Reiki is a simple Japanese energy balancing method that is used by hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world. It is most well known as a sort of hands on treatment technique, and many people have regular treatments.

Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui in the early 1900s in Japan and people use Reiki for self-healing, for spiritual or self-development, and to treat others. Reiki practitioners carry out meditations, treat themselves, and follow a set of simple spiritual principles called the Reiki precepts (see below).  It is not a religion.

Anyone can benefit from a course of Reiki treatments, regardless of age or state of health, and beneficial changes can take place over a fairly short space of time.

Receiving Reiki from a practitioner is a simple process. The client lies on a treatment table and the practitioner will gently lay their hands on the body in a series of hand positions on the head, torso, and legs, sometimes hovering the hands rather than touching. Each hand position is held for a few minutes. During the treatment, energy (called ‘chi’) is drawn through the practitioner into the recipient, helping to produce a state of balance. The recipient remains clothed throughout the session.

Deep relaxation, heat from the practitioner’s hands, perhaps tingling, a feeling of floating or sinking, or perhaps nothing at all. It varies a lot from one person to another. But no matter what you feel during your treatment, Reiki is giving you what you need.

While a one-off Reiki treatment will do something beneficial for you, bringing a sense of calm and peacefulness, and maybe producing some short-term physical benefits too, the best results come through having a course of treatments, maybe 4-6 sessions at one to two weekly intervals.

The effects of Reiki build up cumulatively and having a course of treatments helps to produce long-term beneficial changes for you on many levels.