Conducting Healing Sessions
In this chapter, we’ll look at best practices for preparing for and conducting reiki sessions with clients, because once you have your physical and energetic space established, it’s time to flesh out the details of a healing session, which starts before your client even walks through the door. Make sure you arrive early enough that you have time to prepare the room (for example, turning on space heaters or putting fresh linens on the table) and yourself. I don’t like feeling rushed before sessions, so I always aim to give myself a full twenty minutes before my clients arrive to ground and center, use the restroom, and practice any energy techniques that will leave me feeling present and energized.
When your client arrives and you’ve made your introductions, help them orient to the space, offering them the restroom and showing them where to put their things. I highly recommend keeping records for all your clients, and I have an intake form that I require people to fill out online beforehand or at the start of their first session. Make sure you store these records in a secure place, either in a locked cabinet or encrypted, digital format. The online booking program I use also includes secure storage of client records. At a minimum, the intake form should have sections for the following:
• Contact info, including emergency contacts
• Health history
• Current issues or complaints (including medications and supplements being used)
• Allergies or sensitivities (including scents or touch)
• Informed Consent Agreement (see next page)
• Client’s signature and date
Following is a sample informed consent agreement, and you can ask your client to initial each statement and sign at the bottom of the form. This example may not cover circumstances specific to your practice or local requirements, so be sure to adapt as needed, consulting a professional legal advisor if necessary.
___ I understand that the reiki treatment given to me by [your name] is for the purpose of stress reduction and relaxation.
___ I understand that the reiki practitioner does not diagnose illness or disease and does not prescribe medical treatment or pharmaceuticals.
___ I understand that reiki treatment is not a substitute for medical care and that it is recommended that I work with my primary caregiver for any condition I may have.
___ I have stated all my known physical conditions and medications, and I will keep the reiki practitioner updated on any changes.
___ I understand that reiki treatment is therapeutic and completely non-sexual in nature.
Be sure to go over the form with your client, asking any necessary clarifying questions about their health history and current health concerns. Discuss what they hope to achieve by working with you, and clarify the scope of your practice and discuss reasonable expectations when needed, for example, if your client is expecting to be cured of a terminal illness after one session. This is not to say miraculous healing cannot happen, but we should not make claims that we can cure or fix our clients.
It is also illegal to diagnose any physical or mental health conditions, unless you possess the required licensure in a relevant field. If you suspect a health condition, recommend your client see their physician or other healthcare professional. One more legal note: in some states, you may be considered a “mandatory reporter,” which legally obligates you to report suspected child abuse or neglect to an appropriate agency (or elder abuse or neglect depending on the jurisdiction). Additionally, some states require reporting if a client expresses an intent to self-harm or harm others.
Developing a Holistic Healing Plan
While not required, it can be beneficial to develop a treatment plan with your client, giving you both a means of tracking change over time. Some clients prefer to come in sporadically, as needed, and don’t want the added involvement of a longer-term plan, but it’s nice to offer this to interested clients. I would highly recommend keeping your own notes, though, even for clients who don’t want to create a healing plan. These notes help you provide continuity in your sessions by, for example, following up on issues addressed in previous treatments to see if and how things have changed or recognizing when certain techniques are more or less effective with certain clients so you can adjust accordingly.
To develop a healing plan, draw up a standard document that you will use with every client to streamline the process. These are some helpful fields to include:
• Reason for this session: stress reduction/relaxation and/or a specific complaint?
• Changes since last session
• What do you observe/energetically sense and what is your client experiencing before the treatment?
• What do you observe/energetically sense and what is your client experiencing after the treatment?
If you wish to get more specific with client treatment goals, these additional fields are useful:
• What is your goal for our work together? If there are multiple goals, focus on no more than three, and complete the following questions for each goal individually.
• Do you have a desired time frame for reaching this goal? If the time frame is more than two to three months, I recommend breaking the goal into smaller milestones to maintain momentum and a sense of accomplishment.
• How will you know when this goal has been met? If the goal is too vague, this question will require that you get more specific. For example, instead of “I want to feel better,” work with something more focused, like, “I want to improve my digestion.” In this example, possible answers to the question “How will you know when this goal has been met?” include “I no longer have constipation” or “I don’t feel bloated and gassy after meals.”
• What is your in-session plan—i.e., which reiki techniques (or other methods) will best support this goal?
• What is the client’s take-home plan—i.e., how will they support the work in between sessions? It’s nice to give your client either a copy of the full plan or a written reminder of their take-home actions. Remember that these recommendations must fall within your scope of practice (e.g., you cannot send your client home with a meal plan unless you have the relevant training and licensure).
• At subsequent sessions, you’ll indicate how the client did with their take-home actions and make any necessary adjustments for future assignments.
This brings up the topic of recommended number of sessions. Many practitioners advise scheduling three sessions in close succession (i.e., one week to no more than one month apart) when the client first begins treatment. If this is an option, time- and budget-wise for your client, this is a great rule of thumb, as it allows you to maintain momentum with the changes underway while supporting your client through this initial stage.
Reiki can sometimes heighten issues on a physical, mental, or spiritual level for a period of time after the first treatment. Some practitioners see this as a form of detoxification whereby reiki, in the process of healing, temporarily stirs up energetic “ick” before it is cleared out. Discuss this possibility with your client so they aren’t alarmed if this occurs, and if they do experience these effects, know that they are typically reduced with subsequent treatments. Depending on what your client is experiencing, it may be advisable for them to utilize additional forms of support, such as a physician or mental health professional.
Ultimately, the number of treatments depends on each client’s unique situation. If you are using a treatment plan, as outlined earlier in this chapter, you can base the number of treatments on the rate of progress toward a client’s goals. If you aren’t using a treatment plan and the client doesn’t have any specific concerns they wish to address, once or twice a month is a great frequency for “maintenance” and general stress reduction, and this can be increased during times of higher stress or when dealing with specific health concerns to once or twice per week.
Ethics and Client Communication
We’ve briefly touched on ethics in this chapter, but here, let’s look more closely at how to clarify your ethics and implement them in your practice. Ethics are the principles that govern how you behave and how you conduct your work, and they help to ensure that you do not knowingly inflict harm on others or yourself. The following are what I consider to be core ethics for healing professionals.
Maintaining Clear Boundaries
Physical Boundaries: Touch and physical space. For example, not touching clients without their consent, and then, only within the bounds of the treatment. Give the client privacy before and after the session so they can get on and off the treatment table.
Emotional Boundaries: How much information is shared about feelings and personal information. As a general rule, I minimize the amount of time I spend talking about myself unless it is directly relevant to the treatment, and I do not use sessions to discuss my personal problems, gossip, and so on. By the same token, if you are uncomfortable about information the client is sharing with you, you have the right to ask them to stop. Emotional boundaries also touch on something called “transference,” in which a client redirects feelings for someone else, such as a parent or spouse, onto the practitioner, and countertransference is the reverse: when a practitioner redirects these feelings onto a client. Unless you are a licensed mental health professional, it isn’t appropriate to process transferred feelings with your client, but you can set kind-yet-firm boundaries if you see this occurring, either from your client’s end or your own. In extreme cases, it may be necessary to refer the client to another practitioner.
Intellectual Boundaries: Having respect for one another’s thoughts and ideas, as well as having a sense of what is and isn’t appropriate to talk about in different circumstances, politics and religion being two examples that commonly fall on the list of topics best avoided in many situations!
Sexual Boundaries: Not only physical touch but also sexual comments, such as jokes or descriptions of sexual acts. I make it very clear that sessions are strictly non-sexual, and I reserve the right to terminate a session or refuse service if a client is behaving in a manner that makes me uncomfortable.
Material and Time Boundaries: Physical possessions, money, and time. Setting clear prices is one form of material boundary, and starting and ending sessions on time is a form of a time boundary. It’s useful to determine your policy for late or no-show clients before this occurs and clearly state this on your website, intake form, or both.
Offer Referrals
Know your scope of practice and refer to other qualified professionals when needed. For example, if a client becomes aware of past abuse during a reiki session, unless you are a mental health professional, it is outside your scope of practice to help your client process this experience. Refer them to a qualified therapist. It can take time to build a network of practitioners for referrals, and if you don’t know any therapists, an internet search is a good place to start. Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself to other healthcare practitioners and ask if you can refer clients to them when needed. It’s helpful to ask what type of clients they work with and any areas they specialize in so you can tailor your referrals to different client needs. If a client has a serious physical condition that they are not seeking medical treatment for, I like to make it clear that reiki is meant to be a complement to, not a substitute for, professional medical treatment. It’s smart to have a list of practitioners in various fields to whom you can refer clients when needed.
Honor Confidentiality
Honor and protect your client’s confidentiality. Store all health records securely, and never share your client’s personal information or the details of your sessions together with anyone without the client’s written consent (for example, a client might give written consent for you to share treatment information with their doctor).
Follow Credentials and Permissions
Do not use modalities or techniques without proper training and practice. Do not administer treatment of any kind without the client’s informed consent.
Effective client communication is supported by maintaining clear boundaries, which requires us to, one, know what our boundaries are, and two, develop the skills to communicate and, when needed, reinforce those boundaries. As this is something that is not frequently taught in mainstream education, it can be worthwhile to seek out supplementary training. See the recommended resources for suggestions.
In the next chapter, we look at using reiki with specific populations, such as children and animals, and in different contexts, such as for environmental healing, political harmony, and other applications.