Charging For Reiki

Reiki and charging money - a highly charged subject indeed!

If you are not of the Reiki community, you could be forgiven for thinking that anyone working for free or almost free is totally mad.

So what is it about Reiki that is contradictory to charging for one's time? When Reiki first came to the West, people were charged obscene amounts of money to become a Reiki healer. Most of us come to Reiki because of a need for physical or emotional healing. Immediately after the initiation, a Reiki healer starts self-healing each day, and soon progresses onto healing loved ones in need. The Reiki healer then spends months or years in this relationship with Reiki, and it is very hard to suddenly switch to having a financial relationship with Reiki too.

I feel that Reiki is about unconditional love, and that spirituality is about abundance for the highest good. Sandra has also learned Reiki to professional level but since Reiki is spiritual, she will not charge for her Reiki sessions. Reiki is gaining popularity in the UK as a healing modality. Many clients come to me for healing anxiety, depression, joint pain, arthritis, and many other conditions with Reiki. Quite rightly, these Reiki healers, although on paper possessing the Reiki healer certificate, know that they are in no position to charge. Add to the above the proliferation of Reiki healers in the UK today, where competition drives prices down. The fact is that if you charge less, you starve. Hence many Reiki practitioners give up the idea of doing Reiki full-time, as they need to make a living and cannot survive on what they charge. This leads to many Reiki healers competing for even less money, as they can afford to offer it for less part-time.

Many Reiki healers have been drawn to Reiki in order to heal low self-esteem. Somehow along the line, they take professional training but do not complete their self-healing. Then there is the weirdness of the Reiki session as a process. With time and experience, a Reiki healer becomes an active participant in the healing process, and even if this never happens, the results that clients report back are too astounding to be ignored! Since it is unofficial, they do not view the Reiki as paid employment, even though they are being paid and are working as Reiki healers.

My hope is that as Reiki becomes more accepted, this will lead to the support of the Reiki healers that do want to work professionally. This way, more Reiki healers will be able to work full-time. Freedom for chickens would be nice!