Medical Reiki: Healing Medicine
Dr. Mehmet C. Oz named Reiki “Energy Medicine” while he was still a full-time heart surgeon at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. During that time, a retreat of a few of America’s premier doctors met to discuss the future of medicine. At this meeting, a new term was agreed on that would describe the incorporation of alternative practices with allopathic medicine. The new term they agreed on was “Integrative Medicine”, Medical Reiki™ is part of what this term describes.
“Integrative Medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.” – Dr. Andrew Weil
Medical Reiki is the practice of bringing the loving and healing power of Reiki to patients during surgeries or other medical treatments, such as chemotherapy by a Certified Medical Reiki Master (CMRM) attuned to the power of Reiki and trained to transmit that healing power during surgery while working safely and unobtrusively with a surgical team.
Medical Reiki is a protocol in the practice of Integrative Medicine governed by Raven Keyes Medical Reiki International, LLC. It is based on the Gold Standards and Best Practices developed by Raven Keyes. Raven Keyes Medical Reiki International is the only company with a Registry of Certified Medical Reiki practitioners trained in how to work safely and unobtrusively with surgical teams, or in any other medical environment. The Gold Standards and Best Practices are the foundation of Raven Keyes Medical Reiki International, LLC, a company that:
Provides RKMRI Certified Medical Reiki Masters (CMRMs) to patients by country, city, and state;
Trains and certifies RKMRI Certified Medical Reiki Masters (CMRMs)
PATIENT FIRST, PATIENT FIRST, PATIENT FIRST!
The patient is the most important during a vulnerable time. CMRM’s are advocates for the patient, a partner in upholding an individual’s life at a time when they can’t do it for themselves while under anesthesia or undergoing serious therapy treatments such as chemotherapy. This is a huge honor to be entrusted with someone’s life.
How can Reiki practitioners gain the trust of physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other gatekeepers to patient care? The Certified Medical Reiki Master™ training and credential provided by Raven Keyes Medical Reiki International addresses this need. To be allowed into an operating room to deliver Reiki, an environment where the patient is most vulnerable, requires trust on the part of the surgical team. They have to know that the Reiki practitioner in their O.R. has the training that qualifies them to be there.
Every patient deserves a Certified Medical Reiki Master (CMRM) during surgery, or during any medical procedure. Clinical results have shown that stress is relieved, pain is reduced, less pain medication is needed and healing is accelerated.
How Medical Reiki helps Doctors and their Patients
Reiki activates the parasympathetic nervous system, calming and comforting the doctor’s patient – this is important and helpful to a doctor.
When administered during pre-op patients have fallen asleep because of the power of Reiki. Doctors notice a difference and love how soothed their patients are.
Brings healing while the patient is undergoing surgery, ie: It helps to maintain steady and safe blood pressure levels; may shorten the time needed to complete surgery, and can produce unexpected results. Just one example of an experience a CMRM had during a particularly long breast cancer and reconstructive surgery, both the breast surgeon and the plastic surgeon were stunned because the patient’s skin remained warm during all the hours in the freezing cold operating room, making the surgery easier for both surgeons to perform.
Clinical observations are that Medical Reiki reduces the need for prolonged use of pain medications, results are typically seen within a day or two following surgery.
May help the Patient develop a different view of their dis-ease and tend to feel more in control of their fate.
What is Reiki?
Reiki heals because it is unconditional pure love.
“Reiki is the source power of the universe, the thing Albert Einstein was looking for and hoping to identify as a mathematical equation. Reiki heals because it is unconditional pure love.”
– Raven Keyes
Reiki, pronounced “Ray-Key”, is a non-invasive healing treatment that helps in down-regulating the nervous system to promote the body’s natural, innate ability to heal. The technique, using gentle touch and no touch, activates the natural healing process and restores physical and emotional well-being. The primary function of Reiki is to restore balance and harmony to our well-being on every level – physical, mental, emotional spiritual…even social.
Reiki is a simple, natural, and safe method that is available to everyone for healing and self-improvement.
Reiki treatments stimulate the body’s own innate ability for healing, which makes it the appropriate support as a complementary treatment for most conventional medical treatments, such as cancer treatment therapies, recovering from surgery, pre-surgery support, managing chronic stress or anxiety, and more. Treatments are adaptable to any environment, for people of all ages, and most conditions: newborns, children, teens, adults, and seniors.
What is a Medical Reiki™ Master?
Certified Medical Reiki™ Masters are trained to offer Reiki in medical environments safely and respectfully. They are passionate about sharing reiki as a holistic, complementary therapy for patients and their caregivers.
Medical Reiki™ Masters do not diagnose conditions, prescribe or perform medical treatments, nor do they interfere with the treatment of a licensed medical professional. Their mission is to support the patient and/or caregiver during difficult or challenging times.
REIKI FACTS
Reiki treatments are one of the top three complementary in-patient therapies offered in 800 plus US hospitals.
These hospitals include or provide reiki as a complementary service to their patients: Johns Hopkins, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard, Yale, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and George Washington University Hospital as well as Wounded Warrior Programs and Hospice.
Medical Reiki™ can be offered in:
Hospitals: pre, post, and during surgery, with the approval of the surgeon.
Cancer treatment centers.
Chemotherapy suites
Rehabilitation facilities
Assisted living and senior nursing homes
Hospice
Children’s units: NICU, PICU
Labor and Delivery
Intensive care units
Emergency rooms
Veterans hospitals
BENEFITS OF REIKI
Help reduce anxiety, tension, stress, depression, and pain.
Reduces side effects of chemotherapy, radiation therapies, and medications including anxiety, nausea/vomiting, skin eruptions, fatigue, and insomnia.
May decrease the amount of medications needed.
Relaxes soothes the body and mind and calms emotions.
Accelerates surgical recovery and healing.
Balances the body’s immune system.
Dissolves energy blockages and releases toxins.
Enhances feelings of overall well-being.
BENEFITS OF REIKI FOR CAREGIVERS AND MEDICAL STAFF
Immediate relief from stress.
Harmonizes the effects of a stressful environment.
Balances the immune system.
Eases burnout.
A TYPICAL REIKI SESSION
A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. A typical session is 60-75 minutes, sometimes 90 minutes if time permits. A Reiki practitioner, treats you, not the complaint. In other words, the treatment focuses on you rather than the ailment. The session starts with a brief conversation which helps to set the intention for the healing. This process helps the client to get comfortable and it gives the practitioner a chance to get a feel for the clients’ energy. The client is fully clothed. It is recommended to wear loose comfortable clothing.
The practitioner gently places hands in different positions on the body or hoovers slightly over the body while the client is either laying down or seated, whichever is most comfortable for the client. The practitioner may place hands or hover on the part of the body that hurts, as well as a series of hand placements on your head, the front and back of the torso, arms, legs, and feet.
The client may or may not notice sensations, such as heat, coolness, and subtle movements are the more common experiences. Clients will experience feeling more open, lighter, more comfortable in the body. Pain is likely to diminish, and possibly disappear.
The treatment is simple, relaxing, and powerful.
BALANCING THE PARA-SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM
No matter where the practitioner’s hands are, the most important benefit of Reiki healing is what’s happening beneath the surface of what you can see, its inner healing inside your body, igniting the natural process of the body remembering how to heal itself. Reiki practice is balancing your whole system. When your body is balanced, your own self-healing is functioning at an optimum level.
Whether or not you feel an evident response, there is an overall response as your body shifts into the powerful parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). When PNS is dominant, the body moves into the rest and digest mode, making it a priority to recover, heal, deeply nourish, and restore itself. This is the body’s innate response, it knows how to do these things naturally.
Our busy lifestyles keep us in the reactive sympathetic nervous system (SNS) mode, which is when the body is coping, it’s in the fight or flight mode. When the body is not given the opportunity to move out of the fight/flight, SNS mode, for long periods of time, chronic stress and chronic contraction take over resulting in dis-ease and illness affecting our well-being on every level – physical, mental, and emotional. The body simply cannot heal when it’s in-flight/fight mode.