My Own Story

I had never heard of Reiki until a few years ago.  At the time, I was seeing a therapist to deal with the pain of a divorce.  I had been through a long and painful separation, and a tiring series of legal documents when the divorce was finally over.  Instead of feeling relieved and renewed, I fell ill and was exhausted and depressed all of the time.  The stress had all gone to my back and the occasional back pain that I had had since high school grew worse and worse.  I had no energy and felt lost.  I was not eating or sleeping well.  My therapist was wonderful and slowly helped me put my life back in shape.  But my back still hurt and I still felt like I had no energy.  She recommended that I see a colleague of hers for a Reiki treatment.  I said, “What the heck is Reiki?”  She said, “It’s a kind of Japanese healing.  You’ll love it.”  I had met this colleague of hers before and I was amazed at her intuitive abilities, but I did not know she was also a Reiki Master.  I was eager to try it so I made an appointment for a Reiki treatment the following week.

The woman had me take off my shoes and lie down on a massage table.  She meditated for a few minutes and then put her hands on my shoulders and I immediately felt an amazing rush of warmth and energy flow through my body. She placed her hands in various positions up and down my torso and legs and then had me turn onto my side.  She then worked on my back.  I never felt so relaxed in all my life.  I felt a little groggy when she finished and asked me if I would be willing to come back twice more within ten days since my energy was really blocked in my body.  She explained that a series of three treatments is often necessary to cleanse the body of energy blockages.  The experience was so wonderful I quickly agreed.

I returned twice more for additional sessions.  In the second treatment, she said that I was holding on to some emotional trauma that I had in my childhood, even specifying that it was in fifth or sixth grade.  Amazed, I admitted that my father had died when I was in the sixth grade.  She asked me to let go of the pain of that moment and immediately I felt a rush of energy flow down my back into my legs.  The energy continued to flow during that session and for long afterwards.  In fact, my legs tingled for six weeks!  It was not painful, but I could not sit with my legs crossed for many weeks until the pins and needles feeling finally went away.  (I have heard since then that this is a very unusual reaction, but I seem to be especially sensitive to energy flow.)  In the final session she worked more on releasing the stress from my back and clearing out my chakras.  Getting down from the table after that last session I was amazed to feel that I had no more tension in my back.  It felt like someone had taken out my bones and put in big rubber bands.  I don’t ever remember having so much freedom of movement in my back muscles.  Even better was the feeling that my energy was finally coming back.  I started sleeping better, eating better, and had so much more energy. I had forgotten how good it felt to feel good.  The Reiki treatment along with the therapy was just what I needed to get out my slump.  I couldn’t have done one without the other, but the Reiki treatments were truly miraculous in facilitating so much healing in such short a time.

Needless to say, I was fascinated by this new healing treatment and asked her if she could teach it to me.  She said, indeed, she could and would because I seemed to be so sensitive to energy.  I had to laugh because all my life I have been teased about being “too sensitive” and “too emotional.”  And here with Reiki I finally found a positive use for my sensitivity.  I took my Reiki Level I training a few months later, and discovered I really enjoyed giving Reiki treatments as well as receiving them.  I practiced for more than a year, giving treatments to my friends and family to gain more experience. I found that I could also help them become completely relaxed, get rid of stress, and even help ease pain of arthritis, sciatica, and other ailments. Eventually I went on to complete Level II Reiki, then Advanced Reiki Training, and finally Level III Reiki Master training.  I became a Reiki Master in June, 2003 and immediately started making plans to have my own practice so that I could share this wonderful healing gift with other people.

I believe my life has led me to becoming a Reiki practitioner.  I was raised as a Catholic and attended 12 years of Catholic school but always felt there was more to God than one religion.  I studied anthropology in college and then joined the Peace Corps.  I lived for two years in Benin, in West Africa teaching English and Math.  It was a great learning experience for spirituality since I lived with many people who were animists, and who wore charms around their necks to ward off evil spirits.  However, even in my tiny town, there were also Catholics, Protestants and Muslims.  There were 32 languages in cultures in a country the size of Tennessee.  Later I lived for a few months in Indonesia, a country with more than a 90% Muslim population.  But on the island of Java I also visited Borobodur, the biggest Hindu monument in the world.  Later, I also had the chance of visiting China, the home of Tai Chi and Qi Gong.  It has become clear that, as one bumper sticker claims, that God is too big for one religion.

As you can probably tell from this website, I have also taken an academic approach to Reiki. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology, and two Master’s Degrees, one in Adult Education, and the other in Linguistics.  I am currently a teacher of ESL (English as a Second Language) at our local community college, and I earned my Ph.D. in English in December, 2006.  I feel it is also my role to teach people about the benefits of Reiki, instead of merely being a practitioner.