General Reiki Info

This page is a general information page for clients to know more about what to expect from a Reiki treatment, for practitioners to gain more insights into how to better perform a treatment and for all to gain a greater understanding of what Reiki is and how it works.

Our first subject will be the use of touch in a Reiki treatment.

To touch or not to touch?

Reiki is often considered to be a form of "massage" because the practitioner uses their hands to give the treatment. However, touching in a Reiki treatment is not necessary for the energy to flow and for the client to receive the full benefits of a treatment. So for what reasons or in which instances would it be more beneficial to touch?

Let us begin by first discussing the benefits of not touching the body during a Reiki treatment.

By keeping the hands a short distance from the body, a practitioner can allow a client to relax more fully into the Reiki treatment. Because no movement of the hands are felt, as the practitoner moves from treating one part of the body to another, there is thus no disruption. Sometimes clients go to sleep during a Reiki treatment and so, if a practitioner's hands are physically touching the body, then the movement of the hands might wake the client up.

Another benefit of keeping one’s distance, so to speak, is that some parts of the body may be sensitive, such as the throat, and by placing the hands directly on such areas the client may feel constricted. Also, Reiki can often generate warmth or heat, and hot hands directly on the body can seem too intense for the client.

And there are certain areas that, due to personal experience or social norms, a client may feel intrusive when touched. For example, the genital area. A practitioner should be mindful that for some people touching their abdomen, for example, may be just as much a violation of their personal space as touching their genitals. So to avoid any misunderstandings and to be respectful of people it would be best to avoid touching, as a general rule.

Generally speaking, a practitioner can have their hands up to 7cm away from the body and the energy will be just as effective as when touching the body directly. And although 7cm is a distance that is effective for most treatments most of the time, at other times a practitioner’s hands may intuitively move out up to a meter or two, or even more, from the physical body, to a point where the practitioner feels they have the greatest effect. It may be the case that there is something caught in the energy field of a client that is located, for example, two meters from the physical body, and the practitioner may get a sensation in their hands – such as a magnetic pushing effect, for example – that guides their hands away from the body to that point, where the practitioner then feels a strong energy and witnesses the client have a major release, such as an involuntary jolt or something of that type.

So, although there can be general rules or guidelines on where to place the hands, a practitioner must also remember that particular instances may call for something entirely different.

Having said that about the benefits of not physically touching the body, let us now turn to the benefits of touching.

Firstly, it should be noted that some clients respond better to touch. At the physical, emotional and mental levels, they feel they are being cared for more when they are being touched. They do not feel it is intrusive at all. And, often for such clients, because so much energy is flowing from the practitioner's hands, they feel the energy more than they feel the actual touch of the hands. They may comment, for example: “I don’t know where you’re hands were at the time, but I felt a warm sensation on my chest at the beginning of the treatment.” And that is precisely where the practitioner’s hands were.

As an aside, let us mention that there is an effect that clients sometimes feel, which you might call "the phantom hands." This is where a client feels hands in a position of their body after the practitioner has moved their hands to the next position. This is an energetic residue which is telling the client that the energy is still doing its work in the previous position.

Also, it has to be mentioned that at the end of a treatment, when the practitoner places their hands on the bottom of the client's feet, it is necessary for the practitioner to physically touch the feet to give the full sensation of grounding the body.

And so, because touch and non-touch approaches to Reiki treatments can both have their benefits, practitioners often combine touching and not touching in a single Reiki treatment. For example, a practitioner might choose to have their hands hover over the body when treating the front positions and choose to touch the body when treating the back positions, where clients are generally more at ease with being touched. Or the practitoner may be guided to touch certain areas while feeling it is best not to touch other areas. And this may vary from person to person and from treatment to treatment.