Reiki courses with Kay Gillard in Beckenham, Kent
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My name is Kay Gillard. I have been running Reiki courses since 2006, and was invited to join the Reiki Evolution team by Taggart at the end of 2007. I teach regular courses in Beckenham, Kent, and organise regular shares and ad hoc ‘workshops’ to help with students’ continued development – I just love to see how everyone progresses. I am passionate about teaching Reiki, quite simply because (and it may sound clichéd!) Reiki completely changed my life.
My background
Although I grew up in a house where 'spirituality' was respected and talked about openly, and my mum had done a lot of healing through the spiritualist church, I didn't know much about healing and never followed that path myself. Although all the women in my family were psychic, I never felt that I had those gifts, and it wasn't until I left for university at the age of 18 that I began to have 'strange experiences' myself. The psychic experiences I had came unbidden so I had to learn to control my own energy and the space I inhabited, which took a long time. After years of experimenting with psychic divination techniques and magick, I finally found a pagan path that I felt I could follow. In the early stages of following this personal spiritual pathway, I felt that there was something really important that was missing from myself and my life. I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I didn't enjoy my job, but didn't know what else I wanted to do. I was interested in pagan spirituality, but felt unable to truly commit to it, like I wasn't quite ready. It seemed as though there were so many possibilities out there, but I didn't really know who I was or what I wanted to do. I was feeling depressed and a bit lost, so I meditated and asked for guidance on the issue.
How I found Reiki
A series of chance meetings, casual words from others, and coincidences made me decide to learn about healing. Despite the fact I had no idea what it meant - I followed the coincidences and trusted it would lead me to the right place - I signed up for a year long course in shamanic healing practices. It didn't begin for a while, and in the meantime I started hearing mentions of Reiki. I'd heard the term before, but had no idea what the system entailed so I did some research. Reiki seemed so different from the practices I was familiar with, and I didn't feel drawn to it at all until I came across the Reiki Evolution website, and Tina Shaw. As soon as I read about Tina, I felt certain I had to train with her, and I didn't want to wait! Her upcoming class was fully booked, so I contacted her to ask to be waitlisted. Fortunately Tina was able to offer me an earlier class (my email obviously showed how desperate I was to get started!) but I was busy working 6 day weeks at the time. The pull to do the course was so strong, and I was so overworked with annual leave overdue, that I told my boss I was taking an entire week off. When it was made clear that it might be a problem, I made it equally clear that I wasn't asking - I wanted more than anything to do this course!
My first Reiki treatment
From the first Reiki treatment I did during that Reiki 1 course, I realised right away that this was what had been missing, it was what I wanted to do, and what I should be doing. It felt so powerful, and yet so peaceful. All my years of education had never given me any clues as to what I wanted to do, so I had spent years floating through school, college, university, travelling, and unsatisfying jobs, with no drive to do anything. And suddenly in one day I realised exactly what I had to be focused on and working towards, and what I wanted to do with my life. Interestingly, my shamanic training started that same week, and while the two came together for my own personal healing journey, Reiki was and still is my favoured system, it's the energy I use every day without fail, the system of healing I am the most passionate about.
Becoming a Reiki teacher
The following Monday I walked into the office and handed in my notice. As scary as it seems looking back, I didn't work for a few months, focusing instead on meditation and self healing, while practicing Reiki on as many willing volunteers as I could. I've never looked back. Although I had to go back to office work again for a while, I started doing treatments professionally when I could and remained dedicated to my own self healing. I did my Reiki Mastership in 2005, and the change in my practice and my own energy was almost as major as discovering Reiki in the first place! I decided I didn't want to teach, I wanted to enjoy working with this new, stronger energy as much as I could. But, as is so often the way with Reiki, the energy had other ideas. People started asking me to teach them and so I started by teaching friends at home - and I discovered that I loved teaching even more than doing treatments. I am always so interested to hear people's own experiences of Reiki and see how it changes their lives. When I started teaching professionally I just hoped that one day I would be able to do this work I am so passionate about fulltime. I expected the work to increase gradually, but in 2007 there seemed to be a sudden explosion of students. I couldn't fit everyone into my courses, had to book in extra dates, and was even asked to teach my first teachers at the end of the year. Again I meditated on the issue and it was clear that I needed to leave the day job behind and commit fulltime to Reiki, that if I did this without worrying if everything would be ok, no longer spending time on any work that I don't love, I could really start to live the Reiki Precepts in a way I hadn't been able to before.
Joining the Reiki Evolution team
Not long after making the decision to truly devote my life to my healing path, I was delighted to be asked to join the Reiki Evolution team. I love the Reiki Evolution approach to Reiki - learning as much as we can about the Japanese system, instead of taking Western 'myths' on board without questioning them. We are all working to bring an experience of Japanese Reiki to Western people, and encouraging and understanding of Reiki that can be hard to find when there is still a lot of misinformation around. I feel very lucky to have learnt from Tina and to have used Taggart's materials, as it has given me an open minded but questioning approach to Reiki. I feel even luckier that I am now a full time Reiki Practitioner and Master/Teacher, and am part of such a dedicated team of teachers!
From my experience of studying and teaching Reiki, I know it’s an instinct which draws a person to the right teacher for them. If you’ve decided to bring Reiki energy into your life and begin your own beautiful journey of transformation, I would love to be a part of it!
Love & blessings
Kay
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