Attaining Reiki Mastery: Your Path to Becoming a Skilled Reiki Practitioner
By Dennis Bluthardt, Namaste Studios
Over the years, Reiki’s powerful energy healing modality has found its way into alternative medicine cabinets worldwide for those who prefer the natural route to overall wellness and those who couple it with evidence-based medicine. The one thing people agree on is the deep sense of relaxation and peace they feel before and after a Reiki session (and honestly, who doesn’t find that a bit appealing?).
Mastering Reiki happens as you deepen your connection with yourself, intuition, and the spiritual world. Trust and surrender, two primary attributes for successful sessions, become second nature, so family, friends, clients, and even you begin to have profound Reiki experiences.
In this guide, we’ll explore a few different avenues for training: free, one-to-one, completing levels I and II, and a Master (III) 200-ish-hour training.
Understanding Reiki and Its Benefits
Reiki is a form of energy healing that began in Japan in the early 20th century, developed by Mikao Usui. Reiki (pronounced ray-kee) comprises two Japanese words, Rei, meaning universal, and Ki, meaning life energy, for our purposes here, life force. The foundational belief of Reiki is this: All living things are infused with a universal life force. Disruptions, blockages to its flow, depletions to it, and the like can set the stage for developing physical, emotional, and spiritual ‘disease.’
So, in the Reiki practitioner’s work with clients, she uses touch to channel the life force to the client. It is a gentle touch or hands-off, not a massage technique. Everybody is unique, and when the practitioner does her work, the work is not about using her power to fix or heal specific problems. The practitioner facilitates deep relaxation and balance in/for the client. And yet, what commonly happens during the session is that clients feel sensations, heat where the practitioner’s hands are placed on or above the body, sleepiness, and then, after the session, clients’ feelings of stress or stressors are reduced. They have a general sense of well-being.
With that said, practitioners can offer classes covering other topics that will benefit clients in promoting wellness, such as breathing exercises, aromatherapy, sound therapy, yoga, tai chi, chakra clearing, and what have you. Cognizant of learning styles, practitioners can offer additional education at the end of the session, or they may choose to provide special classes or workshops. Once more, everyone is unique, and clients have distinctive aims when it comes to progressing toward well-being. What the practitioners do may be a partiality towards that practitioner by the client. Practitioners have their go-to methods for helping clients along the path toward wellness. They must do so partly because many forms and practices lack an evidence-based practice model.
The Journey to Reiki Mastery
To become a Reiki Master is to choose a path of service, of leadership, of devotion to the principles of Love and Unity. The Master term refers to one who devotes themselves to daily practice and embodiment of these principles. As a master, we vow to live in a way that reflects the principles of Love and Unity. Our outward actions become peaceful, compassionate, and integrous reflections of our inner workings. Reiki I is the level dedicated to Self-Healing. Reiki II is the practitioner level attuned to healing Others. And in the Reiki Master Level, one becomes the vessel of Divine Service. This is the level of the Teacher. Of the Leader.
The following course also includes Reiki I and Reiki II. I believe it is a moral and ethical responsibility to receive all three levels to practice as a master. I honor my teachers by laying this foundation (Reiki I, II) and then prepping and ordaining you in preparation to lead your lineage (Reiki Master Level). I want to continue to build our community with solid practitioners at the helm. I ensure my work reflects a high level of commitment, and so should yours. We are the ones who are changing and integrating energy healing into the mainstream healthcare system. I wholeheartedly love and support each Reiki Master and their students.
Choosing the Right Reiki Training Program
Choosing a vigorous training program is very important if you wish to become a certified practitioner of Reiki treatment or if you intend to advance your Reiki practice.
We must do research.
Determine who is leading the training, what their background is, and what their credentials are. The top training programs will be recognized by a Reiki organization that has been around for a long time and upholds high standards of ethics and quality.
Another aspect to consider when beginning your Reiki practice is the concept of mentorship. You can set yourself up with a Reiki master who will guide and answer your questions. This can be a great way of getting hands-on knowledge while getting to know a seasoned Reiki practitioner who may become a lifelong friend.
The path (literal, metaphorical, etc.) to mastery is hardly ever traveled alone. Becoming a master of Reiki will be no exception. Consider contacting a qualified (and relatable) Reiki trainer/mentor to help you.
Reiki training is available online for anyone to take. The best part is that you can take it at your own pace, making it a good, modern-day alternative to classical forms of teacher certification.
Another option for continuing education in Reiki is to do deep research to find a weekend workshop. Without upsetting too many areas of your life and regular schedule, plan a trip to a location near you that has a reputable Reiki training certification workshop coming up soon.
In the worst-case scenario, you’ll get a weekend vacation and a certificate for finishing a program you intuitively have authority over.
Essential Skills for Reiki Practitioners
Intuition is an asset in Reiki for ‘feeling’ where to go with the energy. It can aid you in sensing where imbalances are in another person’s field, so you learn to direct the energy in a certain way.
When you work with your intuition, Reiki becomes less of a prescriptive therapy and more of a creative, intuitive process. Your intuition will guide you to work with your clients in a way that is right for them, resulting in you having happy, regular clients. I’ve put together a few exercises to help you with this:
Meditate and use visualization: Meditation can help you get in touch with your energy and the energy of anyone you practice. Use grounding techniques: Grounding refers to anything that makes you feel more connected to the Earth or ‘brings you back down to Earth.’ Some of us are naturally more prone to grounding (often those who are practical or logical), whereas others must work on it (usually the spiritual, creative types). Do development exercises: You can do exercises to develop yourself, ranging from meditation to spiritual unfoldment classes.
Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to look at ourselves and heal what is holding us back. For any therapist, self-development is SO essential because we cannot indeed hold another person’s issues if we have not processed our own. It is not until we truly understand ourselves that we can attempt to understand others. Hold yourself in your hands and heal yourself. This is the problem, and that is the solution.
This process does not need to be undertaken alone. It shouldn’t be done alone. Suffering in silence helps no one.
Tips for Attaining Reiki Mastery
Those who want to deepen their understanding and proficiency in Reiki must keep learning and practicing. This is true of any healing modality. The more knowledge and experience you have, the better you are. I love to learn from different books, online courses, and workshops because I always discover a new way of looking at Reiki that adds something to my practice. They allow me to explore advanced topics, read about recent research, and play around with different techniques.
I also love meeting people and talking about Reiki. Knowing that my favorite people in the world, like Reiki, makes me feel like I belong. It also really helps during periods of doubt and struggle. I belong to several online Facebook groups and forums dedicated to Reiki. I connect with many practitioners in that space and share ideas with them. And when I say “practitioners,”
I don’t just mean the people I see daily. I mean the millions of others worldwide who practice Reiki and have their unique styles and ways of doing it. I frequently find myself in these groups and forums, and I would argue, for my mental health, that I deserve to take up space in them as much as anyone else because I am also a practitioner.
The journey to Reiki mastery is a transformative one. It enhances your ability to heal others, which is profound for the person being healed. It also improves your personal growth as a Reiki practitioner. By exploring a wide array of Reiki principles and techniques, you gain a more substantial, cultivated understanding of energy flow throughout your body and the world. This experience allows you to channel the healing powers of Reiki to far greater ends. That is the magic of Reiki. Reiki mastery will enable you to dial into that personal path to a greater extent and heal people more effectively.
You can do several things to explore that path of personal growth. The first is figuring out an educational roadmap. There are many areas of Reiki that you can be trained in, divided into a variety of levels, some introductory, others advanced. Each one stacks on top of the others before it to provide wiggle room to explore the best way to leverage its teachings. The second, less of a step and more of a commitment is figuring out what the journey to being a Reiki master means to you. The big “Why?” question. It will challenge you in a fantastic way that allows you to fulfill your potential and serve the people looking to you for answers.
Finally, I would love it if you could engage with this article by leaving a comment below. What sort of “Reiki story” are you interested in creating? What’s holding you back in your journey to being a Reiki Master?
To learn more, visit Reiki at Namaste Studios to book a Reiki session. Additionally, you can find more of our Reiki Blogs here.
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