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Reiki
complementary therapes? Everyone has a slightly different experience depending
upon their sensitivity to energy. How sensitive you
are does not dictate how successful the treatment
will be.
Some people are sensitive to sensations such as feelings
of tingling, numbness, heat or coolness, as if their surrounded
by a breeze or fan. Others can experience colours or strong
images in their minds eye. Some may feel their body want
to move, whilst others think about what they’re
going to have for their dinner. Occasionally someone might
feel emotional. When lying on the treatment couch some
people experience as if they’re lifted out of their
body. The vast majority of people say that they find the
experience profoundly relaxing. There is no one way to
experience Reiki, only your way.
2. How do people respond to Reiki?
Again this is different for everyone and each session can be different too. Some people report an immediate improvement in health. Others report a slight improvement whilst the body re-adjusts to the changes in the energy flow. Some don’t notice any immediate change but later realise that their issue has gradually gone. A very small number report a temporary exacerbation of symptoms. This can occur in a variety of forms of Complementary Medicine and is transient.
3. How will I feel after the session?
Most people feel relaxed, lighter, and more at ease with themselves. Some experience immediate relief from any physical symptoms or anxiety. Most say that they sleep particularly well that evening.
4. Do I have to believe it will work?
No, but you need to be open to the possibility otherwise the energy field is closed. A closed energy field is very difficult to work in.
Complementary Medicine is about healing and not curing making it philosophically different from orthodox medicine.
The aim of Reiki is to kick starts the body’s own self healing mechanism. For many this means that symptoms which maybe causing distress are alleviated. Legally the word “cure” belongs to doctors as does “patient”. Results can vary from client to client (and indeed from practitioner to practitioner). I never give up on anyone. If I can’t help you I’ll refer to someone who might be able to. I truly believe that good quality of life is available for everyone.
6. How many sessions will I need?
This is difficult to say. Some people enjoy Reiki as a one of spa treatment and others enjoy regular sessions. It is generally believed that the more sessions you have the deeper the effects can be. To those who are hoping to have particular ailments helped with Reiki I suggest that they stick with sessions for as long as they feel they are beneficial from their perspective and for as long as I am able to exert positive impact on their energy field. I will always discuss this with you during the consultation. I believe in empowering you so that after four sessions I’ll be asking you what you think. We are all different and how often or frequently we see each other is discussed on an individual basis.
7. Is it safe for children and babies?
Yes. I’ve worked a lot with children and babies. Reiki is popular with parents as it doesn’t involve any substances or manipulation, only the child’s own energies. Children rarely need any longer than twenty minutes so there’s often time for the parent to have a quick session too.
All living creatures have energy fields and can therefore benefit from sessions. Most animals adore energy work. Working with them is fun as they often present the part of their body that they wish to be worked on at any moment- usually it’s their bottom! Not surprising that it would be their root chakra having to put up with us as owners…
Sessions are usually shorter as animals simply get up and walk away when they’ve had enough or fall asleep. Reiki can also be used on plants, homes and foodstuffs.
On rare occasions clients may experience rapid detox and may feel tired and unwell for a period as the body restores balance. This is transient. One way to describe what I do is, similar to Dial a Rod, we both seek to clear out your pipes. It doesn’t matter what comes out. What matters is that it does. For most energy blockages are released without you experiencing a thing.
Reiki works on your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. This means that it is possible to detox on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level.
Physical level detoxing can mean that your symptoms may become temporarily worse although this is not the norm in clinical practice. People sometimes report increased visits to the toilet, increased thirst and a change in dreaming patterns.
Some people do find that they feel emotional; this can be teary or angry. If this happens to you get it out of your system! Music and exercise are perfect for this. If you deliberately make a space for these feeling to come out you will get over them more quickly. Listening to love songs and giving yourself permission to cry your eyes out is very effective. It doesn’t matter what you cry about; what is important is that you get any emotional blockage out of your system. Some people worry that if they start they might never get to the end of it. You will.
Similarly if you feel angry remove yourself from others and do some vigorous exercise. A run to the point of exhaustion, scrubbing the bath or putting on heavy rock music, and really digging it, works. Again, you will get to the end of it.
Mental Detox is rarer and can manifest to two ways; either the mind becomes completely blank as if it’s gone on holiday or it seems to want to work doubly fast. If this happens, again, this will be temporary. Taking an hour to yourself, looking at something beautiful and observing your breathing works wonders.
Spiritual Detox is rarest off all. Very occasionally a person may have a spiritual awakening or a crisis of current faith. This is simply the letting go of old blockages that were either stopping you from having a more spiritual life or it’s simply your time to examine what your faith really means to you.
If you do experience any of these please know that once the blockage has cleared your system will be clearer and lighter.
No, unless you wish me to. Legally I’m not bound to and most people are terrified that I might. If you wish to tell your doctor please do. I think it is a missed opportunity that doctors and therapists don’t work more closely.
11. Is it safe to use Reiki alongside my medication or other complementary therapies?
Yes. Reiki
works on your bio-field which in turn works on the body.
Medication is developed to work on specific receptor sites
in the body. This means that I’m working at a different
level than your medication does. I am not qualified to
advise you on your medication. Sometimes, as your health
improves, you may need to review your medication with
your physician.
It is common, however, for people to seek out therapies
such as Reiki, to help combat the side-effects of drugs.
Reiki can be combined with other therapies successfully. It is a specific way of working with the body’s energy field and therefore doesn’t interfere with the mechanisms of how other therapies work. If you think that another therapy may be useful alongside Reiki then consider it. I believe that a person’s system has an intrinsic intelligence and can know what or who may be able to help.
12. How did you come to do this?
Please read my personal background page. Click here to view Zoë's Personal Background
13. Can anyone learn to work with energy?
Yes! You cannot escape the fact that you are an energetic being. Every one can learn to work with energy consciously. However your propensity to work with it and on yourself, will dictate how good you can be. In this way it is no different from any other profession in the world.
14. How does Reiki differ from Bio-energy Therapy?
Concepts of healing energy were first recorded, as far as we know, in India and China. Within every traditional culture healers, shamans, sages, etc, have had their place in helping people to heal.
In its broadest sense “bio-energy” simply refers to the biological or life-giving energy system of the body. In Japan “reiki” simply means healing energy. In essence bio-energy, reiki and other healing systems that utilise “energy” are types of energy medicine that have a lot in common.
Each healing modality within the field of energy medicine does the same thing: they all work by removing blockages from the energy system that allow the body to restore itself back to health. It is therefore the traditions and how the treatments are administered that differentiates healing systems including bio-energy and reiki.
Records suggest that Bio-energy came from the East,
but practical traditions have continued to persist both
there and into Eastern Europe to the present day. This
suggests that the healing arts in Europe were no different
from other parts of the world where systems of healing
were practiced, taught and passed down within an oral
tradition until cultures adopted a written framework for
teaching and learning.
It appears that within the last half of the twentieth century a Western system
of bio-energy training appeared that was fixed, standardised and taught as a
complete system in Europe and North America.
Reiki is said to have been “rediscovered” in
1922 in Japan by Dr Usui, a Buddhist priest after a period
of spiritual enlightenment.
Reiki, as taught by Dr Usui was part of a spiritual way of life. It was taught
in the Eastern method of Master to pupil by means of an “attunement”.
It is the attunement that allows the pupil to become a channel for reiki energy.
Although Reiki was brought to the West in the 1930’s
it didn’t mushroom in popularity until the early
1990’s after it was both put into written format
and the methods of teaching changed.
Although the attunement process and the use of symbols are not unique to
Reiki they make a distinct marker between it and Bio-energy Therapy.
In terms of working with energy in Bio-energy Therapy the practitioner works with cosmic and earth energy and is using techniques which are mainly active. What an onlooker would see is a practitioner doing what some people describe as Tai Chi around a client.
Reiki practitioners connect into Reiki energy, pull it into their system and then emit it through their hands in a very passive way. What an onlooker would see is a very quiet traditional type of healing session.
Bio-energy Therapy can be given to a client whilst standing, sitting or lying. Reiki is usually given lying or sitting. Bio-energy Therapy is mostly hands off and Reiki can be either hands on or off.
Both traditions teach remote healing.
Some people prefer to practice one or the other and some clients prefer to receive one or the other. Others trained in both, use both. This is merely a matter of personal taste. Both provide good ways of working with energy which will benefit the energetic health of a client.
No comparative work has been done to show which one
is “better” than the other. Indeed experts
such as Jim
Oschman believe
that it is the quality of the practitioner and
not the tradition that they come from that makes one person
likely to achieve greater therapeutic effect than another.
It is because of this that so much focus of the coursework of The Bi-Aura
Foundation and my Reiki course is you and your personal development.
