Reiki: Helping People Help Themselves

(The author of this article, for confidential reasons, prefers to remain anonymous.
She is one of our Reiki students.)

As a clinical social worker I have been using Reiki as a means of empowerment. With a Reiki master I have been teaching 1st degree Reiki to women living with HIV/AIDS. Some of the lessons I took from Connie's Reiki classes were that people should learn Reiki so they can treat themselves and "No dogma." Some personal anedoctes include:

"Martine" is a woman living with AIDS who used to be a research scientist. When she was first learning Reiki she was so skeptical about using Reiki that she used Reiki on one leg and not on the other so she would have to "experimental group" and a "control." To her surprise the pain in her "experimental group" (the leg she used Reiki on) stopped completely while the pain in her "control group" (the leg she did not Reiki) remained.

"Alice" is living with HIV and has three children by her now deceased husband. In addition to the stresses of raising children she is also a survivor of incest. She has found that she is able to use Reiki to help her cope with the pain of discussing the incest during her group therapy sessions.

"Jenny" is living with AIDS and has a part-time job. When she first came to the Reiki group she apologized in advance because she was worried that she would fall asleep during the group because her job made her feel exhausted. Near the end of the group she exclaimed that she felt very awake and energized by the session.

In short, learning Reiki has not only enriched my life, but also the lives of my clients so the intention of Reiki - spreading loving energy - continues.

(Please note that all the names and identifying aspects of the people mentioned above have been changed to protect their confidentiality. The anecdotes are a combination of the different clients I have seen and do not represent one person.)