Author Archive: andy

Ten reviews of Reiki Surry Hills from Google Listings

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A pleasure to share my reviews with y’all. And thanks to all my clients who have taken the time to give me one:

Here are the latest ten reviews of Reiki Surry Hills from Google Listings, where I currently have 75 reviews with an average of a 5-star rating.

🌟 Mark Ryan said:
Great experience, highly recommend!

🌟 Maggie Tremenda said: Andy was very helpful. The atmosphere of the place is very relaxing and calm. The positive energy is present in the room, and if you relax and let go off your worries, the treatment can heal you. I experienced healing power myself. Thank you Andy for making me feel better. Kindly appreciated.

🌟 O S gave me 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)

🌟 Brock Forsblom said:
Andy is kind and professional and has created a beautiful, serene environment for the work. Highly recommend

🌟 Taya Neville said:

You are fortunate if you are led to find Andy and experience a treatment with him. Such a genuine and kind man ❤️

🌟 Sam Little said:
Very relaxing and good treatment

🌟 Annie Phan said:
Andy was very warm and welcoming. The session was really relaxing and calming, like a state of meditation and I felt myself feeling lighter, mind and body clearer for the next couple weeks after the session. I felt at peace and a lot happier, like I got my energy back! Was a good experience!

🌟 Marlentyus Aditya said:
I’ve had mixed emotion during my first reiki session it was magical experience and im so grateful i found Andy… Energy healing is no joke guys, some things are unexplainable but human mind is very powerful the only thing that limits us is our imagination….all we need to do is to Believe it.. i will definitely be back again next week.

🌟 P S gave me 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)

🌟 Ishan Chouhan said:
Andy is amazing. The place is so calm and full of positive energies. Andy helped me understand a few things about my stressful time, and it is definitely helping me. A day after the session, I felt lighter, happier. The energy flow I am feeling is beyond words. Thanks Andy for this.

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 more than 2,800 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.

 

A half a dozen reviews from Fresha

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Quite a few clients have told me that Fresha, my booking system, is really easy to use. It sends reminders. It allows for electronic payments. Every once in a while, there’s an issue. If someone makes a mistake on their email or phone number, the messages don’t reach them. More often than not, if a client has set up their Fresha account in another country, Fresha allows them to sign in and book the reiki appointment, but forgets to ask them to update their information. But generally, I’m pretty happy with it, since they bought out Bookwell, my old service.

The other new function added since I joined is that I can now reply to my reviews, which is nice, although this means you have to read my replies as well as the reviews. Oh well.

Here are a half a dozen reviews from Fresha. I’ll try to be more prompt about posting these up. It’s good to keep the blog active on my webpage, as I understand it tells the interweb that I’m active and open in general.

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 more than 2,600 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.

An embarrassing story about an emoji

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A number of years ago, I gave a few treatments to a client in unusual circumstances. He had cancer, and his family was hoping that the reiki treatments would help him deal with the effects of the treatment and that he would feel better. What was unusual was that they all wanted to be in the treatment room at the same time. I’m not sure why exactly. Perhaps to make sure he was safe and comfortable, and to support him. It was maybe to act as translators if necessary, as he didn’t speak much English. But they all sat together on the sofa in the reiki room, a mother, a brother, a wife and an adorable child, and they were all perfectly quiet during the treatment. As I usually only have a client in the room with me, or very occasionally a partner or family member, to have so many people in the small room was strange.

I think for the third treatment, the brother had sent an enquiry about a date and time and I thought had confirmed it, so I put it in my calendar. It was before my practice really took off, because of my Google listing and the online booking system (Bookwell, and now Fresha), and before I was giving treatments pretty much every day, as I do now. I’d had a few occasions of clients not showing up and it did, honestly, make me angry, that I had blocked off my time for them to come, that I’d prepared the room for the treatment, and probably made tea for them. And that they didn’t call in advance to cancel or rebook. And because I didn’t have many clients then, it felt more significant than it was.

So when the family didn’t show up, I was annoyed. Not as angry as the first no-shows, but I still wanted to make a point. I texted the brother and asked if they were coming, and he said no. So, I sent a text that said ‘If you can’t come to a treatment, you really need to let the person know beforehand’. His response was immediate, and he said something like ‘Why are you being so angry? I don’t have time for this.’

I’m ashamed to say that I continued the argument, saying that I wasn’t angry, I was just making a point. It got worse with each text exchanged and I ended up saying that his brother could come for treatments still but I’d prefer that he not come along. I never saw any of them again.

I’m ashamed of my behaviour. It’s not a big thing for someone to miss a treatment. These days, I can just brush it aside and see it as an opportunity to use the time in another way. And who knows what stress and pain the brother was going through, worrying about his brother with a serious form of cancer?

By sharing this story, I want to say that we can always, on a daily basis, do better, be better, and be compassionate and kind. Just because I do healing on others doesn’t mean that I don’t need healing myself.

It actually wasn’t until a few years later that I realised I was even more wrong in the situation than I’d thought. That emoji above: for some reason, I thought it meant ‘yes’ until it finally dawned on me that the praying hands or folded hands emoji, as it is known, is a depiction of the Japanese gesture for saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and is most often used as thanks. So, the brother was not confirming the appointment. He was simply thanking me for letting him know that the time he mentioned was available.

So, some big lessons for me, which are the same as the reiki precepts:

Be kind and compassionate to yourself and others

Do not anger

And I would also add: Know your emojis.

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 more than 2,600 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.

Seven reviews of Reiki Surry Hills from Google Listings

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It’s always a pleasure to share my reviews with y’all. A review gives an impression for potential clients of what real people experience in a reiki treatment, and multiple reviews shows a range of experiences. They can also be fun to read for people who’ve been to a treatment, to see what others have said! I’m grateful to anyone who’s taken the time to leave a review for me. It’s much appreciated.

🌟 Ninian said:
No other pro to go to for an absolutely surreal experience. Everyone experiences this differently, but I certainly felt like a brand new person afterwards. The atmosphere is so ambient and Andy is a tremendously patient listener. I really felt ‘at home’. I will continue regular sessions. I felt very comfortable and at peace. I highly, highly recommend Andy.

🌟 Bella S said:
Andy was very welcoming and took time to listen to my reason’s for booking my session. I felt extremely comfortable with him. He has made his home a beautiful retreat for people seeking help. This was my first Reiki experience and i would highly recommend it to anyone seeking any form of healing. I left my session feeling a lot more at ease with what I’m going through at the moment. As days pass i continue to feel better and stronger. I will definitely be returning for follow up session’s as i feel my soul will truly benefit from this amazing process. Thank you, Andy 🙏

🌟 William S said:
I had a magical experience with Andy!
My first Reiki experience – the massage allowed me to make contact with my energy field and become more conscious of it.
Andy was very welcoming and professional.
Highly recommended!

🌟 Amy S said:
Great experience with Andy. Very calming atmosphere and amazing reiki. 100% recommend him.

🌟 Deborah C said:
Andy is a wonderful and gentle practitioner. I felt at peace and a lot of my pain was gone after I had my first session with him. The place where he practices has a beautiful energy.
I would highly recommend Andy to anyone in need of a reiki session.

🌟 Carmen L said:
Very caring and thorough and made me feel so much better. Thankyou!

🌟 Linda said:
I tried Reiki for the first time with Andy and did not know what to expect. It ended up being a very healing experience. The place feels like a sanctuary the moment you walk in and Andy has this calm, accepting energy that immediately puts you at ease. I fell in and out of deep sleep during the session and felt very rested afterwards. In the days that followed, Andy checked in on me and sent me encouragement. Thank you Andy. I highly recommend his services!

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 more than 2,600 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.

Jordan Kissner: Reiki can’t possibly work. So why does it?

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The Atlantic is an American magazine that had a circulation of nearly 500,000 in 2018. I think it’s a great thing, then, for an article about reiki to appear in it. Still, there was a lot of criticism, apparently, when it was published, that its publication would legitimise a practice that some people don’t feel is legitimate.

REIKI CAN’T POSSIBLY WORK. SO WHY DOES IT?

I think it’s a really interesting article and perspective, as the journalist, Jordan Kissner, trained in two levels of reiki, and so has direct experience of the practice, but is writing with the objectivity of a journalist: she wants to know if reiki works and how, and if we really need to know. She says, ‘Many medical treatments are adopted for their efficacy long before their mechanisms are known or understood. Why should this be different?’

Sometimes, reiki clients ask me how reiki works and I offer them various possibilities (and the way I think reiki works), but maybe I should reply instead that I really don’t know how it works and it’s more important to ask how a reiki treatment worked for them.

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 more than 2,500 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.

COVID-19 health precautions and reiki

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Currently, as of October 2022, much has changed in terms of the NSW government guidelines for managing COVID. People no longer need to isolate, but are asked, if they have COVID, to stay at home.

So, it seems like life is almost back to normal, whatever that is. Generally, as I only see up to two clients a day (very occasionally three), and I’m the only one who gives treatments, I always considered my reiki service to be more like a visit to a friend, and very low risk of infections either from me or to me.

Still, we know that Omicron is very infectious. So:

  • If you are sick, please don’t come for a treatment. If you have a fever, cough or difficulty breathing, please seek medical care and COVID-19 testing. If you’ve made an appointment and need to cancel it, please let me know as early as possible that you’re not coming.
  • I would prefer to give treatments to clients who have been at least double-vaccinated. I won’t check your vaccination certificate though and will operate on trust. 

Mask-wearing.

  • If you would like to wear a mask during the treatment, I’m happy with that but I’m also fine with you not wearing a mask.
  • I’m also fine if you would like me to wear a mask during the treatment.
  • We can take off our masks if and when we’re drinking water or tea. 

If you’ve been exposed to COVID-19 and it’s suggested that you self-isolate, please don’t come for a treatment at this time. For my part, I’ll make sure the place is clean and tidy and that my hands are washed, though I would do this during non-COVID-19 times too. Thanks for reading. Hope to see you soon.

Last updated: 12 October 2022

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 more than 2,100 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.

Radio interview: Is reiki legitimate if it can’t be proven to work?

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I think I’ve only ever posted writing about reiki, and maybe a link to a video or two, so it’s good to be able to share this radio interview with you, in case that’s the way you like to receive information:

Can Reiki be a legitimate treatment if no one can prove how it works?

It’s an interview with Jordan Kisner for CBC radio (from Canada, my homeland). Kisner is a journalist and was really interested in finding out how reiki works, and did reiki training along the way. I think the interview is really interesting in that Kisner reports on her findings in a balanced and objective way: she didn’t find a clear explanation for how reiki works, but she also asks if it’s really necessary to know. I don’t think most people know exactly how aspirin works or a vaccine, and yet most of us put our trust in them.

I also love her reporting of the answer to the question, ‘During a reiki treatment, what are you supposed to be thinking or doing to the person being treated?’ Her reiki teacher said ‘Nothing. You’re just supposed to love them’.

I’ve found the article in The Atlantic that Kisner wrote and the interview is based on, but I’ll save that for another post!

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 more than 2,100 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.

Is that it?

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What if a reiki treatment is just relaxing to quiet music in a room for 50 minutes?

A person standing next to you who wants you to feel better?

Time when you’re not thinking?

Or time when you’re only thinking about yourself instead of other people?

The only time in the day (or week) that you’re not thinking about what you’ll do next?

Or worrying about a problem or hurting because of something that happened?

What if a reiki treatment is just making a decision to try something new, or to feel better, and then actively making the time to do so, and then going to do it?

One of the only times that you’re awake but not checking your phone?

A conscious act to take care of yourself?

What if that’s all reiki is? Would you find it helpful?

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 more than 2,100 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.

Don’t come to reiki!

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Not long ago, a client called up about her treatment. I had worried about her, since she made the booking at 2am for the morning after, but then she rescheduled to the next day. But she called in the morning. Should she come? She was feeling absolutely terrible, and couldn’t get in to see her therapist, and was tired and just wanted to sleep.

I was glad she asked. I think if you’re in a crisis, reiki isn’t really going to help. If you know that it will help you in a situation like this, then by all means, book in for a treatment. But otherwise, I think that if a client is too upset to really function then a reiki treatment, which is about tapping into a quiet, healing energy, isn’t going to be possible. And as I’ve written before, reiki is a collaboration. I can’t make you heal, or make you feel quiet or relaxed. You have to be open to healing and being in a state to receive that healing.

Another client weeks before had come, actively hurting from a relationship breakup. While I hoped that a treatment could help ease her pain and relax her, she said there was too much quiet and too much time to think. She spent the whole treatment thinking about her breakup and I’m not sure if the treatment helped in any way.

As a final scenario, I’d recommend not coming to reiki if you’re not familiar with it and you’re hoping for a very specific result (particularly in terms of a physical issue). This reminds me that I had a client years ago who felt a cold coming on and came in to try to prevent it from doing so … which didn’t work. But what I’m thinking of is a person who called up because their parent’s cancer treatment wasn’t working. As we chatted, it became clear that they had no idea what reiki is: they were wondering whether people get blocked energy which causes illness (I’ve written about this and believe no) and it sounded like they desperately just wanted something which could work for their parent. Reiki should never substitute for medical treatment and I also never want to give someone false hope. A person recently called who wanted a cure for terrible headaches that he’s had for four years, that doctors and therapists haven’t been able to help. But he had no idea what reiki was, and I advised him not to come since it didn’t sound like he would be satisfied unless he found his magic cure.

Most of my clients find reiki beneficial and some think it’s wonderful. But I can’t guarantee specific results and you have to be in a state to be able to receive it. So, if you sound like any of these scenarios above, don’t come to reiki! But if you’re interested in a treatment for other reasons, or you’ve had reiki before, do come to reiki! I look forward to seeing you.

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 more than 2,100 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.

Is that relationship really toxic?

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I’ve had many clients visit over the years who have talked about being in a toxic relationship as a reason for coming for a treatment. It could be a romantic relationship or just a friendship, or used to describe a workplace. And it got me wondering about the word ‘toxic’ and what’s it all about?

Lillian Glass is a specialist in communication, who had a private practice in Beverly Hills, first helping those with voice and speech disorders, and then working on self-confidence and communication skills to the stars. She’s the author of 12 books, including the 1995 book Toxic People. Glass describes a toxic relationships as one in which people ‘don’t support each other, where there’s conflict and one seeks to undermine the other, where there’s competition, where there’s disrespect and a lack of cohesiveness.’

So, I can see how the expression can be useful. If someone is trying to make a relationship work or is ignoring how it is not working, defining the relationship as ‘toxic’ could be the push the person needs to get out of the relationship. It can be used to say, ‘I’m going to stop pretending this is good, and I need to find ways out of it.’

But I do worry that this idea and language has been spreading far and wide for over two decades now and that in some cases, it might not be accurate or true.

People are complicated. Relationships and friendships are complicated. The differences between us can cause friction and misunderstanding.

The other thing is that friendships and relationships may not last forever, and nor do they need do. We have different reasons for being in each other’s lives, and sometimes what worked for a while, doesn’t work any longer. Instead of sounding like I’m preaching, I should admit that it’s been one of my great weaknesses in life to hang onto friendships for dear life, to fret and worry about their maintenance and being in contact, and to focus too much on them. I have left friendships behind. Others have left me behind. But I have learned, over time, to accept that. As one of my friends told me long ago, ‘Doors open, doors close’.

If it truly does help you to recognise a relationship as toxic, because it prompts you to action to do something about it, then by all means, do so. But otherwise, I invite you to do some reflection. While I understand that there are some people who act in really negative ways and treat others badly, my worry is that based on my many clients, quite a few people classify every negative relationship as ‘toxic’, rather than a more objective understanding that relationships and friendships don’t always last and that they may require work and effort. I also think that it may be really hard to let go of relationships and move on if you’ve classified them in your mind as being, literally, poisonous.

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 more than 2,100 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.