What It's Like to be a Reiki Master (Ann Ruane)

Transcription

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Ann Ruane: And the thing that first I had a Reiki session, when I went for a massage, the therapist did Reiki instead, and I was like, oh my goodness, what did you just do?

Dan: Today on Time We Discuss I have Ann and Ruane with me and it's time we discuss what it's like being a Reiki master. Ann, thank you for joining me today.

Ann: Thank you for having me Dan. I'm very excited about this conversation.

Dan: Me too, me too. I know very little about Reiki. I know, you know, very, very fundamentally what it's about. But how about you take maybe 30 seconds and tell our listeners and our watchers, 30 seconds or less, what is Reiki?

Ann: Reiki is essentially acupuncture without the needles. It is aligning to the energy in the body, to the seven main energy centers, the chakras, and releasing any kind of blockages that present themselves either through mental energy, emotional energy, physical energy, or spiritual energy.

Dan: That is awesome. That's succinct. I absolutely love that. Okay, so let's talk about a typical day. When you're meeting with a client, what is the typical, do you call them sessions, like a Reiki session? What does that look like for you?

Ann: Well, the first thing I do before I even see a client is I check in with myself. It's very important for me to make sure that I know where I am mentally and emotionally. And even though the energy goes through me, I find it really important to have a good sense of where I am and take care of whatever I need. If I need to journal, if I need to yoga, do yoga if I need to be outside, whatever the case may be, so that I am bringing my best self to the session. And then I also clear the space of the room where I do the healing work so that there's no negative energy that is hanging around and just create a really warm environment. Usually there's a candle, soft music. And then when the client comes, we have a conversation. Typically it's just a short exploration of what have you been noticing? What's been unfolding for you? Just a little bit of an understanding so that they can check in with themselves. Because more often than not, we have this really brilliant tendency to spend all of our time in our heads and not check in with our actual physical self, which means that we're missing a huge aspect of who we are. So these questions for them invite a space of checking in, noticing what's been going on and shifting the awareness from the busyness of the day or anything else and coming into a space of paying attention to what's going on within them. And from there, sometimes an intention will automatically present itself from that conversation. Sometimes there might be more than one intention. And if there's not something that's completely clear or if there's more than one, I may specifically ask, which of these would you like to focus on and hold intention for the session? And every session is different with every single person. So say you Dan came for a session and then you came in two weeks. I can guarantee you that your session today would be very different than your session in two weeks. So, and that is the beauty of who we are as human beings. Like we're continually shifting and changing. Things change, our sense of self changes, emotion changes. So that opportunity to explore what's going on on the inside is really, it's a beautiful chance for growth and knowing that we have more power than we think we do, more power of choice in the course of our life. So once the client gets on the table, meaning a massage table, I also use crystals in the healing process. So I'm intuiting different crystals to use on and around the body. And from there I can guarantee that I'll start at the feet much in support of what I was saying that we spend too much time in our heads and to bring the energy into the fullness of the body. And I invite the clients to close their eyes, focus on their breath and simply allow themselves to become as present in the moment as possible. And that is done through the breath. It's not something that our thinky self can accomplish. It's something that it's letting the breath feed the body. And I always say that the body is the guide for this session and I am merely the interpreter. And the interpretation comes through my hands. It's not my mind thinking, oh, I need to do this. I need to go here. Oh, in order to fulfill this intention, this is what has to happen. Because the energy goes where it most needs to be. So I could be at somebody's feet and they could be feeling energy moving either through heat or cold, or maybe there's gurgling going on in the throat or tummy, or there could be like a physical tick response. So that can happen throughout the entire body because the body is brilliant. The body knows where the energy is needed and naturally supports the process. And the sessions too can be exploratory. Sometimes it can be a space of reminding a client to breathe or specifically asking, what are you noticing? Or it could be a matter of I'm sensing some emotional response, what does that mean to you? And to let them kind of do the unpacking. And it's never about me telling them specifically what I sense, it's about allowing me to be a guide for them to do the exploration themselves, to go within themselves and get curious and to find out what is going on. Because I am, again, I am a guide. I am this translator for them to build a relationship with their body. And I always say that my elevator pitch is helping people reconnect with who they are. And I find that to be so powerful in this work because our life teaches us not to pay attention to who we are. So any opportunity that we can reconnect in any way, shape or form is very powerful. And the amount of conversation within a session is, again, it varies from session to session. Sometimes it's very exploratory from beginning to end. Sometimes it's random little bits throughout the course of the session. Sometimes it's mostly quiet, depending on where, where the client is. And at the end, I did forget to mention that at the beginning I offer a prayer, a quiet prayer to offer gratitude, to channel the energy, to invite the client to receive the energy they are able to receive, offering gratitude for me being a vessel for that healing. And also the space of what's mine is mine and what's theirs is theirs so that we can be together but separate, that there's no exchange of any kind of energy that happens in there, that I am truly the vessel. And then as we wrap up, I do the same thing. I offer a prayer typically of gratitude for the time, for the space, for the vulnerability and the courage of the beautiful person who's on my table because there is a lot of vulnerability and surrender that takes place in the course of a session to be able to be present when tears come, to allow big emotion to come, like anger to come or to be able to name limiting beliefs. That's hard. We all think it should be like pretty simple, like, oh yeah, well that's, you know, I get stuck because I think I can't do this. But to say it out loud to another human being and to hear yourself say it, can really, can really rock the boat. And so there's so much vulnerability and beautiful courage, excuse me, that happens within a session. And I always offer gratitude in prayer, you know, as we wrap up. And then when, before the client leaves, we always have a conversation, maybe summarizing what happened or holding an intention or holding a goal for, you know, how they can use this information moving forward. And then I clear the space and get ready for the next one.

Dan: so how long did these sessions typically last? Is it, does it vary, do you sometimes do 30 minutes, 60 minute, 45s? Or is it standard like an hour or it lasts as long as it lasts? What is that like?

Ann: It is typically, the shortest I do is an hour and then I do either 60, 75 or 90 minutes. On rare occasions, when I've been working with younger ones, meeting like four or five year olds, I will do shorter sessions simply because, because they're younger people. So, but generally speaking for adults, it's minimum of 60.

Dan: Okay, and how often do you have, and I think I know the answer to this, but how often do you have repeat clients as opposed to, they just, they come in for maybe like a check-in or a tune-up or something like that, and then they're on their way. Maybe you don't see them again, maybe you see them in six months. How does the regularity factor in?

Ann: Well, you kind of summarized all of it right there because I do have some that are very consistent. Maybe I see them very consistently every other week. I see a very decent number once a month. I also have some that do come in, say like around their birthday and they're like, you know what, it's time, it's time to check in. Sometimes it just, it can be as varied as possible, as we can imagine. And there have been people who I have seen once and have never seen, have never seen again. And that is, that's part of the journey as well. They were open to receiving, to try, and whatever they got from that experience, guided them to wherever they went next. So it's all of the above. Okay, okay.

Dan: So this is kind of an odd question, I think. So I'm a very open-minded person. I acknowledge so many things about this world that we just don't know. And there are other people, they are at various stages of that as well. They might be a little more open, a little more closed. When you were talking about crystals, it made me think of this. Were you always intrinsically interested in alternative medicines or alternative healing processes? Or was there a time in your life where it's like, crystals, that's a bunch of hooey, that's nonsense. Was there ever that turning point where something happened where you were like, no, there's something to this, or is it something you always had a strong feeling about?

Ann: That's a great question. I would say that my sense of self in reflection, I could tell that I was always very sensitive to energy around me, though I could not name it as such. I found myself responding to people, to things, to various situations, and not necessarily from my emotional place. Like I could sense that in other people, but again, couldn't name it as such. And the thing that first I had a Reiki session, when I went for a massage, the therapist did Reiki instead, and I was like, oh my goodness, what did you just do? It just felt so different than massage. And that was my first introduction. And then it was kind of like set aside for a while. They didn't really do much. And then I got divorced in 2006, and I wanted, as things align, I received a flyer from Elm Brook Hospital and said that they had Reiki attunements. And I was like, and normally I ignore those, and I just put them right in the garbage can. Don't look at them, don't read them. It's usually like for babies or geriatrics or cancer care. And I was like, but for whatever reason, I was slipping through it and I'm like, hmm, I'm gonna try that. And I wanted it simply for my own healing. And it was at my first Reiki attunement that my Reiki master teacher, she gave us crystals at the end. She had us pick a crystal. And I was like, what in the world? We didn't talk about crystals at all in this attunement process. Like, what is that? And so that opened that space and it was curious, and she didn't give us like any direction. It was a matter of letting us explore, letting us get to know the energy of the crystals. And then I went for the second attunement and asked where she got the crystals. And then off I went, off I went to the crystal store and that was the beginning of the end. (Laughs) And then it was like, wow, this is just, it was incredible. And it was incredible to feel, even say something like a rose quartz, that if I held two different rose quartzes in my hand, that they would feel different, that the energy of them would feel different. So it just opened this whole new world of, wow, this is incredible. And everything just started to make so much more sense. And then as I continue to do my personal work, and like I said, I did it for me. I did it for my healing. I wanted, I was curious. I wanted to know how I could best take care of myself. And then I just kept getting the nudge. You need to do this for other people. I'm like, I don't know. I have way too much of my own stuff to deal with. How is it even possible that I can be supportive to somebody else? And the response to that was, it's exactly why you're perfect to do that. And I was like, okay, well, if this is what we're doing, then I am anticipating that there will be support along the way because I can't imagine I'm gonna get the nudge and then just be, left high and dry. And it's been that way ever since. It's like, I get a nudge to do this. And I'm like, okay, I know better than to deny it or question it or say no, because it's going to keep coming until I give my yes. And that's, and I'm grateful, very grateful.

Dan: That's really cool. Okay, I definitely wanna come back to that hospital bit. But before I come back to that, I wanna, because you talked about having that intrinsic feeling. So that leads itself very well to this question. Can anybody do this? Can anyone learn to do this or no? You have to be kind of born with this, I'm not gonna say ability, but I'm gonna say ability. And then you have to develop that or no, anyone can do it.

Ann: I believe anyone can do it. If they believe that they want to, you can do it. I believe that there are some of us that have, how do I wanna put this? They may be more open to it simply because of the general nature of how we have known ourselves to exist in this world prior to the attunements. But we all have the energy within us. And the attunements are basically opening our own energy field to universal energy. So it is accessible and available to anyone and everyone. And I would say that the longer I've done this work, I continue to do my own work because there's always more. There's always more within me to understand, to accept, to appreciate, just to develop. And I am definitely, so I've been doing this for 14 years. I'm definitely not the same healer I was 14 years ago.

Dan: Okay, so if someone wants to get started doing this, what is the best way, is it a community college or online classes or conferences or just search someone online for Reiki like, how does someone get started doing what you're doing?

Ann: Well, like I said, I found mine accidentally in a flyer for the hospital, going to any kind of a metaphysical place you would likely find one, be it a crystal store or someplace that sells metaphysical related things, be it oracle cards, tarot cards, incense, any type of that kind of material you would be able to find someone or someone who works or would be able to say, I've got the person for you. You could do a Google search. I would offer wariness around there because you could find any sort of people who are doing that. So it's, when you are in the process of searching for that, pay attention to how you feel when you're having a conversation with a potential Reiki master teacher. And if there's any part of you that feels like resistance or closed, pay attention to that. And that doesn't mean that Reiki is not for you. It simply means that this person may not be the person to be your teacher, to be the one that you work with. So because there's gonna be, there will be most likely nervous, excited energy that comes along with it. And just to pay attention to any other things, not dismiss and be like, ah, no, that's just nothing. I was distracted or I was this or some other way to kind of poo-poo the response from within you. Pay attention and you will, you'll find your person.

Dan: Okay, all right, cool. And how long does it typically take to, for someone to actually then start as a Reiki master or a Reiki practitioner? I'm not sure the right terminology, but from just starting to learn about it to actually practicing on people as an actual, you know, making money. How long does that training take? Is it like a year, six months? It depends how much time you invested in it. What is that like?

Ann: The first attunement, you can, like you do that within the course of a day. And then typically there's a 21 day process of like allowing that energy to work within you before doing the next attunement. And then again, another 21 day initiation was the word I was looking for. Another 21 day initiation. And for me, I took, I, you know, you can start practicing on other people and developing that immediately, you know, because that is, that's how you get used to it. That's how you build your comfort. And because it's a matter of like not using your head, it's completely sensing in your hands. And that's very, very different for all of us. We're used to like thinking about something, how am I gonna do this? How does this work? What does this feel like? Our mind isn't going to give us those answers. Our hands are gonna give us the answers. And the best way to start doing that is practicing on people. And then for me personally, my journey took, I don't even remember how long, there was a healthy chunk of months that happened between my second attunement before I went for the Reiki masterwork. And then that is much more involved. And there is, you know, there is intentional practicing, at least the way my teacher did the Reiki masterwork. And it was a lot of personal reflection. What am I noticing? And, you know, so there was intentional practicing with, I think there were like four or five people that we needed to find and continue to see on a regular basis. And so the length of time determined how long, you know, is determined by how long it took us to get, you know, the different number of sessions in with a different number of people. And so then you're dealing with work schedules and availability. So that's a very fluid, a fluid amount of time. And then you can step into it. I did not start seeing clients for pay until after I received my Reiki master attunement.

Dan: And is there any kind of like, I'm gonna call it like a state board or like a national board or accreditation, anything that has like a stamp of approval or something that doesn't exist?

Ann: Not for Reiki per se. You'll get a certification, like a certificate. If you want to practice Reiki in say a massage setting or in a salon or something like that, many of them will require a massage therapy license just because of actually having the hands on and touching clients. And even though in Reiki they're fully clothed, that's more of a state requirement. So not necessarily for Reiki, but Reiki would fall under what is now termed bodywork. So, okay. So you could do that if you wanted to, but you don't have to do that in order to

Dan: see clients. That's really good to know. I like that. So a lot of times I try to identify different barriers that might prevent people from doing something or something that might hold them back a little bit and knowing that if they would work in that particular setting, they might also have to have experience as an actual masseuse or the proper licensing that goes along with that. That is really, really good to know. So you talked earlier about the hospital and that leads me to this question. Because you initially got the flyer from the hospital, there is this seemingly jointness between Reiki and the hospital setting on a very superficial level, I imagine. So because a medical establishment kind of, I don't want to say endorse this, but I'm going to say that, is health insurance ever covered? Does that ever cover Reiki or no? Like not at all, it's holistic, not at all.

Ann: Nope. Reiki sadly is not covered by insurance. It would be lovely, and maybe the time will come. I was just really fortunate because my master teacher also happens to be a registered nurse. And so part of her passion was about this. And so she was able to incorporate her presence as a highly respected registered nurse to then offer the classes at the hospital. And more hospitals are bringing Reiki into holistic treatment options. Again, not necessarily not going to be covered by insurance and requirements are going to vary from state to state and from establishment to establishment. So, but it is exciting to see that there are medical institutions that are honoring the power of Reiki, even if it's simply for bringing a place of mental quiet and peace within the body and how effective that is for healing.

Dan: I was speaking with Martha Kester. She is a board certified health coach. And she was talking, we got talking about the insurance at one point. And she was saying that, and I think it was Martha, if not, she gets a free plug out of this. But she was saying that insurance wasn't covering it yet, but it's moving in that direction in some capacity. I was like, that's really cool. And I thought maybe, maybe Reiki could be going in that direction, but it doesn't quite sound like it. Ann I feel like I could talk to you for like another hour about this. I feel like we just barely scratched the surface, but I am running out of time. And one thing I definitely like to do whenever I'm speaking with someone, I like to give them the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on, a cause they believe in, more about their business. So if there's something specific you'd like to talk about, the floor is yours.

Ann: Beautiful, thank you, Dan. I appreciate that. What I have really come to love about doing this work is the mental and emotional healing that comes. There is a big stigma about mental health and emotional health is deeply, deeply connected to mental health. And the more we can bring a space of natural conversation around mental health and emotional health, the better we can connect to each other, the better we can connect within our own selves. It just has this beautiful ripple effect. And I have three books, a three book series out called "Fall in Love with the Whispers of Your Heart, a Guide to Transformation from the Inside Out." They are self-guided books, taking a variety of themes, be it feelings, prayer, intuition, being heard, connection, those kinds of things. And there are just one page entries. There's like five for each chapter, for each theme. And it's personal reflection, like going within, asking yourselves the questions. There's quotes, information, questions, a little mantra to go with it. I am deeply passionate about bringing a space of natural conversation around mental and emotional health. We need to take care of ourselves and each other. And it starts with letting us get to know who we are, which includes the mental aspect and the emotional aspect, and then bringing in our true spiritual sense with all of that so that our physical self can be at its optimum and be able to, again, ripple out and really impact everyone in a positive way so that we can be kind and compassionate and understand each other in a much more sincere, authentic way. But it starts with our own self.

Dan: That is awesome. I couldn't agree more. I mean, everything with mental health is super and super important. I feel like around COVID, I feel like there was a lot more attention to that, taking care of yourself mentally I don't know where we are today with that. But at one time, it was very, very much embraced. Take care of yourself mentally, especially from different organizations and their employees and everything. So that is just really, really awesome. I'll make sure to get all those links from you for your books. I'll put them on the website. They'll be in the show notes. They'll be all over the place. And when people are trying to find you, they can easily find you. Super, thank you. I appreciate that. Absolutely, Ann it's been absolutely awesome having you on Time We Discuss and we learned what it's like to be a Reiki master.

Ann: Well, thank you so much for having me, Dan. I've enjoyed sharing my work with you.