Healing Power: Suzi Morris channels energy through writer Graham Keal

It had been, by any measure, a pretty tough year. Divorce, losing daily contact with my two teenage sons, losing the home where they were raised, three bereavements in quick succession.

On top of all that my new home needed refurbishing, and organising this was hugely disruptive as my house is also my office. Then just as the builder's drill went quiet, so too did the phone and the e-mail. Work was drying up. The lure of antidepressants proved strong but I've never liked chemical solutions.

Then I heard about a non-toxic alternative, Vortex healing. I was researching an interview with Casualty star Liz Carling when I discovered that she had tried Vortex healing after losing her zest for life due to a traumatic break-up. When we met, she told me how wondrously uplifting it had been for her. I contacted her healer, Suzi Morris, soon after.

Bear in mind that I don't believe in any spiritual shenanigans. Apart from being a grizzled, cynical old hack and a committed atheist, I am the least spiritual person I know. I confessed as much to Suzi. But this isn't faith healing and she said my cynicism made no difference.

Suzi describes herself as a channel for a mysterious, benevolent energy source called the Vortex, which her inspirational teacher, American Ric Weinman, rediscovered. Ric maintains it was practised more than 5,000 years ago. He knew this because he realised he had been a Vortex healer in a previous life. Yeah, right.

Suzi became a convert when Ric gave a demonstration in London. Though she was at the back of the hall, she felt a surging inflex of energy and vowed to learn how to tap into this. The treatment aims to clear negative energies, thereby reducing anxiety and promoting calm.

I had been feeling very low stressed and anxious before my visit, so I was not looking forward to having my doubts about the treatment confirmed. Suzi encouraged me to lie on the treatment table and relax. She then put her hands either side of my head and prepared to "connect to the Vortex", implanting a series of "structures" into my brain. I did not believe a word of it, although Suzi clearly did. Then things went a bit peculiar.

Suzi's hands were close to my ears, not even touching them, when I felt my body starting to ripple. The nearest I can get to describing the sensation is to compare it to a TV programme when the screen goes wobbly as the as the characters flash back in time. I was not alarmed or fearful, just astonished. If this was the preparation, what would the finale feel like?

Suzi uses "colour healing" and asked me to imagine particular colours as she turned in to the heart chakra, green for the throat chakra "for communication". Then I had to imagine thick roots going down from my feet, connecting to the earth, channelling its energy into me. Bizarrely, I felt a tingling slowly rising in my legs.

Suzi told me to think of a further channel running from a point in the sky to my chest. The aim was to connect both energy sources and let them flow together. I felt as if a weight was pressing on my chest, as if the energy was trying to enter me but could not, while the rising root energy was stuck around my middle. I had not voiced any of these sensations when Suzi said: "Sometimes you get blockages in the flow." Was she a mind-reader or what?

I never did get that dual flow going in that first session but I hope my resistance proves temporary. However, I left Suzi feeling oddly lighter, happier. Weeks later, I still fell uplifted and energised. I've embarked on a new career as an after-dinner speaker and even my sex life has perked up. My partner is delighted.

Suzi warns people not to expect a miracle, especially after a single treatment but it felt like one for me. I am going back for more. The problems I had, I still have, but I am facing them with a cheerfulness and resilience that has astonished some of my nearest and dearest. It astonishes me, too. But then, I don't believe in this kind of thing....