People come to Reiki for many reasons, including stress relief, relaxation, pain management, physical healing, mental healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing, spiritual growth, and overall well-being.   From preparing for surgery or recovering from surgery, to preparing for exams or recovering from exams, the uses for Reiki are wide and many.
 

Reiki is believed to promote balance and harmony in the body, mind, and spirit.  It is a relaxing form of energy healing therapy that is applied through noninvasive, non-manipulative gentle touch.  Reiki involves lightly laying of hands on or just above the clothed body, working over the front, and sometimes the back of the person, in a slow progression using various intentional hand positions.

An attuned Reiki practitioner channels universal life force energy into their bodies, out their hands and into the recipient.  The energy channeled is not of the practitioner.  Meaning, this energy isn't coming from the practitioner, it is coming through them. The life force energy (also known as chi/prana/ki) that is channeled helps us heal in many ways.  We are both physical and energetic in nature.  Because of this, our energetic anatomy cannot be separated from our physical anatomy and each acts on the other.  Therefore, the inclusion of our energetic nature in our healing affects all aspects of us, our four bodies, which are: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, the latter three being "subtle", or non-physical and, therefore, energetic in nature.   

Our bodies are designed to be self-healing machines.  However, throughout our lives our energetic anatomy can become clogged, dysfunctional or sluggish.  Things can happen to us that can lead to the blockage of our free-flowing energy, which is our natural state of health and wellbeing.  "Dis-ease", a physical or non-physical imbalance in the body, can be energetic in terms of being of the mind, or what we call the mental body, or it can be of the emotions, disrupting the emotional body.  As far as the field of energy medicine is concerned, dis-ease happens first in your energy body (aka subtle body), before it progresses to present itself in your physical body.  Physical dis-ease can manifest as illness or other forms of suffering like chronic pain or mystery illnesses.  Reiki can move the energy within you, clear blocks, rinse away stagnant energy and bring in new and vital energy.  It can fine-tune your energetic anatomy so that your physical body and energy bodies can come back into balance and start working together for you so you can heal or find more comfort. 

 

During a Reiki session, the recipient may experience deep relaxation and a sense of peace, or unconditional love.  Altered states of consciousness, even sleeping, is quite common as well.  It is also possible to experience strong emotions.  The release of emotion during a session is a wonderful sign that what has been causing or contributing to dis-ease is shifting, dissipating or releasing.  While the energy practitioner provides a stream of life force energy to the recipient, the recipient can be equally involved in their healing at a subconscious level by drawing in the energy and even doing so at a higher rate.  The practitioner will often feel this "pull" and adjust their treatment accordingly by staying in that area a little longer.  At a conscious level, Reiki recipients are encouraged to enter into an open state of receiving and allowing, and this is possible through intention alone and is further supported by feelings of gratitude. 

During the healing session, and possibly for a short time after, recipients may experience the following effects:

• Flashing lights or colour behind the physical eyes or the third eye (aka the mind's eye)

• Heat

• Throbbing / Pulsing / Buzzing / Tingling

• Emotions

• Memories

• Visions / Daydreams

• Flashing images or pictures

• Realizations

 

Expect each healing session to be unique.   This is not only because each person is unique but because each person's needs are unique from day-to-day, especially while healing.   Your body is always changing.  

Reiki is intelligent energy that knows what to do.  The practitioner does not have to direct it, or intend it, or know where it needs to go and send it there.  It works within your system for your highest good and goes where it is needed.  For this reason, you can’t make a mistake with it; you simply can’t hurt anyone with Reiki.   A practitioner may choose to "spot-treat" a specific area and provide direct energy where healing is required in order to facilitate healing.   Reiki practitioners can, and often do, use certain Reiki symbols during your session to support the channeling of very specific healing frequencies related to each of your four bodies.    

Reiki has no religious doctrine and is accepted by people from all backgrounds and belief systems since hands on healing is an ancient practice based in loving touch found in most religions.