Teaching Reiki in a Twelve-Week Format

Teaching Reiki in a Twelve-Week Format

I receive many calls asking me about my Reiki course. Because most Reiki workshops are conducted over a weekend, the question I get asked most often is “why do I teach this in 12 weeks versus in a weekend”. I have been a Reiki Master for over sixteen years. The structure of this course came out of many years of observing the Reiki purification process with students as well as the limited knowledge many Reiki practitioners have regarding the Reiki Empowerment (aka attunement) process and energy healing.

Many practitioners and Reiki books claim that Reiki consist of a 21 day purification process, yet there is no actual evidence supporting this claim. Routinely, I have observed that many people experience physical problems typically in the first week of Reiki with a gradual diminishment of symptoms in the weeks to follow. Despite educating students on the physical manifestation of symptoms that can occur, it is not surprising for individuals to still discount these occurrences being related to Reiki. I believe this comes out of our cultural conditioning, which separates energetic movement and feeling from our physical health conditions.

In addition to the “21-day purification process”, I have also observed that many new Reiki students deal with emotional issues and swings that do not get addressed in Reiki material on the purification process. Even within Reiki publications, physical conditions improving are far more emphasized than the emotions, which are more likely to be at the root cause of our problems. The purification of the emotions reflects the gradual unfolding of our spiritual development which was originally taught by Mikao Usui.

Through observation, it is not surprising to see some form of emotional upheaval within the six week mark. With this lack of understanding, people tend to get stuck in anger, depressions and even grief because they can not identify these emotions as needing to be released in the Reiki purification process. Through the years, I have had many people come to me who have received empowerments from other Reiki practitioners who did not know that this can occur. Many come for healing and when they begin to review time frames, they can see a correlation as well as relief that there is not something more terribly wrong with them but rather the validation of the Reiki Empowerment process is continuing on course.

Creating a safe space for students during the initial twelve weeks allows students to share and process their personal shifts of energy transformations in a healthy manner. This further enables students to move quicker through the purification process. When individuals begin paying attention to the subtle changes occurring after the empowerment, they become more sensitive to addressing their own needs, which in turn better prepares them to address the needs of their future clients. Recognizing that nothing is permanent encourages individuals to bravely look at their issues at a deeper level, address them and move towards better health with keen awareness. This is why I refer to the Reiki empowerment as an empowerment versus simply an “attunement”. Students actually become empowered within their lives with a deeper understanding of their issues.

The other reason this course is taught in 12 weeks is because there is wealth of information that is taught that better prepares the student to being an actual healing practitioner. Through my years of extensive research, I feel that the statement that “Reiki is intuitively based” is a simple way of saying that the practitioner really doesn’t know what the heck is going on with the energy. Energy Healing is a true art, and as with any form of art, there are theories and foundations that enable an artist to become more proficient in their profession. Providing solid information further enables to student to move expeditiously though the purification process.

By the end of my energy healing course, I believe my students have much more knowledge than the majority of “Reiki Masters” out there based on the abuses of Reiki teachers moving people through all three levels of Reiki within a matter of months and sometimes even weekends. My students are able to identify energy qualities and emotional issues through energy healing. They also learn how to move the energy efficiently without even needing to be “psychic”. But those who do focus on working through their own issues find that the quality of their healing energy is more powerful. This is because with emphasis of healing themselves, they become clearer channels of the Reiki energy, which further enables them to receive clearer intuitive information in their healing work. In addition, my students are taught effective communication skills, which I draw from my social work training. This is a crucial component to any form of healing work; but, unfortunately, tends to get neglected in energy healing training.

The 12 week course is simply the beginning of an ever unfolding spiritual process. Therefore, I feel very strongly that my role as of Reiki Master/teacher requires the spiritual commitment of making myself available to my students (and clients) when issues and questions arise. To me, this is a fundamental part of the role of teacher- to remain committed to my students furthering their knowledge and understanding even after the course is over.