Imagine this scenario: you’ve just given a beautiful Reiki session, and your client, feeling wonderfully relaxed, asks, “So, what did you pick up? What’s wrong with me?” Or perhaps, even more unsettling, they tell you about a previous practitioner who confidently declared, “You have a blockage in your liver,” or “Your third chakra is completely closed.”

We need to realise that if you’re a Reiki practitioner, your role is not to diagnose. Full stop. It’s outrageous, unprofessional, and frankly, dangerous for any Reiki practitioner to attempt to diagnose medical conditions or tell clients that what you were feeling as the energy flowed means that they have a particular health condition.

Doctors diagnose. We don’t.

So, why do some “know-it-alls” fall into this trap? Often, it stems from a misunderstanding of how Reiki truly works, or perhaps a desire to appear knowledgeable or “gifted.” But the truth is, Reiki is far more subtle, intelligent, and holistic than any human attempt to label or categorise its effects.

When you place your hands on someone, and you feel a surge of energy, or heat, or tingling in a particular area – say, over their liver – it does not mean they have liver disease. That’s a simplistic, linear interpretation that completely misses the point. Reiki works on lots of levels: it addresses unhelpful thoughts, it helps with unbalanced or repressed emotions and it works on the spiritual level too. Now, Reiki is of course drawn in response to physical problems and ailments, but you cannot and should not assume that what you are feeling is in response to a physical condition.

Doctors diagnose. We don’t.

Consider this:

Energetic Residue: Reiki might be flowing intensely to an area to clear out “historical stuff” – old emotional baggage or past traumas that have left a trace in the energy body, even if there’s no current physical manifestation.

Pre-emptive Healing: The energy might be working on something that’s “on the boil” but hasn’t yet manifested as a physical problem. Reiki is intelligent; it’s always working for the highest good, often addressing imbalances before they become full-blown physical ailments.

Emotional Connections: In traditional Chinese medicine, specific organs are linked to emotions. For instance, the liver is associated with anger, the kidneys with fear, and the lungs with grief. So, if you feel a strong flow in the liver area, it could be that the energy is helping to release accumulated anger, not that there’s a physical pathology. Who knows? Well, we don’t need to know.

And then there’s the truly unhelpful, even harmful, pronouncements. I’ve heard stories of practitioners telling clients they have “dark energy” in an organ. Dark energy? How is that a helpful concept? Such statements impose a practitioner’s worldview on a client, causing unnecessary fear and anxiety, and often implying that only the “all-knowing” practitioner can “fix” this mysterious problem. And what, do you then let the client go off into the night, now believing that they are carrying around “dark energy”?!

Ultimately, your role as a Reiki practitioner is to get out of the way! You are a clear channel for the energy, not its source or its director. You don’t need to puzzle out “why” the energy is flowing where it is, or what sensations mean. Your job is to create a “healing space” , to be a neutral bystander , and to allow the energy of Reiki to do what it needs to do for the recipient’s highest good.

So, what can you safely say when a client asks what you “picked up”? Something simple, honest, and empowering: “I noticed quite a lot of energy flowing into this area of your body.” Often, the client will then offer their own insights, saying, “Oh, that’s because of my old knee injury,” or “I’ve been feeling a lot of stress in my stomach lately.” This reassures them that Reiki is indeed going where it’s needed, without you overstepping your professional boundaries or imposing your limited human interpretation on the energy’s profound wisdom.

Let’s liberate our practice from the need to diagnose or to be a “know-it-all.” Embrace humility, trust the energy’s intelligence, and remember that true healing happens when we simply allow Reiki to work its magic, without interference from our busy minds.

Over to you: How do you respond when clients ask you to diagnose, and what’s one way you can practice “getting out of the way” more in your Reiki sessions? Share your thoughts below!