Once we give professional Reiki treatments (in other words, once we charge for a treatment), we are running a business. And with it come responsibilities: insurance, taxation, legal requirements. You will need to know the basics of practice management, treatment reports, client consent and technical requirements. Please familiarize yourself with these before you start your practice. It tends to be far less complicated than it sounds – most of it is simply common sense.
And don’t worry too much (the Reiki principle comes in handy here) – it will all fall into place. If you are meant to be a Reiki practitioner (and if you are considering this, I am sure you are), the universe will provide what’s needed. The more we trust in it, the more open we are to receive guidance.
And there’s no need to rush into giving up your day job. You can always offer Reiki treatments in the evenings or at weekends, or maybe two days a week and go part-time in your other job. Take it slowly if you want to.
Many Reiki practitioners only give treatments to family and friends (and to themselves). Others venture out into becoming professional practitioners. In other words, they charge for their treatments. And that’s perfectly okay! If they didn’t, they’d have to earn their money elsewhere – and most likely not have enough time to give many Reiki treatments.
Interestingly, though, Reiki seems to be the therapy where people have the most reservations about treatment fees. And I’m not talking about the clients, but the practitioners! It’s very rare that anyone learns Reiki for financial gain. And even if they start out with that aim, Reiki tends to bring so much additional value that the idea is quickly dropped. Everyone practising Reiki gets so much out of it for themselves that they end up feeling rather embarrassed charging others for treatment.
In fact, it seems right to say that we cannot actually charge for Reiki. After all, it flows for free. So I don’t agree with the idea that we have to charge for a treatment as a means of energy exchange. It is, however, absolutely appropriate if we do. And we can certainly charge for our time.
Alternative treatments tend not to be cheap. In fact, many are repellently expensive and exclude normal earners from accessing them. Reiki tends to be at the very bottom end of charges, almost as if it were a poor relation. An hour of hypnosis, for example, often costs five times that of Reiki. The question is whether this is fair either.
It means that many practitioners end up offering other therapies as well as Reiki. But, looking at the results that Reiki achieves, it certainly doesn’t have to hide behind other therapies. As long as it is within reason (which differs with location and circumstances), a practitioner should charge what they feel is necessary. Starving Reiki practitioners are of no benefit to anyone!
Some practitioners now charge different people different fees; for example, a standard price for a normal treatment and donation only for clients with serious illnesses or who could not afford the treatment otherwise. I find this really conveys the spirit of Reiki.
Mikao Usui would not of course have charged the earthquake victims he spent months treating, but he had to make a living and support his family, and may well have charged normal clients, and certainly for teaching.
My personal attitude to charging for Reiki has changed a lot over the years. I used to be so embarrassed to charge for treatments that for years I rarely asked for any money at all. Then one day I asked the mother of a girl I’d treated why she’d stopped asking me back. It turned out she felt awkward because I’d refused payment and she didn’t want to ‘take advantage’. My good intentions had resulted in the opposite of what I’d been hoping for! Today I encourage my students to charge adequately. The world needs Reiki! And if we are busy making money elsewhere, we cannot deliver it.
Incidentally, this also applies to Reiki teaching. I’m not aware of any other therapy that is as cheap to learn. The cost bears no relation to the profundity of the system. So, if you’re looking to learn Reiki, please consider that the Reiki teacher also has to make a living.
Children love Reiki! All you need to do is to gently customize the treatment for them. When I gave a series of treatments to an eight-year-old cancer patient, I tried to create an experience that was as pleasant and normal as possible. She’d obviously suffered enough through hours of regular chemotherapy and I didn’t want her to equate Reiki with ‘boring’ or ‘taking my playtime away’.
I started with a little taster. Placing my hands on her shoulders, I asked what she felt.
‘Very warm,’ she said.
‘This is Reiki,’ I explained. ‘It will help you with your problems.’
Explanation out of the way, she concentrated on a colouring book while receiving Reiki. But a few treatments on, this became boring and she was allowed to use her iPad. Thirty minutes added to her daily allowance of playing with it!
A few weeks later, I knew everything there was to know about cupcake decorating (which was what she was looking at on the iPad). And the little girl’s condition had greatly improved.
One of my students has made Reiki part of the bedtime routine for her three children. In addition to a bedtime story and a goodnight kiss, they now get a few minutes of Reiki too – the younger ones five minutes, the older one ten minutes. Their mother just places her hands on their head or chest and they feel the loving warmth of Reiki and fall into the most peaceful sleep.
It’s fabulous to grow up with Reiki! Whenever there’s a problem, you can go to Mum or Dad, who will use their magic hands to make it better. Soon kids from the whole neighbourhood will queue for Supermum with healing hands!
One of my students’ sons was so excited by his mother’s Reiki that he told his entire class about it – including the teacher. Next time his mother picked him up from school, the teacher wanted to know more. In the end, she invited the mother to come in one morning and explain Reiki to the class! Of course, if this happens to you, there’s no need to start with quantum physics and interconnectedness – just say that Reiki is energy that comes from the universe. Just as the rays of the sun bring light and warmth, so Reiki brings healing and happiness. It’s as simple as that.
Kids of all ages can receive Reiki. They can even receive it before they are born! I’ve had quite a few fathers-to-be on my courses who wanted to be able to give Reiki to the child in the womb (and, of course, to the mother too). I’ve also trained expectant mothers – and it’s a wonderful thing for them to be able to just place their hands on their belly and share Reiki with their child. It’s absolutely safe to give Reiki treatments to women at any stage of a pregnancy. Though I tend to joke that, as a practitioner, you should then charge twice.
Reiki can also be used during childbirth. You can either send it remotely or be present in the delivery room. Or the mother can connect to Reiki herself before giving birth.
The Reiki can continue once the baby is born. There’s no need for 12 hand positions with small infants – it’s perfectly fine just to hold or cuddle a baby while giving Reiki. Or to place your hands above their cradle or bed.
When the baby is older, you can use one or two hand positions – whatever you feel guided to use. And later on you can give Reiki for every cut, bruise, scratch or emotional dent from the playground.
And then there will come a day when your child doesn’t want to be touched any more – at least not by their parents! After all, they’re a teenager now and need to be cool. Don’t worry about this – and, more importantly, don’t take it personally. And don’t force Reiki onto your teenagers. When they need it, they will come to you.
One of my Master students reported that Reiki had completely changed her relationship with her 13-year-old foster son. To begin with, she’d sent him Reiki only remotely or in certain situations, but now he was coming and asking for it. And the atmosphere of the whole house had improved – even the dog had become friendlier!
Finally, if you are one of those people who is always worrying about the wellbeing of your kids (which, personally, I find a beautiful trait), Reiki will give you an incredible tool for helping them. Send Reiki after them when they go to school, send it to their exams, send it to their first experiences of falling in love…
It always fascinates me how Reiki is popular with absolutely every age group. At the Reiki Academy London, we run a project offering Reiki for free through charity AGE UK. For many of the elderly clients, the treatments offer a rare chance of finding relief from their worries and aches and pains. Often, these moments bring back happy memories and allow for peace and relaxation. And, of course, the benefits of physical healing don’t stop with age, and many clients feel remarkably better.
A friend of mine gave Reiki to her dad, who had been suffering from dementia for years. Now in his eighties, he rarely recognized her and many well-meaning people had suggested moving him to a care home. But my friend was determined to look after him – just as he had done for her when she was a child. Following the Reiki treatment, he suddenly looked directly at her and, in full control of his speech and mental capacity, said her name and how grateful he was for her help. A few moments later he went back into his own world, somewhere between Earth and heaven. But this statement had made all the difference to her.
One day we will all die. Not even Reiki will spare us this. Thank God! Dying is completely natural. It is part of life. Our time on Earth is limited by the natural decay of our body, and the closer we get to the limit, the more difficult it tends to become. And yet letting go of life is a difficult and painful experience – for the dying as well as for those left behind.
Reiki helps with this process in amazing ways. The terminally ill often feel some relief from their pains and find more peace and acceptance in their situation. The benefits of Reiki are so renowned that a huge number of hospices are now looking for Reiki volunteers.
And Reiki helps friends and family as well. They can make the most of their loved one’s remaining time – and feel really close to them.
Of course saying goodbye is a sad thing. It takes time to come to terms with this – sometimes a very long time. But the tangible proof of our Reiki experiences can help us to accept that there is more to life than this world. Once we open up to sensing our connection to the spirit world, we can look at death in a different way. It becomes a moment of transition.
Of all the Reiki stories I’ve heard, the one that had the deepest impact on me came from a couple I trained in Reiki. He had been diagnosed with skin cancer and given only a few weeks to live, but in the end he lived for another year. And a complete transformation took place. Initially he was a scientifically minded person who considered that life ended with death, but his Reiki experiences totally changed his view. When he realized it was time for him to go, he didn’t say goodbye to his wife, but simply, ‘See you on the other side.’
Hearing that was the proudest moment of my teaching career in Reiki.
Not all cancer ends in early death. There are many successful conventional and alternative therapies for it, and Reiki is known to have a huge impact.
Reiki also helps with other serious illnesses. While working on this book, I heard two accounts of how Reiki helped with liver diseases. As I don’t believe in coincidence, I thought I was meant to write about them here.
One was about an Aids patient who was receiving regular treatments from one of my Master students. Just before Christmas, she sent me an email:
‘He has HIV, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, hepatitis (which has caused his liver to harden), depression, high blood pressure, a bad back, enlarged liver, aneurism .... in fact it’s easier to say what the poor guy hasn’t got.
Anyway, he cannot take medication for his diseased liver because it could clash with his HIV medication and high blood pressure medication. Yesterday he told me he’d been undergoing tests on his liver and had … received the results from his doctor that it was healing really well and almost back to normal function!! This can only be my Reiki!!! I am so delighted, as was he, and it’s the best Christmas present for him and for me.’
The other account I heard was about a Reiki student who was also suffering from liver disfunction. Before starting with Reiki, the levels of ALT and Gamma GT enzymes in her blood were dangerously high. After seven months of daily self-treatments, they were in the lower levels of normal and the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was gone.
So, don’t be disheartened by the severity of somebody’s condition. Reiki might well work against all odds.
The fact that there are now a significant number of hospitals offering Reiki says it all: it is perfectly fine to combine Reiki and traditional Western medicine. Having Reiki available might even lead to patients becoming a bit more discriminating when it comes to choosing the right therapy for them – carefully weighing up the benefits and disadvantages of both traditional and alternative treatments. There’s no need to dismiss allopathic medicine completely.
How does Reiki compare with other complementary therapies? To be honest, I can’t say. I know what Reiki can do, but I’m not intimately familiar with every other alternative therapy out there. All I can say is that from the Reiki point of view, it complements other therapies perfectly.
And there’s certainly no competition involved. Why shouldn’t different therapies have similar benefits? There’s no need to suggest that Reiki is better than other therapies. But, of course, we are often asked to explain why people should go for Reiki rather than another therapy. I tend to explain simply that Reiki has been proven to be beneficial for various conditions – and the best thing people can do is just try it for themselves.
But there is one main difference between Reiki and other complementary therapies: the spiritual component. Few therapies go as far as changing our attitude to life, or our circumstances, or allowing us to find meaning in our existence.
It is often asked whether Reiki can be used for space clearing. Of course it can! We often find stagnant energies in places, sometimes from centuries ago, or a disturbance from a drama that happened minutes before we walked in. I regularly use Reiki to cleanse hotel rooms from such energies, but a new home or car may also benefit from it.
Although space clearing wasn’t part of the original system, it’s easy to come up with creative ideas. The simplest (which can be used straight after Reiki 1) is to sit or stand in the middle of a room, connect to Reiki, intend that it clears the room of any negativity – and then let it stream out of your hands until you feel all the negativity has dissipated. This can take anything between two and 10 minutes.
After Reiki 2, many students use another method. This is also simple. Just draw the Power Symbol in every corner of the room while intending to remove negative energy, then draw it up towards the ceiling and finally down over the floor. Afterwards, take a moment to sense whether all negativity has gone. If not, start again.
Should ever you feel that any negative energies remain, of course you can ask (and trust) Reiki to protect you. Or you can take this as a sign that you shouldn’t be there and follow your intuition and leave.
You may also find that Reiki makes you more aware of energetic imbalances in physical spaces like your home or workplace. Just as in feng shui, you may feel drawn to move some furniture around. You might not want to sleep under a beam or have the sharp corner of a table facing you, for example. If it feels better, it will be better.
Frank Arjava Petter recalls that Japanese Reiki teacher Chiyoko Yamaguchi didn’t use any of the above methods.1 When she wanted to bring good energy into a space, she hung a scroll with the Reiki principles on a wall. Words carry energy…
Reiki can also be used to ‘cleanse’ objects. You may buy a toy or an article of clothing in a charity shop, purchase an antique or even inherit an item and then suddenly feel strange when you unwrap it at home. If so, just place your hands on or around it for a while and give it Reiki – or make some sweeping movements similar to Kenyoku-Ho along each side of it. Some people also ‘cut the energy’ by swiftly cutting through the air above the object three times with their dominant hand.
I once received a concerned phone call from a lady who had booked her mother on a Reiki course and was now having second thoughts. The mother was a devout Christian and was concerned that Reiki might contradict her beliefs. I must have been convincing enough in my reply, since she decided to turn up. And loved it! I’ve rarely seen such excitement in a student throughout the entire course. During the attunement she felt she was getting closer to Jesus. In the end she was convinced that Reiki was Christian at heart.
Another student was a Muslim. He was so amazed by the similarities between the Reiki philosophy and the religious teachings he followed that he intended to combine Reiki with his prayers in future.
Hindus often remark that Reiki allows them to deepen their devotional practices, while Buddhists say it enhances their meditation. And several of the Reiki Masters I have trained are Jewish.
Angels, spirit guides, religious founders and ideas of God, as well as light, peace, love and meaning, often come up in connection with Reiki experiences. Even die-hard agnostics used words like ‘love’, ‘peace’, ‘depth’ and ‘quantum-level energy’. While avoiding religious terminology, these words really mean the same.
Reiki was specifically designed not to be directly associated with any one religion. Buddhist, Taoist and even Christian influences can be seen in it, but it has stayed open to all. Just as the term ‘universal’ implies we are all part of the same universe, so every religion is too. No matter how different their terminology may be, they all ask the same questions: why are we here? Where are we coming from? Is there a higher power in the world? Reiki asks those questions too – and points us towards an answer.
Reiki works with any religious belief, as long as it is peaceful and non-exclusive (and if it is not, the religion is not a true expression of what it was originally meant to be). Reiki works on the idea of interconnectedness. And this goes beyond any religious divide.
As a child, I saw marriage as something meant to last a lifetime. I thought of the divorces of my friends’ parents as oddities – after all, my parents stayed together. In my teens, though, I occasionally wondered whether their relationship was as perfect as it might be. In my twenties, I actively encouraged them to divorce. After 37 years, they finally did so. And they have been best friends ever since.
Not every loving relationship is meant to last. Interestingly, this view seems to be shared by Reiki. It can help heal a relationship – or give us the strength to end it.
One of my students had a relationship which had been volatile (to say the least), due to her boyfriend’s regular emotional outbursts. The evening after Reiki 1, she offered him a treatment, and to her surprise he accepted. He even liked it. The treatments became regular, the outbursts fewer. In fact, they almost stopped. Two weeks later his mother called my student. ‘What is Reiki?’ she asked. She barely recognized her own son any more. He was calm and approachable. ‘He is really, well, nice now!’
Another student, who had completed Reiki 2, attended a Reiki Share a few months after his course. Smiling all over, he couldn’t wait to tell me the news: ‘Soon after the Reiki 2 course, I left my job. Got a divorce. And I’m moving back to Italy.’
Slightly hesitantly, I asked if this was all good news.
‘Absolutely!’ he said.
And this morning, before writing this chapter, I received an email from another Reiki student (so much for coincidence):
‘The reason I subscribed [to Reiki 1] in the first place was because I was facing divorce. I still refuse to believe it. Somewhere in my heart I still hope that by doing Reiki I can find a way to save my marriage. I just feel I cannot give up my feelings yet. However on the Reiki course I felt as though I was in therapy and it helped me more than any psychologist.’
The first few times, your friends and colleagues may find it rather ‘original’ when you tell them about the purple light you saw during an attunement, or the insight a client received when you gave them Reiki. The more you talk about these experiences, the more people around you will find you slightly odd. And frankly, I would have done 10 years ago! So you may eventually stop mentioning them and become more and more introvert. Or you may be too shy to talk about them in the first place.
This is where your Reiki friends come in! These are people who can relate to what you’re saying and share your experiences. Together, you can try to make sense of them and explore Reiki more deeply.
So, one of the most important features of a Reiki course is the participants’ list! Please stay in touch with one another. Or search on social media, or find a Reiki Share in your area. It’s good to have Reiki friends.