Learn more

Come learn with me.

Reiki has been part of my life for over twenty years, and I love helping people understand it. These are the videos and pages I’d share with a friend: hospitals that offer Reiki, the researchers who study it, and the history of where it came from. The honest picture is that research on Reiki is still small and mixed. I’d rather you hear that from me, and then come rest and decide for yourself.

Watch

Short videos

A few minutes each, from hospitals and a university.

Reiki: Healing Through Touch Lake Health Integrative Medicine, Ohio · 2 min
An Ohio hospital’s integrative medicine team shows what a hands-on session looks like.
Reiki Therapy Beaumont Integrative Medicine (Corewell Health), Michigan · 1.5 min
How one hospital system offers Reiki alongside regular medical care.
What is integrative health and how can it help? Mayo Clinic Minute · about 1 min
Mayo Clinic explains integrative health: using complementary practices together with conventional medicine.
Reiki, Energy Medicine, and Post-Materialism Harvard Divinity School · 1 hour
For the deeply curious: a conversation with Dr. Natalie Dyer, a research scientist at University Hospitals in Cleveland and a Reiki master, on what Reiki is, how it’s studied, and the open questions.

The art

Where Reiki comes from

Reiki Encyclopaedia Britannica
A balanced overview: Mikao Usui in 1920s Japan, his student Chujiro Hayashi, and Hawayo Takata, who brought the practice to Hawaii and then the rest of the United States. It covers both how practitioners describe Reiki and what skeptics say.

The science

What the research says

Straight answers from medical and research sources.

Reiki National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH)
The U.S. government’s plain-language summary of what Reiki is, what has been studied, what is still unproven, and its safety.
What Is Reiki? And Does It Actually Work? Cleveland Clinic · 2024
What a session is like, what people report, and an honest look at the studies so far.
Reiki Cancer Research UK
Why some people use Reiki for relaxation and coping alongside medical treatment, and why it is never a replacement for that treatment.
Reiki for the treatment of anxiety and depression Cochrane review · 2015
A research summary from Cochrane, the group known for weighing medical evidence carefully. It found too few good studies to draw firm conclusions.

Why people explore

Looking beyond the usual

Use of complementary health approaches is rising National Institutes of Health · 2024
About one in five U.S. adults used a complementary approach in 2002. By 2022 it was more than one in three.
Complementary, Alternative, or Integrative Health: What’s In a Name? National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH)
The difference between using a practice alongside your regular care and using it instead. Reiki with me is always the first kind.
Cancer survivor logs thousands of hours comforting patients with Reiki Penn Medicine · 2023
A story about volunteers who offer Reiki to patients, families and staff at a major hospital.
Using the relaxation response to reduce stress Harvard Health Publishing
Not about Reiki itself, but about the science of rest: how slowing down helps the body ease out of “fight or flight.”