This is ‘Reiki’ in traditional Japanese characters.

Since Mikao Usui created the system of reiki in Japan in the early 1900s, reiki spread to North America and then around the world, and different reiki practitioners have created their own schools and styles of reiki. Many different forms and styles of reiki are found around the world now.

It is also taught in many different ways. While traditionally, it was taught in three levels, shoden (level 1), okuden (level 2) and shinpiden (level 3), it is now also taught in community colleges, and even at a distance in online courses. I’ve heard of reiki teaching retreats in Bali, I believe, where teachers have found it easy to attract students by teaching level 1 and level 2 without a break in between, during the same week. I’ve heard of reiki schools that have 7 levels, or is it 9? My gut feeling is that this is a way to get students to pay a lot more for a lot more courses!

My teachers were my brother, Walter Quan, in Canada, and Frans Stiene, who taught in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and now teaches all around the world, from his home base in the Netherlands. Frans is renowned for researching reiki to try to follow its traditional origins (the traditional form is known as Usui Reiki Ryoho) which is different than newer creations of reiki styles where teachers focus on the chakras, or combine reiki with other practices, like crystal healing, or have even created their own new symbols and levels.

I enjoy giving reiki treatments, but I’ve made the choice to not teach reiki.

If you are in Sydney, I have two recommendations. They’re both a little far away from the centre, but it can be nice to get away! So, I’d recommend that you study reiki with the International House of Reiki in the Blue Mountains. Bronwen Logan is a good teacher, and Mount Tomah is a beautiful place to learn.

A fellow student of Frans Stiene and the International House of Reiki (IHR) is Vicki Huston who teaches reiki in Avalon in the Northern Beaches at Northern Beaches Reiki. Vicki is a wonderful person so she’s my other recommendation. If you happen to be in Melbourne, look up Deborah at the Melbourne Reiki Centre and if you’re in Cairns, you should study with Julie at Rainforest Reiki.

I don’t know and won’t say that the traditional Japanese system of reiki is better than other forms, just that I personally like it and it’s what I do. So, if you are interested in learning reiki, you should do some reading about the teachers available around you and what kind of reiki they practice and how their courses are structured. Level 1 is a really good way to find out whether reiki resonates with you as a practice. The course is short and affordable and focuses on you learning how to treat yourself, rather than on other people. It’s often two days long. I don’t recommend taking Level 2 (often a day long) right away after Level 1,  or Level 3 (often 2.5 or 3 days) right after that. After each course, I think it’s best to practice what you’ve learned and let the learnings settle into yourself rather than rushing to do more learning.

Finally, I recommend doing your own research. I was quite surprised lately, getting calls from people wanting to learn reiki and then have me explain as much as I could to them. Part of the joy of learning something is to start learning and to do your own research. Start now. Read about reiki on the web. There is lots of information available, including on my own website and that of IHR. Find out which teachers are available for you. Then look at their websites to see what kind of reiki they do, and whether the way they talk about reiki resonates for you. Do you like the way they present themselves on their websites? Do you like what you are reading about reiki? If you do, you can always get in contact with them and ask some questions before you decide to study with them. Also, if you are interested in studying reiki, please book yourself in for a treatment, with me or any other reiki practitioner that you find and like the sound of. If you can book in for a treatment with your possible teacher, that would be really great. Why jump into studying something if you don’t have an experience of it already?

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 1,500 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

I am trying to teach my cat to give me reiki…

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One of the common questions that I get after I give a reiki treatment to a client is: ‘What did you feel?’ or ‘What did you pick up?’

In fact, I think almost half of my last clients asked this.

My answer these days is that it’s not important what I feel, it’s important what you feel, during and after a treatment.

I do know that there are many reiki practitioners and other clairvoyants and healers who give lots of specific advice. I had a client come because a random stranger came up to her and told her she had bad energy. I’ve had many clients come because someone has told them that they have a blocked chakra that needs clearing.

But now that I’ve been doing this for a long time, I really question how useful it is to tell clients something of the sort. The thing is, I’m not sure whether people really feel these different types of energy, or if it’s their egos talking. And more importantly, what does it mean? Is it useful information? The very first reiki treatment I had, a proper session rather than a ‘taster’ at a psychic fair, was in Rarotonga of all places. I asked my healer after the treatment what he felt, and he said that I was imbalanced and had more energy on one side of my body. I think I probably leaned to one side for the next few days! But seriously, what use was that information? What did it tell me in a way that helped me? Nothing. Sorry.

Similarly, if someone tells you that your heart chakra is blocked, unless you are committed to researching to find meditations or visualisations that might help with this, what are you going to do about it? You might end up going to a healer who says they can fix it! Or buy a crystal! Or wander around worrying that your heart chakra is blocked. And then: how do you know that what the person told you is true?

I also feel that the analysis mode of our brain is a different mode than the healing part. My work is to tune into the healing energy of reiki and facilitate you to do so as well. I would do a poorer job if I am trying to analyse what I’m feeling from you and then remember to tell you. And what my reiki teacher would remind me is that the real aim is oneness, to be at one with the energy and at one with my client. Giving an analysis of what *I* feel from doing a reiki treatment on *you* actually emphasises a division between us, rather than a oneness.

I really believe that our body’s energy is mysterious. Who knows if a bit of energy at your knee is actually a way to help you feel more focused at work! Or if your broken heart will feel better not by having my hands near your physical heart but at your shoulders or the top of your head. Often, what I feel is not what you feel during a treatment. So, what use is it to tell you that I felt warmth at your stomach and you didn’t? You may think that something is wrong with you that you didn’t feel the same, and spend too much time wondering about what it means to have warmth at your stomach.

I get it though! It’s a part of our human nature, to want to know something about yourselves, to try to get some useful insight. And as I said, I used to ask my reiki healers what they felt too! But these days, I tell clients that I don’t tell them what I feel during a treatment.

If you really, really want to know what I felt during your treatment,  and I have to give an answer, it will be this:

It’s different for every person, and it’s different each time, even if it’s the same person. Sometimes my hands are drawn more strongly to a position or a body part. Often it feels warm, but there are so many variations of warmth: a gentle heat, a light warmth, a more intense, hot sensation. Sometimes I’ll feel a sensation that’s tingly and a little electric. Other times, I might feel something larger, not just in my hands, but a general feeling of peace or relaxation.

But mostly, I try not to notice what I feel. As advised by my reiki teacher Frans, I aim to just keep my mind open and not analyse or interpret.

What’s important is not how I feel but how you feel, both at the time of the treatment and as the effects unfold afterwards, the same day, that evening, the next day and into the next week. If you feel positive or energised, or if you feel that the treatment addressed the reason you came: that’s the important thing.

If you really are looking for answers, then there are other types of practices – kinesiology, clairvoyance, counsellors, therapists and medical doctors – that might be able give you what you want.

If this blog felt familiar, I wrote a version of it in February 2017. But it was time for an update!

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Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and text, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 1,400 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.