What might I feel from a reiki treatment?

I think that one of my most common questions that a reiki client will have for me is: ‘What will I feel?’ Lately, this question comes out in a funny way, when clients ask, ‘Is it normal to feel this way?’ You know, I’ve always hated that idea of ‘normal’ being something that we should aim for. But that’s besides the point. I think in general and specifically related to reiki, we are all very individual. There is no normal. So, while I can tell you that some clients feel the energy in different ways in their body, some clients do not feel it. Some people feel heat and a few people cool, and others experience the energy as like electricity or magnets, sparkling or like it is a pulling sensation.

Some clients go into a place very similar to meditation, and others cannot stop their minds from racing. Many have both happening during a treatment: relaxation AND busy thoughts. A few people see colours. Some people have very interesting images and visuals of things they’ve never seen before, while others have memories which may be significant and may not be! Some clients describe the thoughts and memories as ‘really random’. Occasionally, clients have images of relatives, loved ones and friends, sometimes those who have passed. And others don’t feel anything or think anything special at all, though hopefully they feel relaxed. Rarely, clients feel unpleasant sensations: pain, perhaps in a place where they have had an injury, anxiety (sometimes because it is a new experience) and one client even reported a prolonged feeling of fear and darkness.

There is also a difference between clients who have reiki regularly with some who say that treatments are nearly always the same (with some variation) and others who report that the treatment are different every time!

A similar variation would apply to how clients feel afterwards and for how long. Very occasionally, clients say they feel the effects for a long time! More often, it’s just the day or two afterwards, or maybe a day or two after that. And others say they don’t feel much different right afterwards. I also try to warn clients that they might feel worse before they feel better, as some clients feel really tired, or even like they are catching a flu. A recent client told me they broke out in some acne on their face, which doesn’t happen to them.

I wanted to share a few recent reports with you. One client who was suffering from depression reported after the treatment:

‘I took some time over the past week to pay attention to the way I was feeling and I have to say I am amazed … Right off the bat right after I left the session I felt as if my senses were renewed, my senses felt sharper and much clearer. Admittedly I was a bit skeptical that the deep pain I’d been experiencing in my chest would go away with one session so I gave it some time. I’m happy to say that that pain has been lifted significantly. I still can feel upset, but that aching physical sensation is nearly gone – which is just incredible because previously it held me down so much ..
I’m thinking to come in again in a few weeks – I’m not sure how long this lifted effect will last, but for now it feels great.’

On the other hand, a client who came because they feel they cannot be focused and are always daydreaming and distracted reported:

‘No, I did notice any difference in me. My mind is always distracted.’

If there are messages from this, for me, it is that it’s worthwhile to try out reiki and see what it does for you. Then, it’s useful to not have any expectations but to simply be open to what happens (or what does not happen). If you are hoping to feel like someone else has felt, or are expecting to feel a certain way, you may be disappointed and you may not notice what is actually happening, with your expectations in the way. And finally: nothing is normal! You will feel how you feel and that is all good. Comparing ourselves to other people is usually not very useful.

Good wishes to all!

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 3,000 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.

Reiki, sleep and remote healing

One of my regular clients, let’s call her Anita to keep her confidentiality, switched to remote reiki treatments during the lockdown. In case you haven’t heard of it, reiki practitioners can give treatments at a distance, to a client in another room, neighbourhood or even country. It is often called ‘distance’ healing, though, as my teacher, Frans Stiene, points out, the whole idea is to ‘be one’, and to share the energetic space, the opposite of distance. I usually use the expression ‘remote reiki’ instead.

If I wasn’t a reiki practitioner myself, I think I might find the concept hard to believe. But at the same time, when we talk to each other by phone, or see each other on the computer using Zoom or Skype, we may not physically be in the same space, but we feel each other. Most of us have had the experience too, of feeling someone we are close to, a family member or partner or friend, thinking about us, even when they are far away. The biggest reason that I believe in remote reiki though is because of my personal experience having them, and the experience of my clients.

In the treatments that I’ve given, I think 100% of my clients have reported ‘feeling’ the treatment and having good results. Because it is a bit more ‘out there’ than a treatment in person, I do check, before someone books for a remote treatment, that they’ve had reiki before and are open to it. I think if you are inexperienced with reiki and don’t know what to expect, or if you’re cynical in any way about it, it would be possible to not feel or block out the effects, perhaps like when you’re supposed to be on a Zoom work call, and instead you’ve turned off the screen and are checking your Facebook!

Anyways, for Anita, what I was excited to learn was that while she didn’t find the remote treatments as strong as in-person ones, she still felt effects. And the proof was in her health monitor, which she later showed me: an inobtrusive rather pretty ring, called an Oura ring, which monitors your heart rate, sleep and relaxation. Her ring told her that when she was having reiki, it was like having a nap: her heart rate slowed down, and her ring thought she was asleep.

More recently, Anita shared with me a screenshot of her Oura ring results, during an in-person treatment, and she gave permission to me to share it with you. I was very excited to see it, as it showed that not only during the treatment did the ring think she was asleep, but that the majority of the sleep (60%) was deep sleep, rather than light sleep. And that out of the 50 minute treatment, she was able to go into that sleep-like state for 43 minutes of it, which seems pretty good to me.

To me, this is a very good explanation of one of the ways that reiki works. It allows your brain to tune into the brain waves of deep relaxation and sleep, rather than the day-to-day brain functioning which helps us get to appointments and not bump into things when we’re walking!

And that place of relaxation is healing. I’ve read that sleep it is when repair and healing takes place. Some people believe dreams are the brain’s way of healing and reordering. When we don’t get enough sleep, we feel bad, and if we don’t get enough sleep over long periods, it can have really detrimental effects on our health.

Many clients say after a treatment, ‘I think I fell asleep’, and I think this is a good thing. Some might ask, why not just get some sleep instead of doing reiki? But I think a reiki treatment is intentional relaxation. It is rest with purpose and the best kind of sleep rather than sleep because you are too tired to stay awake, or because you have to.

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.

Are you cynical about reiki?

I usually don’t worry about people who don’t believe in reiki or think it’s all a hoax. Nearly all of my clients either believe in reiki, or are open to how it might work. So, it doesn’t seem a good use of energy to worry about those who are cynical.

But at the same time, I think it is useful for me to be able to explain to clients the ways that reiki might work, even though I’m not 100% sure. And what I especially like about this article, ‘Reiki Can’t Possibly Work. So Why Does it?’ from The Atlantic is how balanced, thorough and personal it is.

The author, Jordan Kisner, who writes beautifully, points out:

For decades, experts weren’t precisely sure how acetaminophen (Tylenol) eases pain, but Americans still took billions of doses every year. Many medical treatments are adopted for their efficacy long before their mechanisms are known or understood. Why should this be different?

But while she argues that we don’t need to know precisely how reiki works, there are a lot of reasons why and how it might work. Her approach is very close to mine: the truth is that I’m not exactly sure how reiki works, and I recognise to outsiders there are aspects of reiki that could seem quite unbelievable. But I feel it works and my clients report that it works in different ways. If what I am offering is simply my time, attention and “an act of caring” and that works for my clients, I’m happy to go with that.

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 over 1,800 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it brings them. Folks visit 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.

Do your research

I don’t think that someone has to know anything about reiki in order to receive its benefits.

But I do think a person has to be open to the experience and willing to receive healing.

What I think could block being open to a treatment is having particular expectations about what the treatment will be like.

A while ago, two days in a row, I received two different enquiries about reiki treatments. One asked whether I do the seven-level system of reiki. I’ve heard of this but not paid much attention to it. My understanding is that someone created their own version of the traditional three levels of reiki. Why would they do this? A cynic might say that the more levels there are, the more courses you can offer your students, and receive more in tuition fees. And you can claim being better than others, because isn’t seven better than three? But I digress. My webpage and Facebook page are easily available, so if someone wants to know about the kind of reiki that I do (traditional Japanese reiki), I think the information can be found on my page. If you are looking for a particular kind of reiki, do some research and find the right practitioner for you.

Another enquiry, from someone who booked a session and then didn’t show up, was from someone who was very excited about reiki because a friend had told him to try it out, but he didn’t know anything about it. ‘Does it have hot rocks?’ he asked. In this case, I did ask him to do some research and look at my website, because I think if you really know nothing about what a reiki treatment entails, and then show up and wonder if you’ll have hot rocks (no) or have to take off your clothes (no) or expect particular results, I think that confusion or any expectations could interfere with relaxing into a treatment and being open to receive what it brings.

So, I hope that clients will do a little more than just google “reiki in Sydney” and contact me right away.

Those who want only a female practitioner, or who want two treatments at the same time, or who are hoping that I combine reiki with clairvoyance or chakra cleansing, will save themselves some time. But I do have a friend who does shamanic healing, if that’s what you’re after! I can send you to her. At the same time, with a little understanding of what reiki is and a treatment involves, you can arrive at a treatment feeling open and relaxed.

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 over 1,700 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. 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 recent client told me she found me by googling ‘Best Reiki Sydney’. Come see for yourself. 

Reviews from Bookwell

Uluru

Here are the latest reviews from my Bookwell booking site. Bookwell has been so important for my business. I know they’ve got competitors now, but they always provided me with such a high level of service, even though reiki is not their usual service (they specialise in hair and beauty salons). I know my clients really value being able to check my schedule and then book an appointment at any time of day or night. And they’re an Australian company.

Ximena
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited November 2020

Advait
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited October 2020

Bhaama
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited November 2020

I have been contemplating trying out Reiki treatment for my anxiety and panic attacks. Had my first session with Andy and it was definitely an interesting experience. Felt good positive vibes and energy from the moment I walked in to see Andy. During the session I experienced some tingling and vibrations throughout my body. I felt at ease during the treatment and felt positive energies transferring to me. After the session I felt light headed but also quite heavy. Andy mentioned that the heavy feeling could be interpreted as a sense of being grounded and more centered. Definitely felt relaxed after the session. Worthwhile experience. Almost felt like a huge weight was lifted off me after the session. Would love to have another session with Andy soon.

Priyanka
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited October 2020

Loved the treatment, felt very relaxed afterwards.

Zoe
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited October 2020

Andy was brilliant ! From the moment you book an appointment he is attentive and caring in his approach. My session was exactly what I was hoping for. Leaving his wonderful space I felt centred – realigned with my energy and grounded again after a particularly difficult couple of months. Thanks Andy, much appreciated.

Larn
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited October 2020

I felt really relaxed and it allowed me some space to meditate and I received interesting insights.

Lauren
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited September 2020

Very pleasant and relaxing experience. Andy was very warm and friendly, made me feel very comfortable for my first treatment in Reiki

Lisa-Rae
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited September 2020

Andy is super attentive and exudes calm. I had no expectations and left feeling peaceful and at ease. I will be returning again ASAP. Thank you Andy

Diana
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (5 stars)
Visited August 2020

I saw Andy for the first time in August and it was great. I felt completely replenished and that the intention that I had set coming into the session had been achieved. Thank you Andy!

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 over 1,700 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.

Music for reiki healing

I first put up this blog post in Oct 2017, and then did a little update in May 2019. So, it’s time to repost it!

In the meantime, I’ve created another playlist, which I’m calling ‘Reiki Best’ and it’s on heavy rotation! So, if you’ve had a treatment with me in the last year, then you’re likely to have been hearing music from this list. I think once you get into Spotify than you can bookmark it! In the meantime, below is the previous post with the other three playlists!

Here’s a different than usual blog post! I’m also a musician as well as a reiki practitioner and I’ve played piano and written songs for many years. So I consider the music that I play during my treatments very important. I want it to be beautiful and restful, calming and relaxing, and maybe even a way to transport the mind to another beautiful place (and block out the ever-present street noise of Surry Hills and other random sounds).

Occasionally I’ll find a song that I like that has an unfortunate huge dramatic swell in the middle of it. I really like the music of Sigur Rós and Jónsi but found a few of the tracks have samples that could be a bit disturbing during a treatment (like the sound of a ship cracking, or children’s voices). I also don’t generally like the music that some people associate with massage treatments and new age therapies: too many sounds of bells and suspended, floating notes that don’t seem to resolve, or else the resolution is too simple and the music sounds too major key, too much like children’s songs.

In any case, if you happen to be on Spotify, you can find the music that I play during treatments. I’ve got three playlists at the moment. Find them here:

 

You can see that their names are ‘Reiki Spotify’, ‘Reiki 88 keys’ and ‘Reiki Third’.

It would be my pleasure if this beautiful music helps you meditate or feel calm or remind you of your reiki treatment.

Finally, a few of my favourite artists to give reiki treatments to: Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Nils Frahm and George Winston. Probably my favourite songs to give reiki treatments to: Bobby McFerrin’s Common Threads; Max Richter’s On The Nature of Daylight; Olafur Arnald’s Undan Hulu (though it’s hard to pick just one from Olafur); William Mathieu’s To the Well (with Bobby McFerrin as guest vocalist) and I love Jan A.P. Kaczmarek’s piano songs from the Finding Neverland soundtrack.

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.
Clients come from all over Sydney to see me, and I’ve also had clients who are visiting Sydney from Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast come and see me while they’re here for business, conferences or meeting families. 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.

Part-time reiki

Reiki is not a full-time job for me. My other work is as an editor, mainly of reports, for United Nations agencies and government bodies like the City of Sydney.

It’s a great combination for me. As I work from home, when I have a reiki treatment, I swap rooms from my home office to the reiki room. It gives me a break from my editing work to do something completely different. I get to be in a quiet, meditative state during my work day. Very occasionally, I’ll have to limit the reiki treatments so I can meet deadlines for my other work.

I’m not sure if there are many or any folks in Sydney who manage to survive as a full-time reiki practitioner. I think some people combine giving treatments with teaching and then also offer other services: massage, crystal healing, clairvoyance, counselling or more. But even though more and more people are learning about reiki, I think it’s not mainstream enough in Australia in the big cities to support reiki practitioners full-time. Maybe in places like Byron Bay or Bali, it’s more popular.

This suits me fine. If I had to rely on reiki for a living, it would really change the nature of my whole practice. I’d have to be more aggressive about trying to find clients. I’d have to try to convince clients to come back more regularly rather than whenever they feel called to have a treatment. I’d have to charge more. And I’m sure it would cause some level of stress and anxiety, which runs counter to the whole idea of a reiki.

So, I feel lucky that I can offer treatments from my home, where I don’t have the extra costs of renting a space, and that I can be happy with the number of clients I get and not worry about whether I have enough clients to survive. At the same time, I’ve found it enjoyable to learn aspects of running reiki as a business: how to provide a good service, how to seek feedback and reviews, how to promote my services. The treatments are all the better and more professional because of it, instead of thinking of reiki just as a hobby or as a favour that I’m doing for someone.

I’m grateful to have reiki as a part-time job; in fact, I’m quite proud of it too!

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 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.

Learning reiki

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.

What do I feel? (What do you feel?)

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.

 

New postcard!

I never knew much about marketing, and it’s been fun, over the last eight years, to learn a bit, in a relaxed way, where I’m not desperately trying to get people to come for reiki treatments. Many years ago, I made my first postcard to give away. I actually did a letter-box drop in the neighbourhood. And I think I received zero clients from it. I thought potential clients would find it good to know that I’m close by, but I’m not sure the interest in reiki is enough, and I think people really hate receiving flyers in the mail these days! It was also not easy to find places to leave the postcards, and I eventually just handed them out to my clients, and sometimes, clients would take extra ones for their friends.

I think this has been most effective, as it reminds my clients, who have already hopefully had a good experience, that I’m around, and hopefully they kept the postcard up somewhere where they can see it.

I finally ran out of my old postcard, and the design was so old that I discovered it wouldn’t be easy to recreate. As you can see below, it used the old concept of a ‘Word Cloud’, which was fun at the time but I think had its moment.

So what would I do? I wanted to use one of my own photos and found one from our trip, a number of years ago, to Torres del Paine, a national park in Patagonia in Chile, one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been to. The photo brings me a feeling of peace and beauty and gratitude, so I hope it works for others too. Then, rather than a Word Cloud, I thought I could just make a little list.

Technology is really amazing these days, and to be able to design the postcard using www.canva.com, for free, and have it look so professional and pretty: I’m very happy with it. There’s just no way I could design that a few years ago with the technology available at the time. I always found Photoshop extremely difficult to use!

In any case, hope you like my new postcard, and I hope I can give you some at your next reiki treatment!

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 over 1,350 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.