Interview about my journey with Reiki, by Gemma from Therapeutic Reiki

“When Romana discovered reiki in Mexico three years ago, her life path was changed forever.

 G (Gemma): When did you first come across Reiki? What did it feel like?

R (Romana): I started to became interested in learning reiki because I’m quite sensitive to my surroundings. There’s a book, The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron, which explains this. I have a sensitive nervous system and am stimulated more by things, such as loud noises, caffeine, emotions and films. I am also more effected by subtle changes in my environment and am able to sense the atmosphere in a room. I would say many reiki people have that, as they have a better understanding of energy. 

When I was traveling in Mexico three years ago my friend was teaching yoga and after yoga I would feel lots of energy in my hands. I knew reiki was about energy healing with the hands so I was curious. Mikau Usui, who brought a system of reiki to the west from Japan, said he found reiki by walking up a mountain where he had an enlightenment experience sitting on a rock and finding energy in his hands. My story is similar in different way: the legend of Romana [laughs].

My legend is that I was in Mexico, feeling lots in my hands, and one day I was walking in the back streets of surf town Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, telling my friend I wanted to learn about reiki. He wasn’t super enthusiastic, but then we turned a corner and outside a house there was a sign in the road, ‘Reiki y aromatherapia’, a literal sign that said reiki. I felt so strongly that was a sign for me to learn, so I took a picture of it that I still have today (below).

One week later I was on a three-day workshop, making a shamanic drum with a Mayan shaman in the forest and this was the exact date of my Saturn return to the day. During the workshop, I made friends with a Mexican woman who invited me to her house and when I saw her reiki master certificates I knew I had found my reiki master. I did all my levels with her online, so I know the method of distance reiki is just as powerful.

G: How did you start working?

R: In the beginning I just learnt it to learn what it is. Level one is mainly about self-treatments and I didn’t have the confidence to practice on others yet, but after level two I had a tarot reading with a friend and the cards were really encouraging me to share my reiki more than I was.

That gave me a push to give treatments to people, I built a website and slowly people started to find me. I did the reiki master training for my own self development and five months after that, one of my clients asked if I would run a course. At the end of that weekend someone emailed me and said they missed the course and when was the next one? I didn’t know if it would be a regular thing at the beginning but every month since then I have taught level one. I was working as an English teacher in Berlin but in August last year I realised that I wanted to do reiki full time. It’s been over a year doing it full time. It’s taken me a while to get my head around it, as it’s been a dream come true.

G: How does reiki work?

R: I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. The theory in the books and manuals is that the universal energy everything is made of can be channelled to others by reiki practitioners and to themselves. By flowing universal energy to a client’s energy field practitioners can help the system help release emotions, memories and blockages to be more balanced.

I don’t think humans have the capacity to measure these kinds of effects on a scientific level yet, but I know that it works. I know that it benefits people so much. With every client and myself I see how it enhances wellbeing. If I’m having a tough day mentally, physically I feel so much better afterward a treatment. I know people experience things during and after reiki and I know I do.

I have a client who is recovering having Covid-19 who has lung and heart damage and has tried a lot of alternative therapies. She says reiki has been the single most beneficial thing for her and she’s seeing me every week. I see five people a week and from the feedback I get from clients I know it works. The data is there, even if it’s not measurable in the scientific sense of the word. But there are mental, emotional, physical, spiritual accounts.

G: What does it feel like when you are channelling reiki?

R: The sensation in my palms and fingers starts off as a tingling which is how I experience the energy in my hands after yoga. That tingling feeling is the same as when reiki starts flowing for myself or other people. When I’m doing treatments for other people, the sensations start to change, which tells me when to stay longer in a certain area. These sensations can be a bit uncomfortable, sometimes prickling, feeling more heat or a strong magnetic pull. I could break away from this pull, but it would be an effort. I feel different things moving below my hands, like there’s a river running across my hand, flowing or wriggling. 

At the moment, I still don’t try and decipher too much what I’m feeling because I know that the reiki energy is always doing what it’s supposed to do, so I don’t label too much for my practice. I am the tool. There are books that are prescriptive but I’m laid back and tend to observe and try not to think too much into them.

For me, personally, I find giving treatments is not energising. I have a limit of how much time I want to be doing it. It’s a service and I’m receiving compensation for my time, but I am concentrating and using my extra sensory perception. In order to be fully focussed for the client I make sure I don’t overextend myself. It does feel tiring if I do too much but I have a good balance of work and self-care. 

G: What do you do for self-care?

R: For me, reiki is working in the upper chakras, such as the crown chakra for universal connection and third eye for intuition and blocking normal sensory awareness to focus this on my hands. I feel like it’s important to be balanced in the lower chakras as they work in pairs. To balance the crown chakra, it’s important to do root chakra work by eating solid root vegetables, doing sport or exercise to feel grounded in the physical body and having fun with friends and going dancing – which is great for the sacral chakra. I also do energy work for myself so I’m in a balance of giving while also focusing on my own energy.

G: How has reiki impacted your life?

R: I think having reiki as a practice is a nice way to feel connected with source and feeling supported by and in direct communication with something greater than yourself. It’s very reassuring to have experiences of source, to know that there’s more out there and energy is there to love and support us.

I have felt very guided since I’ve had this practice as a part of my life. It feels really lovely and reassuring that there are things there to help us if we learn to tune in. We’re not alone on this planet, we are connected to a greater source of energy. With reiki you can learn to physically feel those connections.

G: What other things can you do with reiki energy?

R: You can use reiki to help with manifestation by writing in a notebook and charging it up with reiki every day. You can also use it with plants. I always teach this in both as plants give us oxygen to breathe so it’s nice we can give back. Using reiki with animals is a nice way to bond with a pet. My kitten doesn’t need reiki yet but she lays on me when I do self-treatments and purrs a lot.

Reiki for rooms is also really good, in the bath, with food and drink. You can use it for protection and I read you can even use it on faulty electrical items. I tried it with my printer, which helped it.

G: What have been some of your most inspiring experiences working with clients? 

R: The other one that stands out is my client who I’ve been seeing since her IVF treatment. Reiki was a big part of her journey. I saw her on the IVF days and when she got pregnant I supported her monthly during her pregnancy. She wants to see me after giving birth and has learnt how to do reiki with me. It’s been an amazing journey.

G: Is reiki during pregnancy safe?

R: Reiki is fine during pregnancy as long as you use caution and trust where your hands want to go. At the beginning of pregnancy, I found my hands wanted to focus on the womb and there was a lot of focus down there but towards the end it was more focussed on mum. The baby had become its own individual so when mum wanted reiki it didn’t necessarily mean that baby wanted a reiki treatment. The accounts I’ve seen online of people receiving reiki in pregnancy are a lot of nice stories.

G: What other spiritual practices/interests do you have?

R: I am an astrologer and have been studying it for five years even though I don’t offer it as a service. This helps me in my daily life to see the energies that are affecting planet Earth and having this daily, weekly, monthly background knowledge is useful to have.

Astrology informs our birth chart which is how the positions of the planets in the sky at our birth are frozen in time within us. The planets are in certain communication with each other and when the energy hits you it stays with you and you can evolve out of certain things. It creates a computer program of our personality which people can read and know a lot about you from this planetary configuration.

As the planets move around the Earth they will hit on different parts of your birth chart, so you can get an idea of the theme of energy for that time of year and which area of your life might experience luck or challenge. If you know your birth chart you can expect these changes and realise they won’t be for long. You can categorise the year into when to do certain things and it helps you make allowances. I don’t think the future is set; there’s a greater dance going on, but the Earth is affected by the planets, which we can’t avoid. If you think how much the Earth is affected by the sun and moon, you can see how it is impacted by other planets.

I meditate every day and have a regular yoga practice. I love reading books about trauma and plant medicine and how emotions are stored in the body, past lives and ancestry. I also just started learning martial art self-defence and feel more empowered as a female. Muay Thai is my project for autumn and winter, as it’s nice to know you can defend yourself and be more connected with the physical body and strength.

Thanks Romana!”

My Reiki ‘sign’ from the universe!