You may have heard of Reiki but are unsure exactly what it is. There’s a chance you’ve considered Reiki, but you’re not sure whether it’s right for you. Your doctor may have recommended Reiki to complement your existing medical treatments.
I am Reiki Master Victoria Bodner, LMT, and I can answer any questions you may have. In this lecture, she shows you the basics of Reiki – a hands-on, energy-based healing technique that is safe Reiki Master gentle, and non-invasive.
Reiki: What is it?
Reiki is an energy healing technique that promotes relaxation and reduces stress and anxiety through gentle touch. Reiki practitioners use their hands to send energy to your body, improving your energy flow and balance to promote your healing.
Mikao Usui developed Reiki in the early 1900s. Its name is derived from the Japanese words rei and ki, which refer to the universal energy pulsing through all living things. The goal of Reiki is to help people become balanced energetically – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, says Bodner. Reiki is used as a complementary therapy to other forms of treatment in hospitals and hospices.
History of Reiki
There are at least 30 different branches of Reiki, but Usui is the most popular form in the West. Usui is the method practiced and taught in Japan as early as the 1900s by Makao Usui, who is credited as the founder of modern Reiki. Usui reiki came to the West via Hawaii in the 1930s thanks to a Japanese-American woman named Hawayo Takata.
After experiencing a significant break-up, she traveled back to her native Japan to seek healing for herself. A student of the healer, Chujiro Hayashi, had taught her about Reiki and Takata embraced it completely, believing that it had healed her physically and mentally.
According to researcher Nat Newton, Ph.D., a Usui reiki master in Orange County, California, Takata avoided using the name “reiki” because of the anti-Japanese and anti-Asian sentiments prevalent in the United States during World War II.
Eventually, Takata trained 22 students in Reiki as it is known today, after modifying some of her teachings for her English-speaking students. Usui and similar reiki methods are now taught to thousands of people worldwide.
Reiki Sessions: What to Expect
Reiki is something I’ve always been intrigued by. She really made it possible for me to see what Reiki is really all about, and how it can make life easier for people living in the modern world. But I never found the right person to learn from until I met Newton.
In traditional Reiki, practitioners begin treatment by having a client lie on a floor mat. The Reiki practitioner holds hands over the client, either over the client’s head or above their head, and begins to work with the energy field.
The practitioner may begin the session with some deep breathing and then slowly begin moving his hands gently over the client’s body. At any point during the session, the practitioner may choose to focus on specific intent. This is a choice that will help the client and the practitioner to stay focused on the goal of the treatment. They may not know why they need the healing sessions at first but will eventually understand and come to value them.
Newton says, “We usually consider what is in the client’s best interest to be activated. Sometimes we envision the client as healed. We will always set a positive intention for whatever they need right now that would serve their highest good. The answer to that question is unknown to us, nor do we assume it to be known. Reiki is left to its own devices.”
A typical session lasts 30 minutes to an hour, and Newton says many of those minutes are devoted to client-practitioner discussions. “I always talk with my clients after the session about what is coming up for them as well as what I sensed,” she says.
