A WOMAN GYRATES for ten long seconds, whimpering in pleasure. A man hovers nearby. He places one hand firmly on her chest and the other on her pelvis. His name is Daniel Flash, and at the time of writing he boasts 546,000 followers on Instagram. Each reel he publishes generates thousands of views, their thumbnails a sea of affected women: mouths agape, backs arched, hair tousled. 

Flash refers to himself as the founder of Sensory Energetics, a form of ‘revolutionary psychosomatic therapy’. Laura Hanson, a sensory energetics healer based in western Sydney, describes this practice to me as – quite simply – a holistic approach to healing. It’s a kind of psychosomatic therapy perhaps akin to kinesiology – only spiritual. It allows her to expel stubborn wounds that find themselves lodged in the nervous systems, or ‘energy centres’, of her clients. ‘We hold onto grievances, resentment, hurt and trauma. We hold it in our bodies. This modality is powerful in that it allows these to be released,’ she states.