Create a Reiki Work-Study Program

by Karen K Harrison, LCPC, LCMFT, AASECT

First published in the Reiki News Magazine Spring 2019

WorkStudyProgram – download with this link

Do you have family members or friends who could benefit from more Reiki? Would some of your Reiki students like to have opportunities for practice? Might they want to earn some of their tuition for your upper-level classes? Put all these ideas together, and it combines into a Reiki work-study program. As I have created it, the program involves my students sending one hour of distance Reiki to someone I choose each week for usually five weeks to work off part of their class tuition. It has been wonderful for my students and provided many benefits for my mother, who has received the bulk of the sessions.

History of Reiki Work-Study

I began the Reiki work-study program in 2005. In 2004, my father passed away due to prostate cancer and cardiovascular problems. He had been the caregiver for my mother, who had several chronic health problems; diabetes, COPD, macular degeneration, diabetic neuropathy and morbid obesity. At one point, she weighed 340 pounds. I was sending Reiki nightly to my mother and I thought that she could benefit from more help. I was also teaching Reiki classes and some of my students wanted a way to get more practice as well as work off part of their class fee for Reiki Master and Karuna Reiki® Master training. Thus, the idea of a Reiki work-study program was born.

How the Program Works

I offer the work-study program to students who have taken Reiki I and II or Reiki Master with me. They let me know by email that they would like to be on the work-study list. I notify the student when it is his or her turn to start. Each student sends five one-hour distant Reiki sessions to my mother or another person I choose at a rate of one hour a week. Before the student starts, I send out information about my mother’s health challenges and a picture of her, along with instructions about the session documentation and a couple of sample session documentations. My mother gave approval for the sessions and has felt grateful to be receiving them. Several students have commented that when they start, it feels as though she has been expecting them and wants them to jump right into the session.

Students email me the date of the session, the start and stop time, and then two sentences to two paragraphs about what they did and what they found. For example, the student might say that she felt drawn to send Reiki to the head to clear worries and that the energy ran hot in the head. In exchange for the student sending five hours of Reiki, the student earns a credit toward the next level of training that the student plans to take. I set the hourly rate they receive credit for at about the going rate for Reiki in my area.

Benefits to Me and the Recipients

I feel comforted knowing that my mother will receive an hour of Reiki a week. My mother has received many advantages, the greatest being that my family thought that she would only live up to five years beyond my father due to all her health challenges. She is now 85 years old, has lived 13 years past my father and could live several more years. She lost 150 pounds and reduced her diabetes to the point where she no longer takes diabetes medicine. She also made it through two knee replacements, a hip replacement and had a considerable mass of hanging skin removed from her belly after her dramatic weight loss. She also decreased her medicines from many to five medications, two of which are now for dementia.

I had also had students send Reiki to my daughter when she was having challenges living abroad. That helped me to feel better. And when I have had friends who are struggling with challenges, I have had students send Reiki to them.

Occasionally I have also had students send Reiki to me. One student enjoyed sending Reiki to me while I was on the phone with him so that I could report where I felt the Reiki in my body. He was very encouraged to know that I could feel where he was sending it. Thus, he gained confidence that his Reiki was working. As I am writing this, I am reflecting on why I haven’t had students send Reiki to me more often. Mostly I thought that it might feel intimidating to the student to send Reiki to his or her teacher.

Benefits to My Students

I often get thanks from students for the experience, like the following, “Thanks for allowing me to do these sessions. I have learned so much!” As the email about each session comes in, I thank the student and confirm the findings based on what is going on with my mother. I have always been able to validate one or more things that the student found. For example, after my mother fell out of bed and hurt her head, the student found what she perceived as soreness around her right eye, stiffness in her back and tightness in her chest. My mother’s head was hurting on the right side and her back was sore after the fall. She felt very fearful from the fall, primarily since it was due to her aide leaving her too close to the edge of the bed while the aide went to get help with moving her.

On another occasion, the student reported the following; “I felt this fear-like anxiety all over. I couldn’t tell if her head was just sore and hurting or if it was a headache.” My mother’s private caregiver of six years had recently told my mother that she was resigning, and my mother was terribly upset. Thankfully, after Reiki and some problem solving, her caregiver chose to keep working for my mother.

I wrote the following to one of my students, Regina, “I shared information about my work study program with William Rand, mentioning you and your experiences and he was delighted! He asked me to write an article about it for Reiki News Magazine. You have done an excellent job! Now get out there and share some Reiki with others!”

Regina wrote in response, “I just wanted to thank you for the biggest boost of confidence I’ve ever gotten. I read your message last Friday, and the fact that you find value in my experiences is incredible. You’ve given me deep healing in my heart. I believe I can do this. I’ll be seeing you in the Spring for the Karuna classes. Thank you so much.”

Engaging Students

Having students take part in the work-study gets them engaged with Reiki throughout five weeks. The student gains confidence in his or her practice and uses Reiki. Additionally, since the student now has credit with me for the next level of class, the student is much more likely to take the course. Almost everyone who takes part in the work-study takes an upper-level class with me. Some students have done the work-study twice—once as a credit toward Reiki Master and once as a credit toward Karuna Reiki® Master.

Karen Caig shares her experience with the work-study program: “I did ten sessions on a mutual friend who needed help. I had not done many paid distant sessions in my practice. Working consistently on one person helped me learn to completely connect and feel the difference in the client’s energy from one session to another. Also, it confirmed my skills as I reported to the client and heard from her an affirmation of what I picked up. When I am able, I plan to offer a similar program to my students. This work-study program empowered me as a practitioner and enabled me to receive much needed financial assistance to continue my Reiki journey. It’s a win/win proposition! Thanks again, Karen!”

Conclusion

The Reiki work-study program has run for over 13 years and has been a tremendous success, providing over 700 hours of Reiki sessions. If you are teaching Reiki, you might consider creating a work-study program. You could have students send Reiki to a family member, to you, to a friend, to a pet, to an animal shelter, any situation from which you can obtain feedback. Ask the person who will be receiving the Reiki if he or she agrees to accept weekly distant sessions. The students may also provide sessions in person. A few of my students have gone to where my mother was living and given her hands-on Reiki. My mother has really enjoyed her sessions as well as benefitted from them. I feel blessed by my students and comforted through this program. Everyone wins!

Holy Fire® and Karuna Reiki® are registered service marks of William Lee Rand.

Karen Harrison is a co-director of the ICRT Licensed Teacher Training Program and practices and teaches Reiki as a Holy Fire III Licensed Reiki Master Teacher for the ICRT in Leawood, Kansas. She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor. Karen can be contacted by email at Karen@karenharrison.net or through her website at www.karenharrison.net.