What can I expect during a Reiki Session?
You may receive Reiki lying down on a massage table (provided), sitting in a chair, or lying down on a bed or couch if using a massage table is not accessible. You will stay fully dressed (just take your shoes off) and be given a light blanket or sheet for comfort. Reiki sessions usually occur in a calm space with soft music playing.
The practitioner will place their hands on different parts of your body, generally beginning at the head and proceeding down to your feet. Hand placement is very light and gentle, there is no pressure, as Reiki is very different from a massage. The Reiki practitioner may keep their hands in the same area for a while, up to 10-15 minutes in some cases. At the very end of the session, the practitioner may move their hands with a brushing stroke and light patting motion on your back and legs.
Everyone has a unique experience during Reiki. There will be time for you to share your experience with the practitioner after the session.
While everybody’s Reiki experience is unique, many clients share feeling sensations; of warmth, relaxation, and even falling asleep during the session. It is not uncommon for clients to share that symptoms that were bothering them before are less noticeable or completely resolved after receiving Reiki.
Occasionally, a client may continue to feel the energy of the practitioner’s hands even after she moves her hands to a different area of the body. Some people note feeling different sensations on the right and left sides of the body. The Reiki process may open a strengthened connection to the inner self for some. This could be an emotional experience. There is no singular way to experience a Reiki session and all of these experiences are completely natural.
Many clients report feeling relaxed and rejuvenated for many hours after their Reiki session, continuing to feel the benefits long after the session has ended.
Reiki Lineage
Reiki Ryoho (therapy) is the Japanese art of hands on healing originated by Mikao Usui（臼井甕男1865-1926）in 1922. The original term for this is: 心身改善臼井氣療法Shin Shin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho or “Usui Reiki Therapy for Improving Body and Mind” Reiki itself can be described as universal life force energy, or the universal energy of existence, that which flows through all life and matter. Mikao Usui discovered Reiki after feeling depleted of his life's purpose, he retreated from his daily life to meditate on the meaning of life. He went to Mount Kurama in Kyoto Japan & after many days of fasting & meditation he had an enlightenment experience, he said he knew what he needed to do and the “Usui Reiki Therapy for Improving Body and Mind” came into being.
Chiyoko Yamaguchi & Tadao Yamaguchi
Founders of The Jikiden Reiki Institute
About Jikiden Reiki
Jikiden translates as "directly passed down" in Japanese.
Today there are many styles of Reiki that originate from the teachings of Mikao Usui. As shifts in culture happened both in Japan and in the West after WWII, Reiki went quietly underground for many years in Japan due to strict medical laws enforced after the war.
Meanwhile, there were some Japanese people in Hawaii, who began sharing Reiki and passing down what was learned and remembered, & over time, techniques naturally shifted, evolved, were added to, & new techniques emerged as Reiki continued to grow throughout the West.
The Jikiden Reiki Institute expresses gratitude for the number of schools and practices of Reiki. Reiki would not be as widely known about or practiced today if this was not the case.
"Chiyoko Yamaguchi learned Reiki in 1938 from one of Usui sensei’s Dai Shihan (teacher of teachers), Chujiro Hayashi. She had been initiated to Reiki at the age of 17 and continued to practice throughout her life until she passed away in 2003.
Chiyoko’s practice was discovered in the late 1990s and once people recognized that she held such a deep knowledge of Reiki from the early years, many in the Reiki community requested that she teach them what she had learned from Hayashi sensei. She was reluctant at first but after seeing the differences between those original teachings and what was being currently taught and practiced she started to give group workshops in order that the new generation of students would have access to those teachings. As a consequence, in 1999 together with her son Tadao Yamaguchi, they founded The Jikiden Reiki Institute."
-Jikiden Reiki Association UK