At Reiki Evolution we have a steady stream of students coming to us to re-take their Reiki courses because they weren’t very happy with their original Reiki training, and we hear quite a few horror stories about wholly inadequate Reiki training courses.
The main criticisms fall into three categories:
- Aimless drifting through the day of the course, talking about things unrelated to Reiki
- Emerging from the course without a clear idea of what Reiki is or how to use it
- Hardly any hands-on practice at actually doing Reiki, but a lot of talking
So if a student ends up spending their time on a course sipping herb tea while chatting randomly about what everyone thinks of Reflexology or what the last Natural Healing Exhibition everyone went to was like, as if there was no time pressure at all, drifting through the day not really finding out very much about Reiki and not having much of an opportunity to try doing Reiki, that course is not good enough.
Work out your course structure
Effective Reiki courses need to have a definite structure, where the teacher knows in advance what they are going to say, what they are going to demonstrate, what exercises and practices they are going to talk their students through, and what they aim for their students to know and be able to do by the end of the course.
You set a schedule and stick to it because if you spend an hour too much on one particular task or practice then you end up rushing, and skimping, on another area. You need to keep an eye on the time, and stick to your schedule as far as is practical.
Work out what you are going to cover in the morning, and what you are going to cover in the afternoon. Give your students a definite mid-morning break, at a definite time, so you break the morning, and the afternoon for that matter, into two separate sessions, and give your students a definite lunch break; I think lunch should be at least 45 minutes.
Students need a chance to get out of the room, get some fresh air and maybe go for a bit of a walk to clear their heads
In your pre-planned sessions you’re there to talk about, demonstrate and supervise people practising Reiki. In your scheduled breaks you can chat about whatever you like, and remember that you need to have a decent break for lunch, too, to clear your head and get some fresh air and a change of scenery.
Reiki Evolution First Degree courses
As an example, here’s a list of the ‘main headings’ from our Reiki First Degree courses:
- Introduction
- Reiju empowerment #1
- Practice: Experiencing energy
- Reiju empowerment #2
- Practice: Daily energy exercises
- Reiju empowerment #3
- Practice: Self-treatments
LUNCH
- Talk/Demo: Treating other people
- Practice: feeling the energy field
- Practice: scanning
- Practice: give and receive a full treatment
You can see that in our morning session, the students receive their three Reiki initiations, they are introduced to the idea of energy and given the chance to feel energy for the first time, they learn how to carry out some daily energy exercises (Hatsurei ho) and they are guided through a form of self-treatment (in this case, the self-treatment meditation that Usui Sensei taught).
The afternoon session moves on from working on yourself to working on other people, with the teacher giving a talk and brief demonstration of a Reiki treatment, showing hand positions, giving hints and tips, and then students practise working with energy again, this time feeling another student’s energy field and trying out ‘scanning’ for the first time. This leads on to the giving and receiving of a full treatment.
Reiki is a practical skill
You will have noticed that there is a lot of hands-on practice in this schedule. There is a good reason for this: Reiki is a practical skill, and you learn a skill by doing it, not just hearing about it. You can’t learn to swim by attending lectures about swimming: you have to get in the water and do it, with advice and guidance from your instructor.
It’s not enough to tell them what to do: they need to have had practical experience of actually doing the things they will do when using Reiki for themselves and others.
Our aim is for our students to come out of our First Degree course with a clear idea of what Reiki is, where it comes from, and how they can use it simply to work on themselves and treat other people. They will have experienced energy in different ways, practised a self-treatment, used Hatsurei ho and they will have given and received a full Reiki treatment.
These are the essential components of a Reiki First Degree course. You can read more about what Reiki 1 should be about by visiting this page:
Back to basics: all about Reiki First Degree
Need some help with your course materials?
I have put together comprehensive and detailed course manuals and easy-to-listen-to audio CDs with commentaries and guided meditations. All these are available for you to use on your own courses (no matter what lineage you have) and you can order them in packs of four at greatly discounted prices. Reiki teachers all over the world are using them. Find out more by clicking here:
Reiki Evolution Manuals and audio CDs.
Did you like this blog?
If so, you are going to love this book…
“Spot on! I’ve been teaching reiki for many years and I must say I wish this book had landed back then!
I’ve put together courses and really would have loved a book like this to refer back to, it’s concise, clear, laid out really well and is informative and a mini support system to boot.
If you’re entering the Reiki world with an aim to become Master/Teacher then having this book in your armoury will benefit you.”
S J Price
Teaching Reiki
A Comprehensive Guide to Running Great Courses
This is the book I really wish had been available when I started running Reiki courses in 1997. And it would have helped me greatly in my journey as a Reiki teacher thereafter.
You’ll find a wealth of advice about how to set up and run your Reiki courses: read articles about planning and structuring your courses; find out how to explain things to students in a way that honours their learning preferences and personality types; discover how to create top quality course materials and how to support your students long-term.
We look at the differences between ‘Western’ and Original Japanese Reiki and I explain how I created “Reiki Evolution” courses, which pass on the essence of Reiki’s original form. Read this book and you’ll know how to teach “Reiki Evolution” style: what to say, what to teach, and even how to teach Reiki in a ten-week ‘Evening Class’ format.
This book will be of interest to anyone who is about to start teaching Reiki, or to established Reiki teachers who are interested in enhancing the quality of their courses.
Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents
Book: 370 pages.
Price: £15.99 + p&p
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Photo credit: Joakim Silverdrake
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