Reiki

Reiki originated in Japan nearly 100 years ago during a Buddhist training course. Surprisingly, few Western Reiki practitioners, including "Masters", know how to properly pronounce the name. In fact, there is no "R" in Japanese, hence pronouncing it with an "R" is not accurate. To learn how to pronounce it, please scroll toward the bottom of this page.

How Reiki Works:

Traditional Eastern Perspective:

Our bodies all contain energy (ki). When ki becomes out-of-balance, our well-being can become compromised. The Reiki practitioner learns how to re-balance a client's ki, thereby improving the well-being of one or more of the following:

  • Mind

  • Body

  • Spirit

Please see here for more general information on the benefits of Reiki.

Western Perspective:

Reiki involves the practitioner creating a relaxing environment, then positioning hands in various ways on the client who is typically laying down.

The combination of the relaxing environment and the caring presence of the Reiki practitioner lead to a sense of deep relaxation for many subjects. This in turn may help with certain physical or mental problems that are aggravated or maintained by stress. Hence, Reiki can act as a highly effective stress-reduction technique with all such associated benefits.

Please see here to learn more about Lee Oren, LCSW's Reiki practice, including the benefits she has written about.

Pronunciation continued: The actual first consonant sound is something of an "L" mixed with some "R". The "ei" is a long "A", as in "stay", trailed by an "i"at the end that is slight pronounced & sounds like a long "e" as in "eat". "Ki" is pronounced like "key". Basically it is pronounced L/Rāēkē, with the first ē being only slightly pronounced. Secondly, Westerners are taught to very clearly separate the "Rei" and "ki" when speaking. While the "Rei" and "ki" are derived from two different Japanese characters, 霊気, and there is a degree of technical correctness in the separation in speech, it is not how it is normally spoken. The separation is very minor and more comes from how the trailing first ē doesn't fully flow into the "ki". Additionally, both spoken English and Japanese allow for certain sounds to flow into each other. For example, of saying "what do you...", an English speaker will not normally make a clear separation from "what"and "do", but rather may sound it out as "whatdoyou", "wha tdoyou" or "what doyou". Select here to hear Sam Schaperow, M.S. pronounce Reiki with a bit more separation between each character than in typical speech, or here to hear a Japanese person pronounce it as a part of typical speech (the 1st word she says is Reiki).