| Reiki and charging money - a highly charged subject | | | | Reiki healer certificate, know that they are in no |
| indeed!If you are not of the Reiki community, you could | | | | position to charge. Unfortunately, many of these |
| be forgiven for thinking that anyone working for free | | | | healers are simply unaware that Reiki is more than a |
| or almost free is totally mad.So what is it about Reiki | | | | quick initiation and nice warm feeling. No-one has told |
| that is contradictory to charging for one's time? | | | | them! They have been taught by a Reiki Master |
| Nothing. As a matter of fact, Mikao Usui, the founder | | | | teacher after a quick buck or (and this is more usually |
| of Reiki, advocated an exchange for the healing in | | | | the case) just as ignorant themselves.Add to the |
| order to empower the healee to take an active part in | | | | above the proliferation of Reiki healers in the UK today, |
| their healing process.How did the Reiki healing | | | | where competition drives prices down. If one has little |
| community get to this point?History has a part to play. | | | | or no business training, it is easy to make the |
| When Reiki first came to the West, people were | | | | assumption that if you charge less, you will get the |
| charged obscene amounts of money to become a | | | | work. The fact is that if you charge less, you starve. |
| Reiki healer. This was not a true reflection of the value | | | | Hence many Reiki practitioners give up the idea of |
| of the initiation and teaching to the healer, and healers | | | | doing Reiki full-time, as they need to make a living and |
| rebelled against this at the first opportunity.Then again, | | | | cannot survive on what they charge. This leads to |
| there is the way in which Reiki at a professional level | | | | many Reiki healers competing for even less money, as |
| spread through the world. From a purely financial point | | | | they can afford to offer it for less part-time.There is |
| of view, it was largely, and for many still is, a cottage | | | | also an element of self-esteem. Many Reiki healers |
| industry for housewives, the disabled, retirees, and | | | | have been drawn to Reiki in order to heal low |
| people already in work looking for a second income. It | | | | self-esteem. Somehow along the line, they take |
| is very easy for anyone in this situation to miscalculate | | | | professional training but do not complete their |
| their true overheads. It is even easier not to need to | | | | self-healing. I do not blame them, as often self-healing |
| make a living with Reiki if there is already a source of | | | | can be painful! But if one doesn't value oneself, one |
| income, be it a loving husband, disability benefits, a | | | | simply does not charge for services given or charges |
| pension, or a secure job.There is also the driver which | | | | very little.Then there is the weirdness of the Reiki |
| leads us to Reiki in the first Place. Most of us come to | | | | session as a process. To many, this feels like just |
| Reiki because of a need for physical or emotional | | | | laying the hands on the healee and "doing nothing". |
| healing. This may be our own need or that of a loved | | | | With time and experience, a Reiki healer becomes an |
| one whom we know is suffering. Immediately after the | | | | active participant in the healing process, and even if |
| initiation, a Reiki healer starts self-healing each day, and | | | | this never happens, the results that clients report back |
| soon progresses onto healing loved ones in need. The | | | | are too astounding to be ignored! Somewhere along |
| emphasis is on self-development and helping loved | | | | the line with many healers though, they begin to doubt |
| ones. The Reiki healer then spends months or years in | | | | that the are "doing anything" and of course if one is |
| this relationship with Reiki, and it is very hard to | | | | "doing nothing" then one has to charge nothing!And |
| suddenly switch to having a financial relationship with | | | | then there are those erstwhile healers that give Reiki |
| Reiki too.Then again for many, Reiki is a spiritual | | | | sessions as part of their job, albeit unofficially. Since it is |
| discipline, and for many, spirituality is misunderstood as | | | | unofficial, they do not view the Reiki as paid |
| being divorced from monetary gain. I feel that Reiki is | | | | employment, even though they are being paid and are |
| about unconditional love, and that spirituality is about | | | | working as Reiki healers.My hope is that the |
| abundance for the highest good. Let me illustrate. | | | | forthcoming Reiki Regulation in the UK will lead to the |
| Sandra goes to work on a chicken battery farm, | | | | support of the Reiki healers that do want to work |
| where chickens are bred to have chests that are so | | | | professionally. Reiki healers working unoficially will be |
| heavy, these birds have been proven scientifically to | | | | recognised and more Reiki healers will be able to work |
| be in constant pain. Sandra has also learned Reiki to | | | | full-time. The result? Freedom for chickens would be |
| professional level but since Reiki is spiritual, she will not | | | | nice!Complementary and alternative health education |
| charge for her Reiki sessions. If she does charge, it is | | | | and empowerment is my passion. My name is |
| not a sufficient amount to enable her to give up her | | | | Suzanne Zacharia and I am committed to empowering |
| job at the chicken battery farm. But Mikao Usui told us | | | | people to take conrol of their health and wellness.A |
| to be gracious to every living thing, and Sandra tortures | | | | virus caught along with 5 other students at university |
| chickens for a living! Society's standards about | | | | at the end of 1986, plus medical negligence, meant that |
| spirituality, handed down over the ages for the rich to | | | | I got smokers lung at a relatively young age. In |
| control the poor, are to blame.Reiki is gaining popularity | | | | desperation for help with my symptoms and quality of |
| in the UK as a healing modality. Many clients come to | | | | life, I turned to complementary therapy, and this is the |
| me for healing anxiety, depression, joint pain, arthritis, | | | | 11th year I have outlived one doctor's prognosis.I am |
| and many other conditions with Reiki. At the same | | | | now a complementary therapist, author and trainer |
| time, many healers have been received their Reiki | | | | specialising in "energy" therapy. My company is called |
| professional-level training in a very short workshop or | | | | New Age London, with some carefully-chosen expert |
| even in half an hour over the internet! They do not | | | | teachers and trainers of alternative and |
| have the necessary training for client care, clinical | | | | complementary health working with me. People have |
| practice, the law, tax, conditions requiring urgent | | | | come from Iceland, Norway, the States, France, Italy, |
| medical attention, and health and safety. Quite rightly, | | | | and Pakistan to train with us or to learn natural, |
| these Reiki healers, although on paper possessing the | | | | effective techniques for their and their families' health. |