Healing Space Reiki Therapy: Effectiveness and Experiences

Overview

Reiki is an energetic healing method in which a therapist uses his hands on or near the clients body to channel life energy and send it to the client. This activates healing within the client and restores balance. In this study clients at the Reiki training institute Healing Space are monitored for 4 weeks during 4 weekly Reiki healing sessions. Any client 18 years or older with any complaint can participate. A validated MYMOP questionnaire is used to monitor one main complaint, one secondary complaint and overall wellbeing after each of the 4 treatment sessions and before the start of treatment. A small number of clients will be interviewed for additional in depth data about their experiences. The aim of the study is to gain understanding about the effectiveness of Reiki.

Given the substantial international socio-economic burden of healthcare, the development of inexpensive, safe, and evidence-based treatments is highly desirable. Reiki, as a non-invasive and low-cost therapy, holds potential as a complementary approach to conventional medical treatments. However, the lack of consensus on its efficacy and mechanisms necessitates further investigation. This study aims to address these gaps by exploring the conditions clients report when visiting a Reiki healer and evaluating the subjective effectiveness and experiences of Reiki therapy. By doing so, the study seeks to contribute to the growing body of evidence on Reiki and inform its potential integration into healthcare systems. This study is an observational prospective pre-post study with a convenience sample. The study is conducted at the Healing Space Reiki center in the Netherlands by Reiki practitioners trained at Healing Space. Each Reiki session lasts 1 hour and is conducted by 2 Reiki practitioners supervised by the founders of Healing Space. MYMOP questionnaires are provided before the first treatment (baseline) and then after each of the 4 treatments. A number of interviews is conducted after the complete treatment. All participants provided written informed consent. A waiver for full ethical assessment will be obtained from an ethical committee. The MYMOP complaints are categorized into four primary groups: pain, psychological problems, fatigue, and other. Pre- and post comparisons of the four MYMOP measurements were performed usign paired t-tests and independent sample t-tests. Interviews are analysed thematically.