Reiki Medic-Care – a groundbreaking service to support our NHS medical professionals
I was recently reading “Light on the Origins of Reiki” by Tadao Yamaguchi where he comments that “In the past Usui Sensei and Hayashi Sensei promoted Reiki in the hope of applying it in medical treatments”. He goes on to say that he would like to introduce Reiki to medical professionals as well as reintroduce the original Reiki to those who have learned different Western forms so as to demonstrate its practical uses. I think this is what many Reiki practitioners feel, the degree to which Reiki could, and will, support conventional healthcare to the benefit of both staff and patients.
It is true that Reiki is present in some hospitals or medical settings in the UK and around the world, in a few places in a formal way, and some places, less so. What I think we would all like to see is for Reiki to take root more widely and flourish as a wholly integrative practice in line with the vision of the founders of Reiki and the many of us who have found Reiki enhancing our physical and mental wellbeing.
Whilst it seems that more medical professionals, especially nurses and midwives, are learning and using Reiki at work to whatever degree is possible in their situation, the fact remains that in today’s, rightly, evidence-based healthcare settings, Reiki has to prove its case.
This was one of the reasons of course that Connecting Reiki with Medicine was set up, as a way to bring in-hospital clinically trained Reiki practitioners onto wards, not as tolerated visitors, but as welcome team members, building up data for research at the same time and creating a transferable model for Reiki in medical settings everywhere.
It was at our Connecting Reiki with Medicine site in London last year that a chance conversation sowed the first seed for Reiki Medic-Care when a senior nurse who had seen the benefits (and positive energy) that Reiki practitioners brought to patients on her ward, mentioned she would like every one of her nurses to benefit too. Their long shifts, however, gave them no breaks where they could receive treatments at work. It was just not an option for hands on except for the occasional short taster. The eureka moment was to suggest that they could simply receive Reiki distantly.
Fast forwarding to COVID-19 and many of us in the Reiki world felt a pull to support our NHS staff, seeing so much stress and severe illness. Responding to this pull of compassion, which seemed to come from the heart of Reiki itself, the two impulses came together and began to coalesce as Reiki Medic-Care.
From the start, we knew that we all wanted to build something that was evergreen and long-lasting, that could even serve as a model in other parts of the world. This meant creating something that could bring together large numbers of Reiki practitioners quite easily in a sustainable and manageable way.
We have designed a system which is automated – quite a challenge to say the least – it will also gather data for research purposes as a secondary aim. We are very lucky in the experience, knowledge and contacts of the team behind the project – you can find them on our Reiki Medic-Care Facebook page.
In the last few months, we have set up a charity to sustain funding Reiki Medic-Care and Connecting Reiki with Medicine, created a bespoke IT system, two websites and recruited over 200 Reiki practitioners. It being 2020, of course things have, as everywhere, taken way longer than expected.
The effects of COVID-19 slowed all the normal processes of company registration with Companies House, setting up a bank account, charity registration and insurance down to a snail’s pace and its effects go on. This year, the world has slowed down, big time. All of these obstacles have or are being overcome with persistence and determination and a ‘just for today’ attitude.
The easiest part of the journey, however, has been the amazing response from Reiki practitioners in the UK. To all those who are part of UKRF and have already joined us, we are so grateful for your commitment and patience. We had a feeling that many would feel a pull to join us and they did. We also had a feeling that it would suit practitioners who wanted to do something practical to help, for example: practitioners who were no longer running public practices but loved sending Reiki to highly deserving cases; practitioners who simply prefer to work distantly; and practitioners who see their future in clinical settings.
Our Reiki practitioners are currently divided into teams of 8 which is intended to give some flexibility as well as concentrating Reiki in the 20 minute each medical professional receives for four days consecutively, which can be repeated.
Every month we have been running team meetings and Reiki shares and energy at the shares has been absolutely incredible, it is important to us to see that our teams come together, meeting each other and sharing Reiki.
We have been in live testing mode with the system and the website is open for medical professionals to take advantage, we are keeping the launch fairly soft.
Some exciting news is that we have linked up with NHS Wellness Boxes who have our specially printed leaflets to distribute directly to medical professionals and who have also become one of our seed funders. None of this is possible without significant investment. We are immensely grateful to all our seed funders and also wish to say a special word of thanks to the UKRF for becoming one of them – which is why you will find the Fed’s logo permanently at the bottom of our website.
To join us go to: www.reikimedic-care.org and look for Practitioner Sign Up.
