Reiki Revolution

A few weekends ago I attended a workshop to become a Level 1 Reiki practitioner. This is something that I had been planning to do since massage school back in 2003 but had yet to pursue this modality. Since this class was the first Reiki class offered by the Institute of Structural Energetic Therapy and I had planned to sign up. My fellow SET therapist and dear friend, Marce, contacted me to say she was attending and this was the motivation I needed to get in my deposit. It turned into a weekend of reconnection and restoration; I hadn't seen Marce since we graduated from the SET Training program in 2008 and our time together combined with the class to create a rejuvenating day.

Reiki is a Japanese form of energy healing. It is used for stress reduction and relaxation and can be incorporated into any bodywork approach, though it is usually performed by a simple "laying on of hands." The practitioner allows the life energy to flow from their hands to the patient's body; this flow can be sensed by heat, cold, pulsing, and vibration. Though we all have access to this energy, we can increase our ability to tap into and direct the energy through "attunements" administered by an upper level Reiki practitioner. It is like we all are radios capable of playing the beautiful melody of life energy (ki, chi, qi), but when we are not tuned to the station all we might be able to play is static. The attunements tune our frequencies to the right vibration. During this training I received my first "attunement," and both facilitated and received a treatment with a partner in the class. We ended the day with group healings (multiple practitioners performing Reiki on a single person) which was nothing short of bliss.

Marce and I both noted an incredible increase in sensitivity in our hands; it was like everything we touched was hot but the heat wasn't coming from the object, it was the sensation of the space between our hands and the object. We gave Reiki to my dogs who all seemed to enjoy it. My black lab had been bullied by our recent chihuahua-pompillion addition who would bark at her ferociously, while she cowered in silence. Marce and I gave Gracie, the black lab, so Reiki on her throat and she's been much more vocal ever since.

The next morning, Marce told me that she had a revelation. She was thinking about how amazing this technique was, in it's ease of administration and accessibility to all, that she wondered why more people are not "attuned." We started to fantasize about eventually doing mass attunements. One of the neat things about Reiki is that it can do no harm. In some cases it may not change a condition, but when it does it is only for the better. We started to imagine a world where everyone is attuned and able to conduct life energy more efficiently than we already do. We both felt like it shifted our relationships with our bodies, the space around us and our consciousness. It is these shifts that the world needs. A reiki revolution.

Will to Wellness

I don't fix people, but some clients might think so. What they don't know is that it is their bodies will to wellness that made them feel better. I am just a representative of this self-sustaining quality that they already have within them.

One of my top goals in my sessions is to restore the faith in the client that they can do what is good for themselves, by themselves. Many of the people who come to me are in pain, often to the point of being limited performing their day-to-day activities or hobbies. This usually means that any wellness or workout agenda they may have previously adhered to is cut short or out completely. Though I don't recommend a heavy workout after a body work session, I do suggest my clients to move around some, be it walking, stretching, swimming, dancing. Anything that gets us moving allows our bodies to speak to us at a time when we are most likely to listen. It is this that really helps people get better.

Though this topic comes up frequently for me, I started to think about it while working on a client this weekend. This client has decided to see me once a month. In an ideal world, I would recommend someone with a condition like her's to see me once a week until range of motion is restored and pain diminished. But many clients don't have the time or resources for such a commitment. This client has shown me that a willingness to get better overrides any ideal treatment schedule.

She started to see me four months ago after a workout related injury that has restricted her range of motion in her shoulder, making it difficult to even put on her bra. At her second session, I was ecstatic to hear what a lasting difference our initial session four weeks prior had made in her condition. The restrictions were still there but there were improvements, which has been the report the two sessions since.

This weekend when she walked in she told me two things: "I am so ready for you," and "My life is coming back." Taken together, these statements embody what I mean by a will to wellness. When this woman lays on my table she is turning her body over to me, trusting me to do the best that I know how to for her. She may not completely understand the technique or theory behind the work (SET) but for her this does not matter. She has felt her body change since the first time she came in and she has the faith that she will get better.

The faith is the crucial part. In saying that her life is coming back, she was expressing the joy in being able to return back to gardening, which she hasn't been able to do since the injury. Even though she was extra sore from having recently dug up a new bed, she was happy to have returned back to her yard. She sees her life coming back to her and that is what's bringing it back. My work is helping in this process but it not the force behind the process. She is.

Making the appointment for a first session is a step towards enacting on our will to wellness. By showing up for a session we are saying that we know we can get better and are willing to give ourselves what we need to do so.

As I say to may clients, "I want you to get better in between sessions not because of the work we do, but because you are able to return back to what you do for yourself - this is what makes you better."