Buffalo Firefly Blog

If you've ever had a Reiki session, you may already know how magical it is. I'll go more into what to expect when receiving Reiki in another post. In the meantime, I'm releasing class schedules for January and wanted to start with more information on Reiki training, who it's for and what it looks like.

You can always learn more about what my current class offerings are on the Classes & Events page. If you're ever interested in an offering and you don't see one scheduled currently, I regularly customize my schedules around special requests, so please contact me if you're interested!

Why learn Reiki?

Are you interested in being able to relax and calm anxiety more easily on your own? Relieve pain? Move blocked energy through the body's energetic system for you or your family or friends? Meditate more easily and deeply? Or have you been considering adding Reiki to a service you already provide to clients? For example, my next class consists of a nurse hoping to add this to their work with patients. Many massage therapists choose to add this modality to their training so they can blend it with massage treatments. One of my students is an esthetician who uses Reiki during her facials now and a few other students are combining this energy work with their coaching clients. 

All that said, many of my past students are using this simply for their own self-care - they are clients of mine who are using it on their own in between sessions with me. One thing I didn't know before I learned Reiki was that it's not just for people looking to become a Reiki Practitioner. I wasn't planning on going that route. I still had a job in tech, but I was VERY energy curious from my years of meditation and I wanted to learn how to do it, at least for myself and friends. I also had no idea how it would facilitate easier and deeper meditation for my practice. Wow! That alone has been a huge gift. I have a number of practices that probably contribute to this, but I've personally seen an incredible shift in my anxiety and depression since I was attuned to Reiki and started practicing it. I would never tell someone to stop medication or therapy. I always say to consult with your physician on things like this (as I'm not a doctor, even though I've watched a LOT of Grey's Anatomy ;) — but over time, you may find you are able to gain a sense of control of your sleep and how you react to the world around you. 

What exactly is Reiki?

Well, "exactly" is a tough one with something that manifests to us as relatively invisible, but here's how I describe it, in brief. Reiki is a Japanese Healing Art originally brought into the community in Japan in 1924. It is thought to have existed long before that, but was reignited during a meditation of the founder, Dr. Mikao Usui. He then taught and evolved it toward what we know as present-day Reiki. The practice is known for its ability to allow a practitioner to be a vessel for energy which is to be drawn into the body of the recipient through the hands. Our bodies are intelligent and know what to do with this energy when we meet up with it. It's a little like when you were a kid and your mom put her hand on your tummy when it was aching. Didn't that usually make it feel better? We all have the ability to do this, but the attunement and training process allows us to amplify the strength of this ability.

Reiki has branched off and evolved over the years, but the same basic concept always exists. Through an "attunement", your body begins to adapt to a higher frequency of energy. The attunement acts as a calibration to this higher frequency of energy that is thought to exist all around us in the world. Over time simply having this attunement will help you to continually unblock stagnant energy. The energy used in this modality is known as Reiki which means “Life Force Energy” or “Qi” or “Prana” depending on what tradition speaks of this. For those of us mired in the physical world and evidence-based medicine, this can be hard to understand. But effectively, you become able to move this energy through you, delivering this energy flow from your hands. I think of it as very similar to what acupuncture does, but without all the poking. While Reiki is spiritual, it is not a religion. It's an energy practice that can be theorized with the concepts of quantum physics. It can work alongside your religious beliefs, just as meditation or acupuncture can, but if you have any questions about this please let me know. 

What is the training like?

There are many branches of Reiki, but many people begin with the original Usui training which is what I currently practice and teach.

Usui Reiki has 3 levels of study.

• Reiki 1 is for beginners and is focused on moving energy for yourself. 
• Reiki 2 is the practitioner level and teaches you how to work on others and how to work with the energy across time and space — over a distance, to the past or future. 
• Reiki 3 is the Master level. I currently teach the Master level as a separate class from Master Teacher where students learn how to do attunements and teach others.

You don't have to work as a Reiki practitioner to benefit from learning Reiki. I encourage my Reiki clients and Meditation students to learn Reiki to take their power back from societal expectations and to facilitate their own healing, growth, and peace on an ongoing basis in between sessions. Not only does Reiki facilitate healing, but it also allows you to gain a deeper state of meditation.

There are a number of ways to learn Reiki. What you will get from my approach is unique and powerful, simply because I give you personal attention and care. Every student is unique and will have experiences that require discussion to comprehend and process. So, it's important to me that my students have access to me during the process. Between class levels and beyond.

There are online courses where you are self-paced, but never meet your teacher and you may only see presentation slides and occasionally video of your teacher. You won't have interactions with other students in the class during or after. There's no Q&A with the teacher and there's no practice amongst students. There are other classes that are a little more personal with online Zoom courses, but they are one-day classes. For those, you get it all done in a day and you're on your own.

As part of my courses, I offer each student a 1:1 mentor meeting as they progress through their practice. Beyond that, I have mentor meetings that can be booked in the future as new discoveries arise. I also have a small Facebook group which includes all of my students and I encourage my students to connect with each other for support and practice sessions.

I recommend students take Reiki 1 followed by a 21-day practice period leading up to Reiki 2. If you sign up for both courses at once, you will use a discount code as a thank you for making the commitment to both at once.

Reiki 1 — Reiki 1 is for beginners who are new to Reiki, or those who have learned in the past and would like a refresher. I teach traditional Usui Ryoho Reiki, brought to the West from Usui's teaching in Japan by Madame Hawayo Takata.

The course includes:

• The history and traditions of the Japanese Healing Art of Usui Reiki, originated by Mikao Usui.
• A primer on energy and how it shows up in the world and in your body.
• How Reiki works and what it can be used for.
• Basics of your body's bio-magnetic field (aura) and energetic centers (chakras).
• Basics of the body's anatomy.
• Skills in grounding, centering and protecting yourself from energies that affect your vibe.
• Principals of Reiki.
• Hand-positions for practicing Reiki on yourself.
• Attunement Ceremony to the Reiki Energy - each person will schedule their attunement separate from the class time. You'll receive information after registration.
• Drawing 2 of the symbols that facilitate the energy flow.
• One 30-minute mentor meeting. 

Reiki 2 — Reiki 2 is the practitioner level, but you don't have to want to become a practitioner at this time to benefit from this. This is where you learn to go beyond working on just yourself and you'll be able to work on family, friends or clients. LMTs, healthcare workers, and other body workers will continue at least through Reiki 2 before practicing on clients (Reiki 3, the Master level will be offered when these classes are complete). 

In addition to working on others, you'll learn the symbols for working across time and space. The magic of this level allows you to work on your own past and your future. Sending Reiki to parts of you that have cellular memory of things that happened in the past that need healing, or sending Reiki into the future for a job interview or a hard conversation, or a surgery. Anything you can imagine! You can also send Vibes off to friends or clients in another physical location. It's pretty spectacular.

I recommend students take Reiki 2 after their 21-day practice period that begins after Reiki 1.

The course includes:

• Preparing for an in-person session.
• Hand-positions for in-person sessions.
• Working with the aura and the energy of another person's body.
• Drawing and using the distance symbol.
• Basics of doing Reiki on a group.
• Details of doing Reiki over a distance.
• Practice giving Reiki to others in the class.
• One 30-minute mentor meeting.

Reiki 3 — Reiki 3 is the Master level. I don't personally believe there's a timeframe for moving up to Master, but I generally see students benefit from doing this 3-6 months after their Reiki 2 training, after they've had time to practice and adapt what they've learned. That said, it's perfectly fine to learn it immediately after the first two levels, or decades later. Every individual is different. 

I teach more than some other Master classes teach and I stretch this out over multiple classes so you can practice and absorb the teaching, bring back your questions, and reduce your one-day commitment into shorter classes.

The course includes:

• Attunement for students new to me.
• Master symbol & its usage.
• Basics for clearing & grounding spaces.
• Working with guides.
• Working with energies not connected to you or the client.
• Working with attachments, patterns, cellular & energetic memory.
• Mastering important techniques for flowing with the energy.
• Trusting yourself.
• Sensing the energy movement & completion.
• Working with your clair senses during session. 
• Basics of working with crystals for in person and distance sessions.
• Plenty of group discussion & sharing experiences with the other students.
• In-class practice sessions.

Check out the current schedule and remember to email me if you are interested, but can't make the published times work!