Integrative health Convention

I was grateful for the invitation to accompany Feona Gray, founder of Connecting Reiki with Medicine, to attend the Integrative Health Convention in London last month.  This convention is an   

opportunity for doctors and other NHS professionals to meet with a variety of complementary health practitioners.

I share Feona’s vision that Reiki could play an important part in healthcare:  I would love to see Reiki as a choice for patients alongside conventional care in the NHS, which is struggling to cope with the rising need and diminishing funding and staffing.  Reiki has the potential to be part of the solution. However when Feona first explored bringing Reiki into St George’s she learned that there was a very negative view of it, in fact it was banned in many hospitals.  In many situations Reiki is not trusted as a complementary therapy, so practitioners are not welcome.

I found that this convention gave me hope that my dreams of this changing, so that Reiki gains the respect needed for it to become integrated, could come true.  I met doctors who are not only open to complementary therapies including Reiki, but positively see the benefit.  Margaret Coats, from the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, commented to me at the end of the weekend that there had been a lot of talk about Reiki!

The keynote speaker was Dr Michael Dixon – a GP well known for his work in integrative health care.   He was one of the instigators of Social Prescribing, which may be one way that Reiki practitioners can receive referrals.  Dr Dixon noticed a 20% reduction in GP appointments once Social Prescribing was introduced in his area.  

He talked about conditions he and most GPs see frequently and often have nothing to offer to help: tiredness, back pain, IBS and stress.  11% of the population, he reported, are on medication for pain, depression stress or sleep problems. These are all things that complementary therapies, including Reiki, can help with.  He spoke strongly about the need for doctors to work together with complementary therapists.  He dismissed the assertion from some doctors that complementary therapies are not safe, giving the example that 2000 people die annually from anti-inflammatory drugs.  He also noted that GPs with an interest in complementary therapies prescribe 25% less antibiotics.  Given that 1 million people each year die from antibiotic resistant infections this is a significant difference.  Compered to this, complementary therapies are safe – and with no known contra indications of course Reiki is one of the safest – and will become even more so, he said, if doctors and complementary therapists communicate better with each other.  

What particularly excited me was his report that NHS England has recognised that “The future needs to be a future that empowers the patient”.  Taking responsibility for our own health and well being is a core value of Reiki practice, so fits perfectly with this approach.  I hope to see more professional Reiki practitioners, adequately prepared work alongside doctors and other health professionals, sharing the work of caring for those in our community who doctors struggle to help.  Connecting Reiki with Medicine’s project at St George’s Hospital, London is demonstrating how beneficial a professional team of Reiki practitioners can be, to patients and staff.  For this sort of project to be repeated around the country we need more practitioners who are willing to prepare for this work.

I would also like to see Social Prescribing include teaching people Reiki so that they can care for their health and have some useful tools to assist them towards a healthier and happier life.

More People Benefiting from Reiki

When I learned Reiki I was inspired by the stories I heard about the life and practice of Hawayo Takata, the Reiki master who brought Reiki from Japan to the West.   I attended the Takata Archives event organised by The Reiki Association in February and was once again inspired by Takata's absolute faith in the effectiveness of Reiki treatment.   She was often called in when other treatments weren't working.  We listened to a recording of her describing how she treated a man with severe tonsillitis who was too weak to have an operation.  As she treated him a lot of pus was released after which he began to be able to take liquids and then more solid food, after which his recovery was rapid.  She treated hundreds of people in her life time, but was only one person, so the numbers she could reach were limited.  She, of course, taught many others who also gave treatments to those in their communities.  Those Reiki students have helped Reiki to spread all over the world so that, while in the early 1990s when I became a Reiki master it was still relatively unknown, it is now beginning to attract the attention of the medical profession so that many more people can experience what Mrs Takata taught.

I was therefore very interested when one of my students sent me a video about a study carried out by Harvard Medical School (USA) to find out if Reiki really benefits people.  The study showed, according to recognised tests, that the 1,500 people who received Reiki treatment in the study showed "highly statistically significant" reduction in anxiety, depression, pain and fatigue.  It is wonderful to hear that these effects, which I often see in those I treat, have been demonstrated in such a large study. 

One of the other participants at the Takata Archives event told me about her involvement over the past 6 years with a project to give Reiki treatments to children at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Brighton. She has recorded responses to over 3000 Reiki treatments, many of which were unexpectedly positive.  For example some of the babies were constipated due to the medication they were receiving.  It was frequently been reported that these babies were found to have "filled their nappies" after Reiki treatment - one often reported benefit of Reiki being that it stimulates the bowels!

There is also a project at St George's hospital in London which is likely to contribute to Reiki

being more widely available in hospitals.  Through a charity called Full Circle two Reiki practitioners have received an intensive induction so that they can work in critical care at St George's.  They are accepted  on the ward and medical staff have been able to see first hand how Reiki benefits very sick patients.  More Reiki practitioners are being trained and it is hoped to run a research project and that this model can be shared with other hospitals.

It is exciting to see how the number of people benefiting from this wonderful healing art is growing, to such an extent that it is becoming more accepted by medical profession so that more people will be able to receive Reiki treatment alongside conventional health care.