Germaine De Peralta

What if Reiki could extend beyond our treatment rooms and help support communities experiencing hardship?

Reiki is a Japanese healing practice that uses gentle touch and, in some traditions, distance techniques. Rooted in the work of Mikao Usui, it offers practitioners a way to cultivate greater balance, aware ness and well-being. In his book A Modern Reiki Method for Healing, Japanese Reiki Master Hiroshi Doi describes Reiki as a way of harnessing universal energy to live life more fully.

I have been practicing Reiki since 2014 and teaching it since 2017. Through a disciplined daily practice, I have experienced significant personal growth and healing. I can attest to the value Reiki has brought to my own life.

However, I have noticed that much of the Reiki education I encounter in North America centres on individual treatments, self-healing and personal well-being. While these are important, I believe there is another conversation worth having.

What if we extended our Reiki practice beyond ourselves and our individual clients? What might it look like to bring Reiki into communities experiencing hardship, including people living with displacement, poverty, illness, grief and the effects of intergenerational trauma?

Could Reiki practitioners play a meaningful role in community-based healing initiatives?

USUI SENSEI’S EXAMPLE

Mikao Usui Sensei, the founder of the Usui Reiki system, established his healing practice in Japan in 1922.

His work included treating himself, his family and individual clients. But accounts of his life also describe a deep compassion for people suffering beyond his immediate circle.

In 1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake struck Japan, devastating Tokyo and surrounding areas. Approximately 140,000 people died, and countless others were injured or displaced.

Reiki Master Frank Arjava Petter recounts Usui Sensei’s response in his book This Is Reiki: Transformation of Body, Mind and Soul: “Usui’s heart was heavy with pain; and with this pain in his heart, he went out and about to treat earthquake victims throughout the city. Many injured that could not come to him (due to their injuries) were healed by him on one of his visits.”

William Lee Rand, in An Evidence Based History of Reiki, published by the International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT), also describes Usui Sensei’s compassion for earthquake victims and his efforts to help those affected. Rand recounts that Usui Sensei trained additional teachers, known as Shihan, who could help extend the reach of Reiki by training more practitioners.

What strikes me about these accounts is that Usui Sensei did not limit his practice to his clinic. Faced with widespread suffering, he went out into the community to help people who might never have been able to come to him.

He also recognized that reaching more people required training others to help. He trained 2,000 people to become reiki practitioners and 40 clinics in Japan.

For me, this is an important part of Reiki’s legacy worth exploring.

WHAT ABOUT US TODAY?

• How might we extend Reiki beyond individual treatments and into the wider community?

• Have you ever offered Reiki to a group or community experiencing hardship? What did you learn from the experience?

• How might we work respectfully alongside Indigenous-led organizations and other community groups, recognizing their own knowledge, traditions, and priorities?

• How many of us are willing to step outside our comfort zones and do as Usui Sensei did? How many of us are willing to explore new ways of serving others?

I believe there is much more to explore in how Reiki might serve people beyond our immediate circles. Individual healing matters. Yes, of course. But if we look to the example attributed to Usui Sensei, we see a practitioner who responded to suffering on a much larger scale. He dared ventured beyond his clinic, and he trained others to help.

That is the conversation I hope to begin here.

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT

I would love to hear from Reiki practitioners, teachers and community organizations who have explored this kind of work. Share an experience, an idea for a community Reiki initiative, or an organization you believe might welcome this kind of collaboration.

Let’s explore what we might accomplish together.