Differences between Reiki & Energy Healing (& what I do)

I am trained in multiple Energy Healing modalities.

I started exploring energy work after experiencing a series of extraordinary things. Things that I had no reference point for.

These included the direct perception of the energy body — something I was not primed for by any previous exposure to the notion. I had no idea about chakras or auras or anything of that ilk.

I retrospectively found references to such concepts - but this took a long time - I am not from a spiritual background, and it was early days for the internet and information was harder to source.

Energy medicine is my passion. My practice is informed by ancient spiritual practices (primarily Tantrik yoga and Shamanism) and modern science - my background is in academia.

It took a long time and a lot of questioning to grow into my healership, or to be even comfortable with the term ‘healer’. I set up my practice, Luminous Egg, after over a decade of hardcore training. This process of self-development is ongoing.

I often find, if people have heard anything about energy healing, it is typically Reiki they have heard of. Clients often ask what the difference is between Reiki and my personal way of working. I am trained to master level in Usui Reiki (because I was curious about this very question), but also in many other forms of healing. Here is one answer, based on my own experience.

All forms of healing work on the Human Energy Field and use channelled energy to influence the field of the client. There are many, many forms of Energy Healing. All healing comes from the same universal consciousness that naturally moves towards health and well-being.

Trans-personal Universal Consciousness.

We all have that universal intelligence within us. We are all composed of and surrounded by dynamic fields of energy. All forms of healing are tapping into this energy consciousness in different ways.

So, in terms of differences:

• Cultural origins - different forms come from different traditions around the Globe. Healing is an ancient art. It gets a bit complicated in the modern age as different forms borrow from each other. With training and development, individual healers expand into their own practice.

• Training - this varies immensely. Important to work with a healer who has done the work on their own issues and is continuing to do so. In my opinion, the training and depth of self-work of the practitioner is absolutely crucial in choosing any kind of therapist. It is possible to be ‘accredited’ having done little or no self-development. In the UK, there is very little in the way of regulation.

• Model of the Human Energy Field - there are many different models and these vary hugely, with different energy centres, energetic flows and dimensions of consciousness. This is a topic I’m personally fascinated with.

• Methods of connecting to the energy - The preparation methods prior to a session differ. Reiki uses symbols for attunement to the energies, other systems use different physical exercises, or meditative practices, or ceremonial rituals to prepare the field of the Healer and the energetic matrix they are working within.

• Techniques / Methods of Treatment - Again huge variation. Seated or lying down on a treatment couch. Working on or off the body. The use of physical touch, or not. Distance healing. In a group or with an individual. Hand positions and techniques.
  I like the Brennan approach which offers grounding in psychoanalytical theory - a technical approach combined with intuitive flow. Techniques can include cordwork, chakra-balancing and restructuring, organ and spine cleansing as well as many others. Some practitioners will offer advice on diet and lifestyle factors. Use of sound/crystals/plants etc.

Humans (and everything else) are comprised frequencies and vibrations. Networks of complex energy fields that interface with physical/cellular systems. Your health, emotional, mental and physical, depends on the flow and balance of the energy fields in and around your body. Healing is the process of optimising these flows for optimum physical, mental and emotional health.

As a healer, I am concerned with the underlying balance of energy, intention and consciousness that support health, or become unbalanced and allow for disease.

One way of looking at is as a vast spectrum of energetic frequencies available for use in healing. Different healing methods are attuning to certain bandwidths within that spectrum.

I often use the analogy of music. A complex and beautiful dance of energies.

Personal development as a healer is concerned with ability to operate in different bandwiths, and different dimensions of being whilst being grounded in the physical. So development (&maintenance) of their own energy body, is key to this.

Embodied practice.

There is a problem with practitioners who are not grounded in either the proper technique nor in an effective disciplined and dedicated practice. This can result in bypassing a deeper perspective of where all these energies operate - the Physical Body of flesh and bone and the innate relationship perspective that much of this twisted energy emerged.

Touch.

Shadow work

Grounding

Fantasy & Illusion

Touch, in the deeper transformative movement therapies if you don't haves some serious training and experience. The skills to work in these energy modalities that you can't get your hands on, allow all clients and as you most vitally focused on, the practitioners, to Swim in the La La of floatyness that the masses of alternative therapies love to fantasise they are climbing to higher realms of consciousness through. This is only happening with the small percentage of any Therapists who's training and experience embodies them in the leading 15ish % of the curve.

In my opinion, my approach results in deeper work than Reiki, with more emphasis on transformative results for the client. However, this is also driven by the client’s wishes for well being and healing. The intention of the client is paramount to the whole process. Generally, I find that on some level people are drawn to what ever is right for them at the time.

In the case of chronic symptoms and disease, it's all about digestion on the physical, energetic and deep emotional levels - hence emphasis on cultivating Stomach qi in Chinese medicine and Agni in primal Ayurveda.

What makes these traditional modalities different from the amorphous world of "energy healing" is that there are extremely detailed and structured guidelines for how to facilitate the healing process under constantly changing unique individual and environmental conditions, i.e why its working or why its not. This takes close instruction over many years from a skilled teacher, deep reflection on the classics and cultivation of continual moment to moment awareness of these forces in one's own daily experience to master.

But in the end, we can only provide the individual with the right guidance toward the inner and outer conditions that set the stage for true healing to take place.