Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Reiki Training (#4)

Joanne Klepal
May 24
2 min read

Style and Philosophy of Teaching

Reiki (Usui) has been taught for over a hundred years now, and although we know the basic history, the reality is we don’t know everything there is to know and information can be interpreted differently as it’s passed down over time.

Teachers may adapt training based on their knowledge in other healing modalities, values, belief systems, and even their own personal growth. If this is important to you, ask questions to get a sense of their teaching style.

For example, as a Reiki Teacher I believe it’s important to have a solid foundation and to incorporate as much hands-on practice during training as possible. I want students to walk away from training feeling confident they can immediately put what they learned into practice.

Working with energy is not black and white like accounting so feedback received during practice is important to build this confidence as every person’s experience of receiving and giving will be different from session to session.

Looking back, I am full of gratitude that my Reiki 1 & 2 training was over six days and incorporated a variety of hands-on practice including volunteering Reiki at a women’s psych ward, a men’s half-way house, dog shelter, cancer hostel and giving Reiki to elders in a local Thai village. In addition, I gained a wealth of experience volunteering to provide Reiki sessions and teaching others others at the healing center where I was taught.

I advise my students that I will provide them with the foundations of the Reiki practice which they will have this for life, and they can be as creative as they want in putting it into practice.

There are no limitations with Reiki energy, because it evolves over time just like we do. I encourage students instead asking, ‘can I do this or that with Reiki?’ or ‘will reiki do x, y and z…? ’, to change the questions and explore ‘how can I…?’ or ‘let’s see what happens if I experiment with Reiki in this instance, situation, etc.?’. I believe that Usui was aligned with this philosophy.