About Reiki
Energy flows through all beings, and when it’s out of balance, we can feel restless, fatigued, overwhelmed, and disconnected from ourselves and others. Reiki gently brings us back in balance, softening energy blockages and reconnecting us with our life’s true purpose. Working intuitively, I flow Reiki to the places in your energy system that need support, supplementing this work with other energy healing practices such as light weaving and full-spectrum healing.
The form of Reiki I practice is Usui Reiki, based on the original methods and symbols discovered in the late 1800’s by Mikao Usui, a Japanese healer. Reiki connects a practitioner to universal energy, which is then flowed to the client through the practitioner’s hands, or in a remote session, by connecting to the client through the universal energy field. It’s a beautiful practice that can bring feelings of peace, calm, and ease. It’s also a powerful practice in that it works on all levels of the client’s energy: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
What to expect
I start each Reiki session by asking what your intentions are for the session and hold these intentions in mind as I work with you. In an in-person session, you’ll rest comfortably fully clothed on a table as I flow Reiki to your energy system through my hands. In a remote session, we connect over telephone and you are free to sit or lie down; it’s best if you can be in a quiet place away from distractions so you can relax and tune into yourself as I work with you.
During the session, you may feel sensations of tingling or warmth, feel the energies moving through your body, or feel nothing at all. Many people get so relaxed that they fall asleep - and don’t worry, you won’t miss anything by sleeping through your session! As your energy system comes into balance, you might reconnect with memories or feelings you haven’t felt in a while or feel yourself letting go of thoughts and patterns that no longer serve you. You might want to rest in silence as I work or talk with me about what you’re experiencing.
Whether you have a strong emotional or physical response or you just leave the session feeling relaxed and refreshed, Reiki is working through you and continues to do its magic after the session ends.
Trauma-informed Reiki
In addition to being a Reiki practitioner, I’m a psychotherapist who specializes in trauma and anxiety, and I draw on my experience when I do energy healing with people who are recovering from trauma. I’m also trained in somatic psychotherapy, which has shown me how we hold trauma in our bodies and how this can manifest as pain, physical symptoms, or feelings of being disconnected from the world.
Traumatic experience causes the psyche to split off emotions that couldn’t be felt at the time of the trauma and buries these emotions deeply into the unconscious mind so that we can continue to function. This happens automatically as a way to survive the trauma. PTSD is a healing process in which these dissociated emotions start to re-emerge, sometimes years or even decades later, and this experience can be distressing and disorienting because the emotions are felt at the intensity they would have been felt when the trauma occurred. It’s like time travel. Our natural response to these experiences is to deny or suppress them or find ways to escape from the experience through addictive behaviors, distraction, and/or numbing and dissociation.
When I work with clients who’ve experienced trauma, I flow healing energies to soothe and balance your system, clearing blockages and softening the knots and armoring that form around places in the body where traumatic emotions are held. This is a gentle but effective approach that respects the defenses and protections that form around traumatic memories. These protections have kept you safe so far, but in most cases they’re still trying to protect you from a threat that no longer exists.
Reiki and Psychotherapy Together
Although Reiki is not a substitute for psychotherapy, the two modalities complement each other and work together well. Whether you’re already working with a therapist and would like Reiki to support your therapy or you’re interested in seeing me for both Reiki and psychotherapy, let me know. I’d be happy to talk to you about what this would look like for you.
