Reiki’s Effectiveness: More Anecdotal Evidence

stone-black-and-whiteAs promised a few weeks ago, I am sharing some more stories that demonstrate the effectiveness and application of Reiki. I hope you find these stories helpful in understanding how Reiki works and its practical application as a complementary practice in your health care toolkit. (In the stories below, the clients’ names have been changed to maintain anonymity.)

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Lisa, a 55-year-old woman who had recently completed radiation and chemotherapy treatment for cancer, came to my office for a Reiki session seeking more energy in her day-to-day life. When I asked her at the beginning of the session what more energy would look like for her, she said that it would be reading a book in her comfy chair in the living room after dinner and not falling asleep right away. So we set our minds on this image and I offered Reiki to her through a regular one-hour session.

The following week, Lisa returned for another Reiki session. She said she had more physical energy after receiving Reiki, was able to read in the evening without falling asleep right away, and was even able to work in the garden for more than an hour at a time.  She went on to receive a series of four sessions and relished the increase in her physical energy and how it improved the quality of her life.

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Renee, a breast cancer patient, was experiencing peripheral neuropathy in her feet and hands as a side effect of her chemotherapy. The neuropathy in her feet was almost constant and it was impacting her sense of balance. She often felt as if she would fall when she was standing and stairs were particularly challenging for her. The unpredictability of the neuropathy also caused her anxiety about when she might be feeling off balance. This caused her to stay close to home and to keep close to walls when she was walking.

After her first Reiki session, she sat up from the massage table and smiled, saying, “The tingling is gone!” She was so pleased with the return to normal sensation in her hands and feet! Over the next several months, Renee received weekly one-hour Reiki sessions. She found that the frequency of the bouts of neuropathy decreased and her balance improved. In addition, she was looking forward to practicing Tai Chi again as she felt more balanced and strong.  Renee credited the Reiki with helping to complete her recovery from chemotherapy.

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The anectodal evidence presented here, and elsewhere in this blog, will hopefully help you to understand how Reiki can be used to help your body heal.

I’d love to hear your stories about receiving or offering Reiki.  Please share them in the comments below.

Reiki feels like . . .

In a typical Reiki session, lasting an hour, the recipient lies down on a Reiki table (aka a massage table), fully clothed and is offered Reiki by the practitioner through the light placement of hands on the recipient’s body.  The hand placements are over eyes, jaw joint, back of head, throat (with a cupping hand position), heart, solar plexus, stomach, abdomen, knees, and feet.  If there is time, and the practitioner thinks it would be helpful, the client rolls over onto his/her stomach and the hand placements are upper back, mid back, lower back, and coccyx.

Those are the mechanics of a Reiki session, but what does it feel like?  During a Reiki session, recipients experience deep relaxation and some report a pleasant floating session.  Sometimes a recipient experiences a rush of energy to a particular area or intense heat where the hands are placed.

Here are some experiences of cancer patients that I work with describing how Reiki feels:

“I felt lots of warmth and a pleasant tingling radiating from my heart.” Barbara

 

“You helped so much. The pain is gone. I’m floating. Thank you.” Irena

 

“I’ve been experiencing neuropathy as a side effect of my treatment. After our Reiki session, the pins and needles are gone!” Nancy

 

I hope you’ll join us at an upcoming Reiki Clinic or schedule a Reiki session to experience for yourself what Reiki feels like!