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The Responsibility of Reiki Practitioners: Honoring What We Know - and What We Don’t

Writer's picture: SaraSara

Updated: Dec 11, 2024


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Reiki has such a way of working its magic. I’ve experienced its diverse and meaningful impacts firsthand, and continually feel in awe of this practice. Practitioners have a tendency to want to explain it, to say exactly what’s happening in the energy field or why someone feels so transformed on a detail level. But the truth is, we don’t fully understand energy, and I think it’s important to admit that.

That doesn’t make Reiki any less powerful. In fact, it’s what makes it so special—the mystery of it, the way it works in ways we can’t always put into words. But as practitioners, we have a responsibility to stay grounded and honest, even when the mystery is tempting to fill in with our own explanations. The spiritual world is rife with hard and fast "explanations" where what we really have is a big wide unknown. It is the unknown that is so powerful - it's the space where our beliefs play out.


Reiki’s Mystery is Part of Its Magic

Reiki works with universal energy—something we simply can't explain in any concrete terms.

Science hasn’t completely figured out how this works, and that’s okay. What matters is how Reiki feels and what it creates: relaxation, balance, emotional release, and connection. These effects are real, even if the mechanisms behind them remain a mystery.

What I love about Reiki is that it invites us to trust the process without needing all the answers. It’s humbling—and honestly, that humility is what keeps the practice pure. The mistakes come in when we try to be very literal or specific about what we know about Reiki and energy, or try to push our personal experiences or interpretations onto others.

Why Overpromising Can Harm Reiki

Sometimes, in our excitement about Reiki, it’s tempting to overpromise. It’s easy to see how profound this work can be and want to say things like, “Reiki will heal your illness” or “I can fix your energy imbalances.” But statements like that are misleading because no one can guarantee those results—not with Reiki or any other healing modality. It does direct damage to the lineage when we impose our intepretations as fact. We can share our ideas and beliefs, as long as we qualify them as just that!

Reiki isn’t about fixing or curing. It’s not a replacement for medical care, and it doesn’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions. What Reiki does is create space for your body and energy to find balance in their own way, in their own time. It offers an opportunity for loving space to be held for you no matter what you're going through. And research shows us that often, that’s actually enough.

When we stay honest about what Reiki is and isn’t, we build trust, and trust is demonstrably one of the most important components for the body's natural healing mechanisms to kick in. Clients come to me knowing I'm not here to sell them promises—we’re here to hold space for their healing, through the powers of social care, intention, evidence-based practices like breathwork, somatics, and meditation, while inviting Reiki to work however it may, without needing to pretend we understand.

Let’s Keep It Real

When someone asks me, “How does Reiki work?” I lean into what we can confidently say: Across time and cultures, healing has taken place in ritual settings, with symbolic or ceremonial action, with intentions and followup practices. Scientific research shows that belief can trigger healing, even though we can't pinpoint why.I don’t pretend to know every detail of what’s happening in someone's energy field, because I don’t need to. Reiki speaks for itself through the experience it offers.

And what’s so beautiful about Reiki is how it meets people where they are. Some clients come in fully open to the idea of energy, and some are a little more skeptical. Either way, it’s not my job to convince anyone of anything. I’m here to hold space and to be present with the person who has come to heal or expand.

Honoring the Mystery of Reiki Together at Somatique in Boulder, CO

Reiki is a gift, not just for the client but for the practitioner, too. It reminds us that healing isn’t something we control—it’s something we create space for. The most powerful thing we can offer is our presence, our care, and our willingness to hold the mystery with respect and humility.

When we approach Reiki with honesty, we give people a space to trust the process for themselves. We don’t need to overpromise or explain every detail. When we honor that, we honor the practice in its purest form.

Reiki doesn’t need us to understand it to work. It just needs us to show up with intention—and to me, that’s the most beautiful part.

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