CNHC Registered: a Milestone!

I was recently accepted as a registrant of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare (CNHC) Reiki register.

To be honest I don’t know if I would have sought registration if it wasn’t a condition of being on the CNHC Reiki profession specific board (PSB).  I want to continue on the PSB to help make it possible for Reiki practitioners to offer treatments widely, including in the NHS.  Now that I’m a registrant I can see that it’s something of a milestone and the culmination of many years’ work, so I’m pleased Reiki has brought me to this achievement.

Many years ago my Reiki master Martha Sylvester asked me to start keeping a list of Reiki practitioners so that people in different parts of the country could find someone to give them Reiki.  Not long after this The Reiki Association was born and soon began to make referrals of Reiki practitioners.

We soon found we needed a way to ensure that the person we were referring would be a trustworthy practitioner who would give a good Reiki treatment.  So we began to discuss what qualities a Reiki practitioner needs and how to evaluate this.

These early discussions and some conferences about the public practice of Reiki with Phyllis Furumoto led to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Reiki practitioner working with the public, rather than just offering Reiki to family and friends as many people do. 

I found what I learned during this exploration useful when I contributed to setting the National Occupational Standards (NOS) and creating core curriculum for Reiki practitioners in subsequent years.  These are the standards that CNHC Reiki registrants now need to meet

I have therefore seen Reiki move from being a very little known personal practice that was occasionally offered more widely to a well known healing option that now has a place in hospitals and hospices.  As a result it now has the support of an independent organisation that is happy to hold a register of practitioners.  This is recognition from outside the Reiki community that Reiki practitioners are responsible people who offer something of value.  One of the characteristics of professional practice we identified at the conferences over 10 years ago is recognition from wider society, so it’s gratifying to see this come true in the UK.

I am very keen to see more people offering Reiki as professional practitioners.  Working with Reiki is very satisfying and offers people an option that is not like anything else.  Reiki helps people deal with the difficulties of life in a gentle yet powerful non-invasive way, especially good for people who want to lessen the side effects of medication or other invasive treatment.

I’ve seen a wonderful transformation recently is several clients who were suffering physical and emotional pain.  They came to Reiki in states of fear, pain and gloom, feeling that life was very difficult.  Now, after regular treatment,  their pain and suffering is noticeably reduced and they express positive feelings of being able to cope better and having more resilience to deal with life’s challenges.

My hope is that the CNHC Reiki register means that more people will trust and have access to this wonderful healing and that Reiki practitioners will find it easier to make a living doing this much needed work.