Frequently Asked Questions About Reiki

Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. Reiki practitioners use their hands to deliver energy to your body, improving the flow and balance of your energy to support healing.

Reiki is an excellent complementary technique for people who are healing on all levels; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Reiki is an energy balancing technique that can help you feel grounded and peaceful and whole.

Reiki complements other types of medical and therapeutic treatments very well, and it can increase the efficacy of other types of healing.

NOTE: Reiki is NOT a substitute for primary health care as provided by a licensed physician. While participating in Reiki sessions you should always continue to follow treatment plans from your physician.

During a Reiki session you will be asked to lie down and relax while the practitioner, uses different hand positions on, or slightly above your body. It is at this time that life force energy or ‘ki’ energy will flow through the practitioners and be transferred to you. This rebalances and opens your main chakra centers and helps to create balance in your overall energy field allowing this energy to flow through the energy body freely and assist with whatever healing or support you have seeked help for. 

I recommend reiki to people who are on a journey of learning how to self love, people who are anxious, stressed, recovering from ‘addiction’ or abuse of any kind. Reiki is excellent as support and comfort to a person’s overall well being while on a recovery journey from a disease or cancer. Healing and growth on any level can be supported with Reiki. There are many other circumstances where Reiki can be beneficial and support your wellness needs as well.  

Our physical bodies are made up of muscles, bones, nerves, organs, glands etc. This we are able to see and touch. As you know, ailments and disease can affect these elements. But your body has a subtle energy system through which 'life force energy' flows. We call this an energy body. This system uses energy centers called chakras which work like valves for the life force energy to circulate through the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies. This system assists us in processing our thoughts and emotions. We also have energy meridians systems which could be viewed as having a similar function as the bloodstream in the physical body. Meridians are like streams which carry life force energy throughout our physical bodies, in order to nourish us and help us balance  our body’s systems and processing.

It is essential that we maintain our energy bodies just as you would your physical body. You are living because of the life force energy that is flowing through your body. So if your energy body or systems are blocked in any way, this energy, which is directly connected to life itself, will start to manifest as these ailments or diseases in the physical body or on the emotional and mental planes. However, if this energy is abundant and free flowing, it is easier to maintain health and a sense of well-being.  

No. Reiki does not belong to a religion. Its origins are from a Japanese lay monk named Mikao Usui. This being said, Reiki is a spiritual modality. Spirituality in itself does not belong to a religion as all humans are spiritual beings. We are all a part of the same ‘something’, you may choose to call it as you wish. This ‘something’ does not have ideologies, concepts or thought form, it just is. This ‘something’ is the same something which allows flowers to grow and seasons to change. It is an invisible force that runs through us all.  

As living beings, even if you do not intentionally connect to this ‘something’, you still need it because you ARE it. So, a spiritual practice is the process of reconnecting with this ‘something’, living it and understanding it beyond a conceptual level. Reiki is a modality that fosters this and helps it blossom even more. And finally, Reiki promotes healing in this way as well because healing is growth. 

Yes. Visit The Center for Reiki Research to find out more.

You will need to join with a free ‘basic membership’. Then you will have access to the Reiki research list which includes citations and links to abstracts. 

They provide an updated archive and summary of all evidence-based Reiki research published in peer reviewed journals. 

There are times when a client will experience short-term side effects from a Reiki session. These are all temporary and are causes because of the the moving of energy in your body. Although sometimes it can be odd, just know that it will pass in a few days and that it is just because of energy shifting and your body is readjusting after the session. 

Not everyone one had side effects and you may or may not get more than one if you do. If you do not experience any side effects, it doesn't mean that the session did not work. Don't worry. Everybody is different and responds differently even from one session to the next. 

The possible temporary and short-term side effects are the following:

• Feelings of energy shifting in the body
• Tingling or bubbling sensations
• Emotional outbursts or mood swings
• Changes in digestion like more burping, urination or intenstinal gurgling 
• Sneezing, excessive sweating, lightheadedness
• Disturbed sleep patterns, lucid dreams, or flashbacks to specific memories