Those seeking a way to reduce stress, encourage relaxation, and achieve balance from within that doesn’t require introducing instruments into the body can look to Reiki healing. The ancient Japanese technique utilizes the body’s energy or life force to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual healing, and enhances the body’s natural healing abilities.
Reiki is offered through light, noninvasive touch whereby the Reiki practitioner places their hands on or above a series of locations or chakras on the body. According to these Long Island Reiki practitioners, the benefits of Reiki are invaluable.
“Reiki is both powerful and gentle,” says Reiki practitioner Marisa Niederauer, of Wildflower Wellness. “Sessions have been described as a wonderful, glowing radiance, with many benefits.”
Because of its calming effect, Niederauer says, Reiki “works in harmony with all other kinds of treatments including medical and psychological care.” She notes benefits such as improved sleep, reduced nausea and pain, reduced anxiety during pregnancy, and enhanced healing of emotional trauma. To achieve a state of well-being, energy needs to flow freely, she explains.
There is no limit to the positive impact Reiki can have on an individual, says Reiki practitioner and nurse practitioner Jennifer Egbert, of Encompass Health and Wellness at Ascension Wellness. “The energy of the client and the surrounding energies of our universe connect to bring healing to the areas of need. Each client’s experience is their own,” she says. According to Egbert, Reiki can be performed both in person and also from a distance. Plants and animals can also benefit from Reiki, she says.
While she says proper Reiki should be able to be accomplished solely through the hands, Danielle Martin, Reiki master, teacher/trainer, and co-owner of Amityville Apothecary, says she appreciates utilizing complementary energy forms, such as crystals and sound bowls. “For example, your heart chakra—if you have weak health, you’ll use green crystals to nurture and foster good health, and pink crystals to correspond with the emotionality of the heart chakra.” Sound bowls, she adds, “use sound to clear any blockages that we might be holding.”
“What’s unique and beautiful about Reiki is that anyone can do it. Anyone can benefit from receiving it and anyone can easily train to offer Reiki,“ says Christine Lentz, Long Island Healing Arts & Learning Center in Huntington.
Training to become a Reiki practitioner is empowering both for the healer and their client. “When you train to become a Reiki practitioner, you learn to become a conduit for that energy and deliver to those who are in need,” says Lentz, who adds that Reiki has become a “way of life” for her.
With proper training, the healing benefits of Reiki can be both practiced and felt by anyone, anytime and anywhere, experts say.
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