13 Lessons Learned From My Professional Reiki Therapy Practice

I was initiated as a Reiki Master in July 2015 and within just a few months from that I rented a small commercial space in town and started receiving therapy clients.

Since then, I have been blessed to have served a considerable and diverse number of people. I have offered both in-person and distance sessions on a full-time basis. In addition to that, I have volunteered in local clinics which offered healing services to the community and also partnered with a medical organization which funded scientific studies on the benefits of Reiki.

The constant contact with Reiki energy and the experience of working with clients in a professional setting - always striving to provide the most excellent service - has taught me so much. I cannot emphasize that statement enough.

While I do practice self-Reiki daily and that alone has been deeply transformative, in this article I will share 13 lessons I have learned specifically from my professional therapy services.

These 13 lessons I have learned are simply an honest sharing of my experience. They are not meant to be transmitted as a formulaic set of tenets or as a "laws of healing" type of thing. Rather, they are what I have truly and directly experienced and, therefore, can testify. And can there be any higher source of knowledge than one’s own direct experience?

I have certainly learned more than 13 lessons and I cannot honor Reiki enough for all it has taught me. With that said, these are the 13 lessons I have learned from my professional Reiki therapy practice, which my heart prompts me to share:

1) No matter what people have going on, they always want the same thing and they heal when they experience it. And that is: they want to be loved. Love is the healing power. Reiki is Love (with a capital “L”).

2) Being understood by another person is healing. There is profound healing power in just listening with total presence to what people have to say. This listening, however, has to be more than just registering data by hearing their words. You must endeavor to understand their perspective. It must be a true witnessing of their experience; as if it was your own. This type of listening means holding a space; an energy field where difficult energies (emotional, mental or spiritual) can be released, purified and healed.

3) The most powerful force in healing, as far as people go, is their own will to heal. The second most powerful force is their beliefs. But a negative belief can still be overridden if there is a strong will; specially with the help of a healer. You can give a temporary relief to anybody, but ultimate healing comes to those who want it.

4) There are hierarchical layers to our being. Solutions for the physical layer is in the mental/emotional layer. Solutions for both the physical and the mental/emotional layers are in the spiritual layer. So in the end the Spirit is the solution for eveything. The Spirit is the source of beingness, consciousness and energy. The most powerful method of healing is going to the Source of health, not the source of disease. Inviting and giving God permission to heal us will often result in healings that defy our limited sense of what is possible. In fact, isn’t Reiki all about that invitation and allowing? I certainly believe it is! In my practice I learned that ultimate and permanent healing is a thing of the Spirit, anything else is at best temporary relief.

5) Moral cleanliness is more important for health than people think. This is a moral universe and moral cleanliness is a more powerful factor in health than the environment, diet or genetics. Our sense of well-being is proportional to how orderly and cohesive we are in our thoughts, words and actions. If we constantly infringe our inner moral code, we have chaos as a result and therefore a health decline.

6) No situation - I will say it again - NO SITUATION is beyond healing. If you are still alive, you can heal and, more than that, also begin to thrive. Some healers can bring dead people back to life too. :-)

7) Meditation is key. Meditation is a foundational state of both consciousness and energy for a Reiki healer. Meditation is also one of the key pieces in everyone’s healing journey, because it is in that state of consciousness and energy where all healing lies. Now, when I say ‘meditation’, I mean more than just concentration on a single object. It is concentration on God. It is communion with the divine being that we truly are. I get it and respect that not everyone believes in God or uses that word. But since I do and God is my highest ideal, then it makes the most sense that I be completely focused on God in a meditative state of awareness. So my ministering of Reiki comes from that foundational place and I seek to transmit that common reality with the appropriate language and belief system my client is most comfortable with.

8) Prayer makes a huge difference. While meditation is the state of consciousness and energy I come from, prayer, then, are the thoughts, words and actions born from that place consciously. Both prayer and meditation are essential for me; they are like the two wings of the same bird. Prayer is a way of attuning to God’s will. And God’s will is always what prevails. A true healer operates within divine will, not separate from it. Prayer leads us from the mere awareness of God’s will to its manifestation on Earth. Prayer (with sincerity and love) will help you recognize God’s will and recognize that it is the best option. Surrendering to divine will, also allows you to participate in its power (the only true power). You always win when you do God’s will. Whatever be the fruits of your actions, the results will always be healing in one way or another if you are in attunement with God’s will.

9) Imagine 2 musicians: one is very well trained in the techniques of his instrument, but lacks feel and creativity; the other has amazing musicianship, but lacks tecnique. Good music cannot come from either of these musicians because it takes both technique and feel. The same is true with our professional Reiki offerings. Throughout the years of my professional Reiki practice, I’ve learned to balance those 2 facets: intuition with method; healing art with healing science. Having no method or system of healing leaves things up in the air and you operate with whatever the weather of the day. Rigid adherence to a system, however, makes you robotic; and a healing service demands living and dynamic intelligence. So I’ve adopted a motto: balance between everything, except good and evil (I stand 100% with the Good).

10) Surrender to Reiki, but add your positive thoughts and will power too. The mind has both affirmation and negation powers. As healers we must affirm the reality of our clients’ healed state and negate energy and attention to what’s contrary to it. We address problems without fear, but we remain focused on the solution. We do this with both our spoken and unspoken affirmations as well as visualization. We must hold the vision and intention of healing for our client believing it is done in the present moment, feeling grateful. We often need to use our will-power to overcome the negative thoughts of the client. This does not mean that we are not letting Reiki do the healing, but that we are contributing whatever we can in submission to the divine intelligence of Reiki. I pray things like: “this or something better” or “this is my intention, but Your will be done.”

11) I know who my Master is. Now, of course people have different beliefs, religions and spiritual paths. I will not tell the reader here what he or she should believe. But I am convinced that the principle of this lesson (a big one I learned in my Reiki journey) applies to a myriad, if not all, spiritual paths. The principle is to consecrate the full authority of one’s healing work to either God or an enlightened master who is a personal representation of God. Having done that consecration of my healing career (and actually my whole being) with strong intention and consistent reaffirmation, I find that I can just relax and witness God take care of everything perfectly. I have zero fear of dealing with even the heaviest and darkest energies in my healing work because I have that total consecration and faith in it. I also never work with unenlightened beings and, in fact, any being or energy is always under the Master authority of my Reiki work.

12) My service is neither pill business nor an opportunity to cash in on people’s vulnerability. It is about educating and empowering them. For that to happen I learned that while they are receiving the grace-full energy of Reiki through me, they are not to be dependent on me. In life, grace is usually balanced with self-effort. We Reiki practitioners are very well acquainted with the fact that divine grace is a real thing. It is my belief however, that God is not only about grace, but he also wants our efforts. In my humble opinion, a good parent neither just hands everything unmeritedly to their children nor makes them work for everything. I believe that God operates with the perfect wisdom to know when to bestow grace and when to require effort. With that said, it is God who makes that call. And I do see a whole lot more grace in Reiki than the requirement of effort. But it does make sense that a person with an adverse condition should learn why that condition is there and what needs to take place for it to be avoided. And once the knowledge is there, they must grow in the discipline to apply it. While my greatest motivation is always to see instantaneous healings (which do happen often), I do think it is also important for people to learn the way of healing and to apply it themselves.

13) Lastly, I learned that all people are absolutely amazing! I mean it! Through Reiki that intellectual adage that “God can be found in all people” has actually been revealed in practice. People are walking universes! Even the most shady souls out there have some divine spark to be found and if we persevere in kindness, in trying to understand them and in seeing them through the eyes of compassion, we will see God in them. I have gained a great strength in my healing work by adopting this belief: all people are good at heart. Only goodness is at the essence of a person, evil is only a condition. And conditions can be changed. But that which is the most fundamental cause behind a heartbeat cannot be changed, because that is God. It may sound like a naive belief to some people, given the external world is full of the consequences of people’s evil actions. But again, it’s a cloud in front of the sun; remove it and the sun is still there. Believing that people are good at heart is a powerful belief. And if you, like myself, believe that God is in people’s hearts (many traditions teach this!), that is all the more powerful a belief. Such a belief will drive you to keep going when a client’s condition requires a lot of you.

So that concludes my 13 lessons learned through serving people with Reiki. As I mentioned before, the number of lessons learned is actually greater. For my fellow Reiki lovers out there, it is my hope that what I shared will spark even more inspiration into your Reiki journey. And for those just curious about Reiki, I hope this article will inspire you to get to know this beautiful practice deeper. I also hope that my testimony of these personally cherished lessons will somehow be received by my teachers and Reiki itself as a token of my unending gratitude.