, discovered Reiki through a friend and the pair completed the level one Reiki course together 15 years ago.

"I felt that level one was not enough for me and wanted to go further," she tells me. "I found a lovely Reiki Master in Germany and got attuned in level two, and fairly shortly afterwards I became a Reiki Master.

"Reiki is my passion and very much part of my everyday life. I decided to set up Gentle Treatments because I wanted other people to benefit from my Reiki and Bach Flower treatments, not just my family and friends."

Originating in Japan, Reiki is a wonderfully gentle, yet powerful form of natural healing. It's claimed that it can restore total harmony and balance in the mind and body, and can benefit a wide range of physical and emotional conditions.

Keen to try it out, I met Susanne at her practice at The Chandos Clinic in Redland for a Reiki session.

Warm and friendly, Susanne immediately put me at my ease, gently enquiring whether I have any problems, either physically or emotionally before asking me to lay, fully clothed, on the treatment bed.

Susanne uses an ancient laying-on of hands technique which, she explains, channels life force energy to heal, balancing the subtle energies within our bodies. The Reiki practitioner, Susanne tells me, serves as a vessel that supplies healing powers where they are most needed.

As Susanne's hands moved over my body, focusing on my neck where I often experience pain, I felt a warm sensation and became deeply relaxed. Apparently others may experience a tingling sensation, hot and cold flushes and you may even fall asleep.

Susanne explained that many people will feel a sense of release after Reiki, but you are just as likely to experience a range of emotions, from exhaustion to elation. You may even experience a whirlwind of reveries in which powerful memories are triggered.

Practitioners believe it will take about a week for the energy to settle.

"Reiki helps to restore a natural balance in both body and mind and can benefit everybody, from babies to the elderly," says Susanne.

"It can be used alongside traditional medicine, but is not a replacement for it. For acute or infectious conditions or major medical problems, people should always consult their GP."

This gentle treatment in a comfortable Redland clinic is a long way from the relief work Susanne has been involved in in the past.

In 2004, she helped in setting up a medical resource for refugees from Sudan in Chad, Africa. "The mission was to sort out a basic health care unit at Camp Trejine.

"I was only there for six weeks but although my stay in Africa was comparatively brief, I felt I learnt a lot from it and was keen to do more overseas relief work in the future."

When the tsunami hit Indonesia and Sri Lanka in 2004, Susanne was again approached to be part of an emergency response unit team going to Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the following year she headed out on another post-tsunami mission, based at Puthukkudiyiruppu in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

"In Sumatra, I was working in the anaesthetics section and we were able to carry out a number of smaller operations for people who had minor wounds," she says.

"It was obviously very upsetting and it's hard to convey exactly what the people were going through unless you could see it with your own eyes.

"I then went to Sri Lanka for three months where I was working in a small, local hospital helping to support the existing Sri Lankan medical staff and helping to train them in certain medical procedures that they were not familiar with. I was there nine months after the tsunami had struck but there were still scenes of devastation."

Today, Susanne hasn't completely turned her back on traditional medicine but believes that her alternative therapy can help people's quality of life by improving both their physical and emotional well-being.

Gentle Treatments, The Chandos Clinic, 21 Chandos Road, Redland, Bristol BS6 6PG. Tel: 0117 974 5084. Website: www.gentletreatments.co.uk.