This post relates to my professional work as a Reiki Practitioner. If Reiki isn’t your thing, read a different post! 

So many times I am asked the question,

“doesn’t Reiki just go where it’s needed?”

by people who have heard just that – the energy goes where it’s needed…

That’s true, but only part of the truth. The human body is very complex – it consists not only of its physical aspect, but its energetic, spiritual, emotional and mental components as well. All of these are inter-connected.

Even if we just look at the physical as an example, you will see why I always offer a full treatment to people, following a set arrangement of hand positions that end up working on the abdomen, head, and back as the minimum. Here’s why…

In your abdominal area you have quite a few organs – your liver, spleen, stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, small and large intestines, bladder, and reproductive organs. These body parts work together to make “systems” – your digestive system is effectively a co-operative of organs. And that system starts in your head! (Think about where your mouth is – that’s where the food goes in…)

Your chewed and swallowed food heads to your stomach where acid helps break it down further before it passes into the small intestine. When it does, your gall bladder (which has been storing bile produced by the liver), squirts bile into the small intestine to help you digest fats, stimulate the small intestine to commence absorbing and assimilating nutrients, and to squeeze things further through. The bile also stimulates the pancreas to release digestive enzymes to help you with the absorption and assimilation process… and I could go on and on! All this activity occurs in the area of your body from just below your pectorals through to… well, you know where the waste comes out.

If I work through my hand positions over that area of the body, I not only support the functioning of the digestive system, but also the reproductive system, and part of the urinary system (the bladder). When I do the back, I complete the urinary system as energy is received by the kidneys. There are quite a few organs that form part of or have involvement with endocrine function (the liver and pancreas, for example), and when I do the head, I support other aspects of the endocrine system (pituitary, pineal, and hypothalamus), and then when I do the back, the adrenals.

As you can see from the very simple explanation above, things in the abdomen have connections with things in the head and also things in the back – and that’s before you even start on circulatory, respiratory, nervous and lymphatic systems! Or the energy body! Or the inner! (I think you get my meaning by now).

As for intuition, yes, I frequently get a “message” that a particular area may need extra attention. In that case, I ask myself the question, “will I get to that spot during my normal full treatment?” If the answer is “yes”, then I proceed with a normal treatment. If the answer is “no”, I still do a normal treatment but add the area in need at the end.

When I get to the needy area, I listen to my hands (in other words, pay close attention to the energy flow). Basically, if the energy’s flowing, that area is still in need! Ideally, I work through a treatment without paying attention to the time – I simply keep my hands in position for as long as the energy is flowing, only moving my hands to new positions when the energy slows or stops.

And to really answer the question “doesn’t the Reiki just go where it’s needed?” well, if there is dire need, such as a life threatening blood loss, of course the body/inner self doesn’t care where you put your hands – it will simply shunt the energy directly to the crisis site! But the rest of the time, I want my client to receive Reiki in a way that acknowledges the inter-connectedness of every part of his or her being – and doing full treatments definitely supports this!

Given adequate time being available, a full body foundation treatment is always my first choice.