How To Give A Reiki Treatment

Treatments can be given with the recipient either sitting in a chair or lying down on the floor, a mattress, a futon or even a treatment couch. Make sure they are comfortable by placing pillows under the head of the recipient and also under the knees if they find this a comfortable way to relax their legs. Some people may want a blanket as there are often variations in body temperature when receiving Reiki.

It is also very important for you as the practitioner to be comfortable as well.  Pay particular attention to your posture. If you end up giving a few treatments a day and are not taking care of your spine then you will notice it very quickly.

It’s a good idea that both the Reiki practitioner and the recipient should wear comfortable loose clothing, take off their shoes, their watches and remove any jewellery that might inhibit the free flow of energy.  If the receiver wears glasses, ask them to remove them before the treatment.

Reiki Protocol

This is a Reiki protocol that is useful and helpful at the start; however it is best that you develop your own way and your own protocol.

PRE-SESSION

Before your clients arrives:

– Prepare the space.

Creating the right atmosphere in which to give Reiki does help to enhance the experience. Ideally, when you are giving someone else a Reiki treatment you should have a quiet, comfortable and soothing environment in a designated room or area and find somewhere you will not be disturbed. 

You might want to make the experience special by having a candle burning there, and playing appropriate music to suit the mood.  Some people like to burn incense or use essential oils, but it’s probably best to make sure that your client actually likes the smell of the fragrance before you fill the room with it.

Using a space clearing spray before a Reiki treatment is also recommended and it’s a good, easy way to improve the energetic quality of the space in which you are working.

– Give yourself a Reiki self-treatment for at least five minutes.

– You can use the distant symbols to send distant Reiki healing to your clients before he/she arrives at your place. This helps to cleans your client’s energy and will probably save some time later in the session.

You may also want to check if your client has any negative energy that can be cleared remotely.

> 7 Different Types Of Negative Energies That Can Affect Us

Once the client has arrived:

– Ask the client for permission to touch and ask the client if any areas need particular attention.

1. Gassho Meditation

Gassho meditation is a crucial part of any Reiki practice. The word Gassho literally means “two hands coming together”. It clears the mind, opens the heart and strengthens one’s connection to Reiki energy.

Mikao Usui practiced Gassho each time at the beginning of his Reiki workshops/meetings

You may also want to practice the Hatsurei Ho – Reiki Meditation Technique and include the Five Principles of Reiki in your meditation.

2. Grounding and Protection

There are many ways to ground your energy – you can visualise roots going all the way down to the magnetic core of Mother Earth, connecting with beneficial energy there and then using the in-breath bringing the energy all the way up and into you and up to your heart chakra.

Intend that you are grounding the centre of the Earth in the 5th dimension.

PROTECTION

Negative energies can take different shapes and forms; for example, other people’s thoughts and emotions are forms of energy that we can absorb. Sometimes we may walk into a place where we may feel really uncomfortable.

In life there are certain people who “drain” other people, leaving them feeling exhausted. This could happen during a Reiki session. Therefore it is important that you protect yourself before and during a Reiki treatment.

There are so many different protections, you can read more in this article:

> Simple Rules For Protecting Yourself From Negative Energies

3. Connecting With Reiki

You can imagine (or just intend) a beam of light coming out of your crown chakra, going out through the building you are in, all the way out through the sky, the Universe and connecting you to the Highest Source of Reiki (Different planes of consciousness are called ‘Heavens‘, in the Holy Fire® Reiki system).

Imagine that Reiki is coming down through the crown chakra and into your heart chakra where it connects and merges with the Earth energy and flows in every cell of your body.

4. Intention (silent)

We are channels for Reiki and it is really important to set our intention for the highest good of our client. If appropriate for you, ask for any assistance of any Spirit Guides, Angels, Ascended Masters, the Brothers and Sisters of the Light, etc (in line with your personal belief system) always for the client’s highest and greatest good.

Be specific about who you call to assist you. If you don’t know who to call, say silently ‘I call for the appropriate Beings of the Light to     assist me during this Reiki Session for the highest good of …. (name of the client).’

5. Beaming

Use the Reiki Beaming Technique to increase the energy exchanged between you and your client, treating the whole aura, and activating a unique healing process.

If you are a qualified Holy Fire® Reiki Teacher you could begin your session by offering your client a a Holy Fire® Experience.

Holy Fire® Reiki is a type of Reiki energy and a new system of Reiki healing based on Holy Fire® energy. It was introduced by the International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT) in January 2014.

Holy Fire® is a spiritual energy that creates wholeness through purification, healing, empowerment and guidance. The Holy Fire® energy is noticeably more refined and comes from a higher level of consciousness.

A  Holy Fire® Experience  provides a deeply healing experience which brings in high frequency healing energies that are very powerful and effective.

> READ MORE ABOUT HOW TO BECOME A HOLY FIRE REIKI MASTER

6. Aura brush

Brushing 6-9 inches (15-22 cm) above the client’s physical body from head to toe, intending to remove any energy which is inappropriate for the client and consciously directing the energy down into Mother Earth and say silently ‘I ask that this energy  is transmuted into positive energy down Mother Earth’. Repeat a few times. Total time 30-60 seconds.

> Read about the Aura cleansing technique

7. Scan

You may be intuitively drawn to a particular place on or off the client’s body or alternatively by moving our hands over the body, we may sense any areas that require Reiki. We can then give Reiki to a particular area that calls for it.

In the practice of Reiki, a technique called Byosen scanning is used to find areas of the body or energy field that need healing.

The word, Byosen, comes from two Japanese words. Byo means illness or sickness. San means line or place. So, Byosen means a place of sickness. 

Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, taught his students Byosen scanning in order to locate areas to focus their Reiki healing. This technique can be used on ourselves as well as on others.

GIVING A REIKI TREATMENT

8. Give a Reiki Treatment

By giving Reiki to the person/their energy field, we are revitalising the energy field and assisting the release of inappropriate energies. We may choose to give a standard treatment or to move intuitively where we may feel guided to go, or a combination of both.

Treatments can also include:

> The Standard Hand Positions

> Hawayo Takata’s ‘Foundation Treatment’

> The chakra-balancing technique

> Reiji Ho Technique of Intuitive Healing

> READ MORE ABOUT Chakras: Wheels Of Life

ENDING A SESSION

9. Grounding the client

Ground the client by placing your hands on (or over) their feet with the intention to ground them. It often helps to feel our own grounding connection whilst we are doing this or to use a visualisation/imagination of seeing the client grounded like a tree.

10. Protecting the client/sealing the Aura

While you hold your hands on your client’s shoulders, intend that his/her chakras are protected and visualise/imagine them in a bubble of golden light and being safe, comfortable and protected.

Use doors or flowers that you close to intend to close the chakras. Leave the root chakra slightly open so that the connection with Mother Earth is maintained at all times.

Give thanks to the Spirits of the Light that have assisted you during the session.

11. Your ‘own stuff’

Move out of the energy field of the client, usually a metre or so away.

Ground yourself, and at the same time imagine to be under a shower of white light and ask that this light takes away any energies that are no needed and they are taken down to Mother Earth and transmuted into positive energy.

See yourself protected inside a bubble of light, fill the bubble with a colour that you need in that particular moment.

12. Glass of water and discussion

Offer the client a glass of water that really helps with their grounding before leaving you.

Have a chat with the client to share anything relevant about the session.

Bear in mind that a Reiki Practitioner is not a medical professional, therefore it is not appropriate to diagnose illnesses and do not feel any pressure to do so.

Healing Crisis

When we carry out healing work on ourselves, after a session with a Reiki practitioner, or after taking a Reiki class, we go through a healing process in which energy is released from the physical, emotional, mental or spiritual levels. As this energy is being channeled, it must travel through and be released from our system as blockages are removed and patterns dissolved.

This healing process can sometimes cause uncomfortable symptoms that are actually part of the recovery process. This is sometimes called a ‘healing crisis‘ by some, but is actually a normal part of the healing process as we enter a more deeply healed state.

> READ MORE about the Healing Crisis

> Benefits of Reiki Healing

Thinking Of Learning Reiki? You may want to check our Usui/Tibetan Reiki and Holy Fire Reiki courses.

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