What is Reiki?

What is Reiki 

Reiki, currently provided in many hospitals and medical centers throughout the world, is a powerful form of energy work that assists the body, emotions, and mind to find balance which creates healing. Powerful, yet gentle, Reiki removes the energetic blocks and energy breaks that create dis-ease and imbalance in the body. Reiki was originally founded in Japan in the early 1920s by Dr. Makio Usui and is practice through the world.

Reiki (pronounced Ray Key) can relieve pain and stress, accelerate the healing process, assist in removing toxins from the body, speed the emotional well-being, and complement allopathic medical treatments from emergency surgery to psychotherapy. Anyone can learn to do Reiki and everyone who receives a Reiki will benefit. Children love it, animals will sit still for a Reiki treatment and plants grow stronger and healthier with Reiki.

From doing Reiki for over 20 years I have witnessed Reiki assist in:
-       shrinking tumors,
-       helping women to get pregnant,
-       healing eye issues such macular degeneration and damage from diabetes,
-       reducing MS symptoms,
-       heal asthma and allergies,
-       healing those health issues that doctors cannot diagnosis,
-       mending bones quickly,
-       reducing the side effects of chemo and radiation,
-       accelerate healing after surgery,
-       reducing stress,
-       healing depression,
-       reducing anxiety,
-       helping to get unstuck,
-       and there are so many more things Reiki can assist!

During a Reiki treatment, a client remains fully clothed and rests peacefully in a chair or on a massage table. The Reiki practitioner places their hands lightly on or over the person's body. They extend an unlimited supply of Reiki energy into the client's energy centers to remove blocks, congestion, and to restore balance. The Reiki practitioner is not giving away their own energy. The Reiki energy flows through them directly to the client into their complex energetic circuitry, which sends the energy into all of the muscles, nerves, organs, bones, and into the body's bio-chemical systems. Reiki works extremely well with conventional medicine and with guided imagery. A Reiki treatment assists healing on all levels.

Health care professionals, massage therapists, lay people, and others interested in accessing their own natural healing and intuitive abilities are invited to experience the simple, powerful, effective, and life-transforming healing technique of Reiki. Experience Reiki as it helps to boost immunity, vitality, and heal illness. Reiki is taught in four levels. You decide when you are ready for the next class. As you can see below, Reiki I is complete in itself as you only need to take this class to learn how to do Reiki on yourself and others.

The Power of Distance Reiki

Many people discount the power of distant/absentee healing (the term distant, distance, and absentee healing are all the same.) They believe that if the practitioner is not present for the session, the results would not be as effective as a hands-on session. From working with energy over 20 years, I find that both hands-on and distant healing are equally empowering, with both providing deep healing on all levels. Every level that can be accessed hands-on can also be accessed at a distance. Sometimes I find distant healing easier because there are fewer distractions when the person is not there. It is easier to stay focused.

I remember the first distant healing session that I did. I was talking to a friend on the phone and she complained about having a really bad cold and having to sleep sitting up. She also moaned about having a non-stop throbbing sinus headache that extra strength aspirin was not helping. I offered some absentee Reiki when our conversation ended. She agreed and I began the session as soon as we hung up. The session lasted for twenty minutes. I was amazed at how I could feel what was and was not going on in her energy field and body. She called about an hour after the session to tell me how amazing it was. She said that when I was sending she felt and heard all kinds of popping going on in her sinus areas around her eyes. After 10 minutes, she said that her nose began unclogging and began to drain. Her headache cleared within 15 minutes after the session ended. She knew that she was going to sleep in her bed that night. We were both in awe over how quickly everything happened. She called me two days later to share that when she woke up the next morning she felt 90% better and no longer had any headaches. I was grateful to have the experience and she was grateful for the healing.

I have also witnessed the power of distant healing when I had the absentee healing request list that I sent out once every 7-10 days for over 8 years. People would send me their name, location, and what they wanted healed. The requests ranged from help me with a specific health issue, send me energy to find a job, send energy to help me in this transition period of my work life, relationship or other, send energy for safe travels, and to the planet for peace or any area in the world that was experiencing a crisis. I also received a lot of requests for distant Reiki for pets. I would put them all in an email and send them to 700 Reiki practitioners on to send Reiki. The feedback that we received showed that the distant healing was just as powerful as any hands-on session. Some results occurred very quickly. Others occurred over time just like hands-on Reiki.

In my distant Reiki practice, I get requests to work on people with physical issues as well as issues that relate to helping people go through change or make changes. I help to release the blocked energy and to restore energy so people can embrace the changes going on around them. Over the past year, I have sent distant healing to several people, who are dealing with balancing the incoming higher energies.

Recently, my absentee services were sought by several people in crisis and the results were immediate. One person requested Reiki for her adult son who had renal failure, placed on dialysis, and was told to expect a kidney transplant. It was a shock to the whole family because he had always been so healthy. Her son was released from the hospital five days after the absentee healing began. There is no surgery planned for his future.

Another person wanted Reiki to support a situation that was requiring a four hour surgery. The person actually was aware during two of the sessions when I was working. The surgery lasted only an hour. The doctor was very pleased how smoothly the whole procedure went and so was my client.

When I am working with someone with absentee healing, I encourage that he or she commit to three sessions. During the first session, I am able to assess what the person’s energy field is or is not doing. I provide Reiki to the areas of distress first and then send Reiki to the rest of the body to bring balance. I call this session, putting out the fire. In the second session, which is usually 2 days later, I assess how the first session impacted the field. I ask myself is the energy flowing better, where are the hot spots, what energy phenomena are occurring, where are the blocks, and what approach needs to be taken now that I can access a bit deeper into the client’s field. I call this the clean up session. I also listen in to see if the body has any messages for the client. During the third session, the alignment and fine tuning phase, I am usually able to access very deeply into the client’s field. I sense the impact that the other two sessions had and continue the work for deeper healing of the particular area and balance for the whole body.

 

 Make Reiki Part of Your Wellness Program

I was quite delighted to hear Dr. Oz tell his millions of viewers on his January 6th show that he, not only, promotes Reiki, but he also believes Reiki to be, “Ultimately, the most important alternative medical treatment of all.”1 I knew this way before Dr.Oz espoused the healing powers of Reiki. As a practicing Reiki Master with over 20 years experience working in the field of holistic health, I thought it was great that Reiki was getting the recognition that it deserves. I have seen Reiki help people heal their various illnesses, accelerate their healing processes after surgery or recovery from an illness, release stress and blocked energy, reduce pain levels, assist those who have problems getting pregnant and increase energy levels. This is just a short list of what I have seen in practicing Reiki.

What is Reiki? Reiki is a form of energy medicine that balances the body’s energy resulting in healing. It was discovered and taught by Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan in the early 1920s. In the 1930s Hawayo Takata brought Reiki to the western world to her home in Hawaii and she began teaching Reiki in the 1970s.

Whereas, traditional Western medicine treats our biological and chemical body components; Reiki treats the energetic portion of our body. Every cell and the spaces between the cells in your body are filled with energy. When your energy becomes low or blocked in any area disease occurs. Many conditions impact your body’s energy these include diet, lack of exercise, too much stress, drug and alcohol use, anxiety, needing to control, and feeling helpless. Most of the time symptoms do not appear in the body until 2 to 3 years after the situation began. Over this time period when the person is engaged in unhealthy physical or emotional/mental activity the energy reserves diminish or become blocked. There is either no more energy left to support that area or the energy is blocked from flowing to the area. This results in illness. While many of the treatments offered by MDs, specialists, and surgeons treat only the symptoms not the cause of the disease or energy block, Reiki treats both the symptoms and the cause. Overtime, a person receiving Reiki treatments can be completely healed. Reiki has been compared to acupuncture in that it moves the chi (energy) through the body and removes the blocks. With Reiki there are no needles.

Reiki works very well along with traditional medical treatments and therapies. Dr. Oz believes in the healing power of Reiki so much that he allows a Julie Motz, a Reiki practitioner to do Reiki during some of his open heart surgeries. In the book Hands of Life by Julie Motz, she discusses her experiences of going into surgery with Dr. Oz to perform Reiki. She would treat the patient before, during and after surgery to assist their healing journey. I too have had the opportunity to see clients before or right after surgery to perform Reiki. One client was released three days earlier than planned after her surgery. Another client felt so good that she wanted to get up out of her hospital bed after a major surgery. I could see it in her eyes and asked her to just stay in bed and enjoy the energy. She later confirmed to me that she was planning to get up because she felt so energized but decided to follow my advice.

Reiki works really well with people dealing with pain. It has been known to lower pain levels or eliminate the pain altogether. I have seen people leave the hospital without pain medication when it was offered as an option. Reiki can relieve back pain, joint pain and those terrible sinus or migraine headaches. On the Dr. Oz show, Reiki Master Pamela Miles treated a woman with chronic headache issues. The woman who was treated by Pamela sent her an email 2 weeks later to say that her headaches had reduced in intensity and frequency since that one Reiki treatment.2

Most Reiki sessions last about an hour. The client lies comfortably on a massage table or sits in a chair fully dressed. As the client relaxes, the Reiki practitioner lightly touches various parts of the body to allow the Reiki energy to enter the client’s body. Reiki flows to the area that needs the energy. The client may experience heat as the energy flows into the body. Over time the energy will remove the blocks so that the energy can flow to the area that needs healing. When balance is restored, the energy is flowing freely to all parts of the body.

People will ask how many sessions they need in order to be well again. Many people experience benefits during or after their first session. More serious conditions require more time and sessions. Each situation is unique. Many seek Reiki as a part of their wellness plan. They receive a Reiki session once or twice a month to fortify their energetic body and to remove blocks so their body is not impacted by diminished energy. Reiki is a great anti-aging treatment. It works at the cellular level, feeding energy to supports the immune, nervous, cardiovascular, digestion, and all other systems.

In 1986, my 4 year old daughter had cataract surgery on her left eye. When the surgery was completed her vision was 20/400. The doctor promised that in a matter of a year or so her vision would improve and over time it would heal to 20/100 (the best if would ever be). We followed all of the doctor’s orders and my daughter’s vision was not improving. After a year the doctor seemed very concerned. Friends in my office asked me if they could do Reiki on my daughter. They were looking for someone to practice on since no one at that time knew what Reiki was. I gave them permission. At my daughter’s next doctor visit two months later her vision had shown great improvement with an improvement of over 50 points. That is when I chose to learn every that I could about energy medicine and Reiki. Within four years her eye site had improved to 20/50. Twenty-three years later, everyone in our family is a practicing Reiki master. Our lives overflow with Reiki to support our wellness goals, our animals and those we come into touch with. In the words of Dr. Oz, “Try Reiki - this alternative medicine treatment can manipulate your energy and cure what ails you.”

1 YouTube video of Dr. Oz’s talk on Reiki
2 Video of Pamela Miles on Dr. Oz

  

Reiki Restoring Women's Health and Well-Being

Millions of Americans are spending billions of dollars on complementary health care seeking health and well being from a holistic approach. Reiki is a Japanese form of complementary healing that has been around for over 100 years and is making a big difference in today’s health care, particularly for women. It is very powerful in assisting almost any medical condition to heal. Reiki works on healing physical, emotional, and mental disorders. It has been proven to accelerate the healing process after surgery and reduces pain levels caused by various conditions. It works very well in coordination with conventional medical treatments.

How does Reiki work? Our physical body is made of chemical, biological, and energetic components. The world of conventional medicine is just starting to acknowledge the energetic components that support our whole body. Scientists have proven that every living thing has an energy field. This energy not only surrounds our body, it also fills it sending energy to every muscle, cell, nerve, organ, and bone in the body. When our energy field is low because of lifestyle factors, lack of exercise, poor diet, emotional or physical stress the body begins to breakdown and disease occurs. The Reiki practitioner lightly touches the body sending the Reiki energy through the merdians and nadis to the areas that are depleted of energy. Reiki removes energy blocks in the body, seals holes in the energy field caused by accidents or surgery, restores energy in the body, and helps with toxic side affects caused by medicines, chemotherapy and radiation as well as settles our emotions so that we can live more peacefully and heal. The Reiki practitioner is allowing the Reiki energy to flow through them into the client’s energy field where it is needed most.

During a Reiki session, the client remains clothed and lays or sits ever so peacefully while the Reiki practitioner gently places their hands over specific areas of the body sending in the Reiki energy. What you need to know is that many hospitals offer Reiki services; however, you will only receive it if you ask for it. With most alternative forms of healing in a conventional medical setting, if you want it, you need to request it. A Reiki session lasts about an hour and is always relaxing. Reiki is also fun and easy to learn. Anyone can learn to do Reiki. Many women working in careers in nursing, social work, counseling, physical and occupational therapy, etc. are learning Reiki to help their patients.

Women can benefit greatly from learning Reiki. From talking with my clients I find that women put their needs last and typically experience burnout more often than men. Since they are the main caregivers, they are always pushing to do and give more. When you learn Reiki, you learn to do it on yourself as well as others. You then can do a session on yourself while sitting at your desk, watching television, waiting for appointments, or watching your children play sports. Reiki relieves stress, puts the body back into physical and emotional balance, helps prevent burnout, and assists the body in healing on all levels. I find that Reiki helps women going through menopause, being treated for breast cancer, experiencing cysts, PMS, mental stress, and fatigue. I also have witnessed Reiki assisting women dealing with fertility problems, helping them to successfully conceive. I have seen improvement with many conditions experienced by my clients receiving Reiki treatments, but also have seen great progress with those doing self Reiki.

How much Reiki does one need to feel better? That all depends on the client’s overall health and well being. One session could be very helpful and bring the body back into balance. However, if the client has been out of balance for a long time, it may take a few sessions to get the result that they want. If the person is being treated for a serious illness, weekly sessions would most likely be needed for a while. Reiki can help to relieve stress, anxiety, and help women to move into peace and shed the heaviness they have been carrying. Some people receive Reiki to work through issues that block their energy flow such as anger, shame, and issues that need forgiving. As these issues are healed and released, the physical and emotional bodies heal at deeper levels. Energy is freed up for the body to use in other ways. Reiki on a regular basis can help to eliminate daily stress and keep the body in balance. Reiki is just one way in which women can help themselves stay balanced, heal, and maintain high energy levels to create a more joyful and fulfilling life.

 

 Reiki For Children

Many people associate Reiki as being only for adults; however, children can also benefit from receiving and/or learning Reiki. Parents that have learned Reiki use it to help their children relax, focus, recover from surgery and other traumas, and improve their grades.

Let’s start with Reiki and babies. Nurses practicing Reiki in neonatal intensive care units in hospitals in the United States and Canada provide short Reiki sessions to preemies struggling to survive. The hands-on or above their body helps the preemies on all levels as they strive to gain weight and to breathe on their own. Reiki also helps the parents to relax as they undergo this stressful situation. As the baby returns home, Reiki is good to help soothe a colicky or fuzzy baby or one that just does not want to sleep. It is also good to do Reiki over the area where the baby received his or her shots.

Reiki can be done while holding the baby and just letting it flow wherever it is needed. You can hold the baby’s pillow, blanket, or stuffed animal and send Reiki into it, giving the baby a source of energy while they sleep. In the right amount (not more than 10 minutes for a baby), Reiki is great in helping the baby acclimate to the new world they are living in. It is helpful for the new mother to receive Reiki to support her to deal with the changes and added stress as well as the hormonal fluctuations.

Reiki for toddlers and school-aged children helps to accelerate the healing process for all the bumps and bruises as well as more serious conditions such as illness or broken bones. Since children are relatively new to the world, it takes less energy to have an effect on the body. They do not have preconceived ideas of whether healing is or is not going to happen and their openness allows the energy to work more quickly. Therefore, 10 to 20 minute sessions are all that is needed. Otherwise, the child could become hyper. Giving Reiki to a toddler may consist of having them sit on your lap and receive a treatment while they watch a video. Or having them lie on a table or sit in a chair with their favorite book while you do a short session. After the toddler stage the child can lie down on the table while you do a session. Music or a video can be used, if needed. Children will sometimes open up and talk about what is on their mind during a session. They might also discuss seeing colors around their body.

Teenagers benefit from Reiki as they go through the many changes caused by their hormones that have become more active. Reiki helps them to deal with stress, find balance in their changing body, and find clarity while studying for and taking tests. It also helps balance and calm the emotions when they are stuck in anxiety and or depression. Some teenagers are very open to receiving Reiki. Others are not all that excited about it. Those teenagers that are not excited about a session can lie on the table with their iPod in their ear and tune out. Reiki sessions on teenagers last between 30 to 50 minutes.

Reiki classes for children are offered around the world. These classes typical are for ages 7-14 and are usually shorter in length. The children are taught what Reiki is and how to use it. They are attuned to Reiki and have the opportunity to practice on themselves and on another child. It is really amazing to hear what comes out of their mouths when they begin to practice Reiki. On many occasions the children talk about seeing auras, colors, or light. Some children feel and sense heat or cold when working on another person. Children usually are more open and sensitive and the feedback that they provide is honest and heartwarming such as “Reiki feels like a big hug that lasts a very long time.”

Reiki provides a variety of benefits for children, especially those that have many challenges. As Reiki balances the body’s energy, pain levels are reduced, healing is promoted, and the side effects of chemo and radiation treatments as well as other toxic drug treatments are decreased. Children feel the loving effects of Reiki and respond with a smile when it is offered.

 

Reiki for Nurses

Reiki, the gentle art of healing touch, once a misunderstood mystery is now an energy modality that more and more patients are requesting. Many nursing professionals are taking Reiki classes to further their knowledge of energy medicine and to increase the intensity of the energy, which they can extend to their patients. Usui Reiki is the name of the original Reiki teachings, which originated in Japan through Dr. Mikao Usui in the late 1800’s. All other types of Reiki are a deviation, some having nothing to do with the original Usui teachings.

What makes Usui Reiki different from other types of energy modalities is the attunement; whereby, the Reiki Master passes the ability to receive Reiki to the student. An attunement is a process that opens and balances the practitioner’s chakras/energy centers to facilitate the receiving and sending of the Reiki energy. Reiki practitioners describe the attunement as a powerful spiritual experience. Before the attunement the energy that they were sending might be described as 110 volts, and afterwards experiencing as if they were sending 220 volts. The energy continues to intensify with each additional attunement received in the higher-level classes. Once you have received a Reiki attunement, you will have Reiki for the rest of your life. Another aspect of Reiki that makes it unique is that the training teaches the practitioner to do it on one’s self. Nurses working in stress filled environments can benefit from self-treatment. Reiki is a good way to lower stress levels, and it will help to build one’s immune system by keeping the body in balance.

A regular Reiki session can be 45 minutes to an hour long; however, it can be given in smaller increments of 3 to 5 minutes and still make a tremendous difference. Reiki hand placement positions are mostly over the main chakras with hands either touching or just above the body. There are four levels of Usui Reiki training. In a Reiki I class, the practitioner learns the history of Reiki, how it works, how to do Reiki on one’s self, and how to use it on others. In Reiki II, the practitioner learns several methods of sending distant Reiki, how to incorporate the Reiki symbols into a healing practice and how to empower goals. The Advanced Reiki Training adds many tools to the healing toolbox, including energy exercises and movement that help the practitioner to maintain health and well being. Reiki Master training prepares the practitioner to teach Reiki and to pass attunements. Ms. Hawayo Takata was the first to teach Reiki in the United States in the late 1970’s. She charged $10,000 for the Reiki Master training. Now that there are many Reiki Masters teaching Reiki the cost has fallen to reasonable levels so that more people can afford to take Reiki training. Reiki is a gift and a skill that anyone can learn. Soon nurses will be sharing this gift with their patients and with one another during their breaks bringing balance back into the work environment.

 

Reiki for Massage Therapists

There are many benefits to both the client and the massage practitioner when USUI Reiki is integrated into a massage session. Reiki is a powerful form of healing touch, which assists in the healing process. It was developed in Japan in the late 1800’s and is currently used and taught worldwide. It was named for the founder of Reiki, Mikao USUI. Reiki works on all levels – the physical, emotional and mental. Reiki can be used to accelerate a clients healing process, reduce pain, calm a person, balance the body’s energy, etc. Reiki can be used with a massage session or can be done separately. So a person who practices Reiki does not necessarily have to be a massage practitioner. As a Reiki practitioner and teacher, I have taught Reiki to about 50 massage therapists since 1996. For this article, I interviewed several massage practitioners that use Reiki during their sessions.

When asked how Reiki training enhances the massage sessions, the practitioners all agree that Reiki provides an overall calming effect, particularly on new clients who are not used to such personal contact. It also helps the therapist in detecting where the body needs work and how long to work on a particular spot. Reiki assists the client in being more energetically receptive and open, which allows the practitioner to get more attuned with the clients auric field. All the massage therapists disclosed that when they integrate the Reiki into the sessions their clients notice the difference. Some clients comment about the wonderful warm feeling being extended, while others notice tingling sensations moving through their body, making them feel relaxed. Some clients actually experience physical releases of blocks and issues that they are holding.

Many of the massage practitioners discussed the changes that have occurred within themselves since taking the Reiki training. Several practitioners report that Reiki makes them more aware of what is going on around them prior to touching a client. Other benefits practitioners experience is being more aware of their own center and an increase in intuition. Reiki also provides the practitioner with an endless source of energy to nourish his or her own healing process.

Several massage therapists shared that they use Reiki on muscles that won’t give. They send Reiki to the area to release the block and then follow with massage. Practitioners using Reiki report that they witness the client shift to an emotionally better place after a combined session. It is not unusual for a client’s emotional issues to be raised and released during a session. Practitioners use Reiki with massage to help clear up sinus and allergy conditions, help a client to sleep better, reduce a client’s pain, and assist clients in gaining deeper understanding about themselves. The possibilities of how Reiki and massage can be used together for the benefit of the client are unlimited. Many practitioners use Reiki through the whole massage session. Others use Reiki for specific situations that occur during a session, and some practitioners wait until the end of the session to do Reiki.

USUI Reiki is taught in four levels. In Reiki I, a practitioner learns the history of Reiki, what Reiki is, how to use Reiki on oneself and how to use Reiki on some else. Each participant receives a Reiki attunement and has the opportunity to give and receive a Reiki session. When this class is completed, the participant is ready to give Reiki. Introduce yourself and your massage practice to this powerful source of healing energy. Take a Reiki class and not only receive the benefits of this energy, but also share it with others.

All Reiki classes have been approved by the AMTA to provide CEUs to massage therapists under Category A. Dawn also teaches Meditation, Understanding Alternative Healing Methods, Exploring the Bio-Energetic Field, and Attitudinal Healing at both Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, and Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold. She has studied various methods of complementary healing methods and uses the best of these methods in the work that she does.