Reiki

You might be wondering why there is a massage table in my therapy room.

It's for Reiki.

What's that & what does that have to do with counseling. Reiki is classified under the National Insititutes of Health as a complementary health practice. It's a type of energy medicine. When I was just beginning my nursing practice on night shift, there was an elderly patient who had broken her hip and was awaiting surgery the next day. She couldn't have anything to eat or drink & she was in traction, so she couldn't even get up & sit in a chair, much less walk around. She was very sensitive to narcotics & had a paradoxical reaction to anti-anxiety medicine. So I couldn't give her much pain meds to help her relax & the meds that were supposed to calm her agitated her instead. Without food to comfort, change in position to alleviate discomfort, & limited use of heat & cold packs, what else did I have in my nursing bag of tricks? I started asking my senior nurses if I was missing something. I then learned that there was a nursing modality called Healing Touch. It required many stages for certification (time and money) & I wanted something I could use right away to comfort my patients. I found Reiki.

Rei means Universal and Ki means life force energy. This modality involves helping universal life energy flow. Dr. Usui was a physician in Japan in the 1920's who went on a spiritual retreat with the intention of listening deeply for ways to help his patients heal. He "received" ancient symbols which he could use in different capacities, all for channeling Universal life force energy. This lineage has been passed down generation to generation & was brought to the US where more formal training institutions organized the fundamentals of the practice & established certification protocols. I found out that over the course of a weekend, I could become level I and II certified & my hospital would even reimburse me for it since it was an evidence-based recognized modality. So the next time when I reached into my nursing bag of tricks, I pulled out Reiki.

After obtaining verbal consent from my patient, I simply centered myself & gently placed the palms of my hands over their closed eyes, then ears, maybe a hand over their upper chest & one on their forehead, perhaps both of my palms on the soles of their feet. I would just listen for guidance on where to place my hands, or even to hover my hands over their body. I wasn't giving them my energy; I was channeling Universal energy. They would oftentimes fall asleep or simply be more relaxed or feel a sense of greater peace.

There have been many studies done on the effects of Reiki: Decreased stress, fatigue, pain, anxiety & depression, blood pressure & heart rate; increased relaxation, sense of wellness or peace, intuition or spiritual awareness. Much like other hands-on modalities that work with the subtle energy systems (like craniosacral), Reiki can help release suppressed & stuck emotions. That's where Reiki can be a useful adjuvant to traditional counseling. 

Touch is generally frowned upon in counseling. Even though we know the healing power of touch (e.g., babies with failure to thrive), it is contraindicated due to boundary violations & because of transference & countertransference...fancy ways of saying emotions can be projected onto the therapist & or onto the client unconsciously where the therapeutic relationship can be damaged. If, however, we are careful with the set & setting in which this touch happens & are mindful to process any emotions that come up during & after, then this can be rich ground.

Because I am a somatic psychotherapist, I can't imagine sessions without the inclusion of the body. Not every session needs to have a bit of Reiki in it, & in fact, there never has to be Reiki. If there is, having you lie comfortably on the table, fully clothed with a blanket covering you, is much better than hanging out on the couch. It is also important for the Reiki practitioner to be comfortable. We can talk about what areas are ok for touch, and because consent is ongoing, you always have choice. Remember also that Reiki can be done without any touch at all.

Because trauma disconnects us from others, our experiences, & our bodies, the road safely back to our bodies can benefit from healing touch. Slowing down & feeling nonsexual touch from another is something our Western society is not very familiar with. Yet there is so much literature on the power of therapeutic touch & so offering it in this context mitigates confusion about boundaries & intentions.

Being a somatic therapist who is neuro-informed means that I will employ whatever strategies I can to help the nervous system shift into parasympathetic (rest/digest). This state is where healing occurs. We also know that when we are activated in flight/fight, we have less access to our higher thinking brain. So please know that whatever might come up during Reiki, it is all just "you talking to you". Getting calm & quiet enough to hear your deeper messages is part of what counseling is all about.