Practitioners of two Hawaiian healing methods have joined together in helping Maui wildfire survivors in their recovery, offering complimentary lomilomi massage and hooponopono conflict-resolution sessions.

The synergistic partnership is called Laukanaka, which means “many people” in Hawaiian. The name was chosen in reference to “the hopeful people of Lahaina” who are navigating a journey of healing after the Aug. 8, 2023, disaster, said Leni English, a hooponopono practitioner.

It started almost a year ago when massage therapists Enrick Ortiz Jr. and his wife, Ka‘iulani Akamine, of E’s the Pain — Lomilomi Therapy of Kaneohe, felt an urgent need to offer their skills to help fire survivors.

Ortiz asked his friend Lui Hokoana, chancellor of the University of Hawaii Maui College, for help in organizing the resources and funding that allowed for Laukanaka to launch quickly. The Maui college was a hub of services for those affected by the fire.

Hokoana connected Ortiz with English, who is the former’s sister, and other members of Haku Ho‘oponopono Practitioners who also were eager to help. Volunteers gave up their weekends and committed to providing services once a month for a year at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort, where many who lost their homes were temporarily living, the chancellor said.

But Hokoana realizes it’s going to take much longer than a year until genuine healing occurs, and his next step is to figure out how they can sustain the services.

Ortiz, who also runs a lomilomi school, Pa Iwi Ola, has been bringing several of his advanced students from Oahu to give two full days of free massages on Maui. They practice the pa ola style of lomi, which means “quick fix.” Taught by kahu Alva Andrews, its goal is to bring mind, body and soul into balance, he said.

“People think they’re coming in (just) for a massage, but if they have emotional stuff or energy imbalances, it will correct that,” Ortiz said. “The lomi does bring up emotions. When we touch different pressure points and we start the energy flow, emotion starts to come out.

“What happened when they went through the fires, it’s some really deep stuff.”

Akamine said lomilomi often breaks down a person’s defenses, and some began to shed tears. It was like “pillow talk. People will begin to tell you things that they never told anybody else, and it just unlocks different things,” she said.

Once a trust was established, people slowly opened up about their feelings, Ortiz said. Often they went from the massage table to meet with English and the other hooponopono practitioners for more “talk story,” he said.

The synergy that was created with the two healing schools from the start “was like we were working together for a long time,” Ortiz said.

Donations to cover the volunteers’ travel, food and lodging have been provided by UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Hawai‘i, Kaiaulu Kamehameha Schools, Ohana Health Plan and the Native Hawaiian Education Association, English said.

Over the past 11 months, 931 Hawaiian healing sessions were provided, consisting of 797 lomilomi sessions and 134 kukakuka, or informal talk-story, sessions. Ortiz and English said everyone has found a good measure of relief, based on surveys and personal feedback.

Their patients come in with “a face of pain” but leave looking far less burdened, Akamine said.

Ortiz said, “When you have a bad day, there’s like a cloud over your head. When we first came, they had thunderstorms over their heads. Some of them wished they weren’t here.”

Akamine added that some wondered why they didn’t just die in the fire. “It’s heartbreaking. Every time we go, we feel like we need to go more,” she said.

They’ve developed close ties with the regulars who keep returning and bringing other friends for a massage. There’s a Keiki Korner run by Kate Kahoano for children to take part in activities and talk story while their parents are getting massages.

“It’s a place for the community to come and just have this space to just heal and be vulnerable with each other,” Akamine said.

English, who is also a licensed social worker, was trained as a hooponopono practitioner by Richard (Likelike) and Lynette Paglinawan. Though the Hawaiian word means conflict resolution, which can be requested to mediate problems between people, it also includes kukakuka, she said.

The big difference in the Hawaiian method, as opposed to Western counseling, is that it is rooted in spirituality, which includes pule, or prayer. It recognizes a far greater power not specific to any religion or culture, English said. The method addresses the physical, emotional and spiritual experiences that may be causing affliction, especially in those suffering the loss of a loved one.

“People who are coming in that state of trauma and loss, they embrace it (because) we’re connecting them spiritually to their loved ones, so that’s the kukakuka of it, allowing them to freely speak of those things that are emotionally weighing heavy on them, those elements of heartache, loss,” English said, “and then transitioning them to a place of recognizing the strength they can draw from these people (who they’ve lost). It’s embracing and affirming these emotions.”

Practitioners also use pi kai, or cleansing rituals, “clearing the body, mind and soul from all the things that are holding the person down. It’s with sprinkling of water and explaining to them what it means, offering a more cultural application to healing,” she said. “It’s one thing to think about it, but when you have a ritual that defines it, it’s a tangible way of releasing (the negative).”

English said when people first came in, they looked worn and downtrodden, but “when they left, their bodies looked different. They had life again.”

“It’s very rewarding to see such impact in such positive ways. We emphasize their strength and that the healing is within them, and we’re just helping them to navigate it. It’s very empowering, which aligns with what hooponopono is,” she said.