Lucia Cockcroft has her energy re-distributed during an intriguing Ki Treatment session at Innersound, London.
Master Kim concentrates intensely, eyes closed, as she holds my hand and contemplates my energy levels.
After a few minutes, in a soft voice that is barely perceptible, she makes her diagnosis: I have very low energy, a bad stomach, and an inherited tendency towards anxiety.
Though I don't discount it, I am initially surprised at the last statement, and intrigued by the first two: a few weeks previously, a Naturopath had suggested I have a test to gauge for suspected hypo (low) thyroid. 
The weak stomach/digestion comment also rang true: a few months ago, I had self-diagnosed a debilitating cow's milk intolerance - a sign that my diet was causing havoc with my digestion.
Back in the consulting room at Innsersound, the light-filled, central London base of the Ki Treatment movement, Master Kim instructs me to lie down for the core of the energy work treatment I am having today.
As she begins to work on my abdomen and stomach area, I inwardly wince in pain; I am unused to being worked on in this area, and it's just-about tolerably uncomfortable.
Still, at least there is something unusual happening concurrently to take my mind of my complaining middle area - the gentle, mild-mannered Master Kim is emitting a stream of burps, followed by a whishing noise that lasts for the rest of the treatment.
I had read about this (to western minds) unorthodox approach beforehand, so wasn't taken entirely by surprise. Nevertheless, the burps are a little unnerving at first, and I am relieved to note that they stop after half a minute.
Not so with the whoshing - as Master Kim, who is one of the most experienced practitioners at the centre, works the pressure points of my body (from my abdomen, she moves up to the crown of my head, then neck and arm), the noises continue.
After a while I find the sounds (at a pinch, it could be wind whilsting through trees) almost relaxing. Certainly this is very different to any other massage or body work treatment I've experienced before.
South Korea
Ki Treatment originiated in South Korea and is gaining credence in the West as an effective way to treat all manner of common complaints - from back pain to anxiety, depression.
The essential, Eastern, belief is that many conditions and illnesses are due to blocked energy, either due to genetics, or lifestyle (or both).
If energy is not free to circulate freely, the body is simply unable to function to its full capacity, and illness of some kind follows.
Yoga practitioners will find all this familiar; Eastern mind-body practices such as yoga and t'ai chi also believe fundamentally that energy (or lack of it), and how it moves around the body, is key to wellbeing.
In yoga, the concept of prana, or lifeforce, is itself an expression of energy: yogis believe that a nutritious diet, harmonious lifestyle and correct breathing are essential for the body to be nourished, and properly functioning.
When I talk with Master Kim after my treatment, it is clear that this central belief is at the heart of all the practitioenrs, or Masters, administering Ki Treatment.
Low energy levels
But why, I put it, are energy levels typically so low in countries such as the UK? Master Kim looks mysterious and doesn't offer the neat explanation my journalist mind is seeking.
But I do gather that Master Kim and her team see hundreds of patients a month who are suffering, to some degree, with a deficien
cy of energy. In a few cases, the resulting problems (which are as likely to be psychological as physical) are life-limiting.
Master Kim tells me how the treatments have helped one patient: "I have been seeing a lady over a few months who could hardly walk when during the first consultation.
Her shoulders were hunched and rounded, I couldn't understand her as she didn't have the energy to project her voice, and she could barely climb onto the treatment couch.
But after a few sessions her posture improved, her tone was brighter, and she told me she had begun to do things - such as clean the house - that she had not managed for years."
It's not difficult to find other success stories of how Ki Treatment have made a difference to lives; there have been some glowing press reports, though clearly most people will look blank when you ask them if they have come across it.
There is little doubt that the less conventional aspects of the approach (the burping and whooshing) would deter many people from booking a session in the first place - though it seems that this scepticism disappears after the doubter has had a treatment.
For my own part, I feel as if I have just had an hour-long massage: relaxed, a little other-wordly, receptive.
Addressing the whole picture
Perhaps a longer course of treatments would see a real difference in my energy levels and tendency towards poor digestion; Master Kim is certainly keen to see me again.
She says she would love to treat my whole family, as well as the houses in which we live - energy, or lack of it, is not just confined to the human form.
Ki Treatment masters believe that our living and working environments, our diet, the company we keep - the energy patterns of our whole lifestyle - combine to determine how we function on a daily basis.
It's a yogic, holistic approach to health and wellbeing that may be still little known in the West, but - initial shock of the burps aside - whose potential to heal on various levels could be far-reaching.
Visit the website www.insfoundation.org for more information and venues for Ki Treatments. Innersound London is at 25 Queen Anne Street, London W1G 9HT; 0845 459 1025, 07532 291176; email info@kiglobal.org
.jpg "Baddha Konasana - Bound Angle Pose")
