Reiki and Shadow Work: The Importance of Self-Healing

As Reiki practitioners, we help facilitate the healing process for our clients, but when it comes to working on ourselves, we often overlook how important it is to continue our own self-healing. Walking a spiritual path often leaves us feeling pressured to be the ‘perfect’ Reiki practitioner, free from triggers and wounds, or to give all of ourselves to other people in the name of unconditional compassion and love. We often feel selfish when we think about putting work into ourselves, like spending time on our own health and wellbeing is taking away from the people we have committed our lives to helping.

But the truth is that we cannot help those around us if we don’t first help ourselves. A few years into my Reiki journey, I was working towards a degree in psychology. I thought I had done all of the work to heal my traumas and let go of my triggers in previous years, and I wanted to dedicate my life to researching the way trauma impacts our brains. My goal was to find a way to bridge the gap between science and spirituality, using research to prove what I had seen happen in my own life – that if you connect with something greater than yourself, get curious, and dive in deep, healing is possible.

This goal held a lot of potential for the fields of psychology and spirituality, but it was based on a fundamental flaw: My belief that healing trauma was a one and done process. I had attempted to confront my deepest childhood traumas the year before, putting work and energy into my meditation practice, EMDR therapy, and more. It was an incredibly difficult period, but as I sat in my psychology classroom on the other side of that process, I found myself feeling like I had everything figured out. I thought I was ‘done’ healing, and ready to show others how they could begin this process themselves.

All of this changed one day in my Abnormal Psychology class. I sat in front of a slideshow on PTSD, feeling overly confident that the signs and symptoms we were about to cover were things I no longer dealt with. I distinctly remember saying to myself, “I’m so glad I am not there anymore.” But as the slides went by, I started realizing that I was far from healed. Some of the very things I prided myself on, like my hyper independence, were actually coping mechanisms in disguise. Over the course of an hour in that classroom, my entire worldview was rescripted as I realized that so many of the things I had looked to as signs I was ‘healed’ were really invitations to dive deeper.

That class sparked the start of an intense Dark Night of the Soul. In the process of recommitting to my healing, I realized how far I still had to go. The next year of my life was filled with shedding layers upon layers of who I thought I was. The process was ugly, intense, and painful. At one point, I tested off the charts for anxiety and depression, was having daily panic attacks or flashbacks, and could barely get out of bed. I ended up going back to EMDR therapy and diving deeper into my Shamanic Reiki practice to uncover the depths of my traumas and shadows. But rather than trying to heal them for good or ‘get over’ the things that had ‘happened to me’, my perspective shifted. My goal was no longer to heal every single part of me, but rather to discover who I truly was. I came to understand that healing is a process, not a destination.

On the other side of that Dark Night of the Soul, I look back and understand how deeply I needed healing, but I also look back and see how even in the depths of depression and anxiety, I was able to help and support my clients and students. I look back and see how even when I was shrouded in sorrow and fear, there was still so much light in my life. That year taught me that shadow work does not mean filling your entire life with darkness. It means learning to embrace the fact that the darkness and the light can co-exist.

We will never be done healing because there is no such thing as ‘healed’ and ‘not healed’. We are inherently whole, worthy, and loved. What we consider to be healing is simply the process of remembering this core truth. We don’t have to be ‘fully healed’ in order to help our clients or be worthwhile human beings, because healing and helping are not mutually exclusive. We can be supportive, powerful practitioners while still working through our own triggers. We can help clients find their answers even when we are still searching for our own. In fact, diving into the depths of ourselves to release the layers that no longer serve us is vital to our practice, because it affords us the perspective and true compassion to be able to hold space for others.

Our power as practitioners does not come from our ability to be serene, all-knowing, and completely healed. Our power as practitioners, and simply as people, comes from realizing that our darkness and our light make us who we are. The goal is not to eradicate the darkness entirely, but to use our light to embrace and accept it. When we realize that we can be in process and still be effective, healing and also helping, deep in self-work while also supporting the work of others, that is when true acceptance and transformation occur. We no longer cut ourselves off from the depths of experience because we should be ‘better than that’, but we realize that healing is a lifelong process, the mark of a human being who is dedicated to living their lives fully, complete with the joys and sorrows being alive has in store for us.

In this way, shadow work is a confirmation of life, a commitment to fully experiencing all that being human entails. When we engage in shadow work and self-healing, we bring light to the darkness, healing to our wounds, and compassion to spaces previously filled with fear. Being open to seeing the places we can grow and releasing the things that no longer serve us is the mark of a person living in a balanced state, honoring their spiritual calling and their human experience at the same time. Shadow work is what allows us to be effective in our practice, present in our lives, and compassionate with ourselves and the world around us. I encourage you to release the fears of imperfection, of not having it all figured out, and of being ‘less than’ if you still have healing to do. Instead, embrace the idea that self-work, healing, and discovering your Truth is a process, a privilege, and an honor.

Reiki calls us to commit to a lifelong journey, a daily commitment to ourselves, and an investment in remaining curious and open to who we truly are in each moment. Engaging in shadow work frees us to become the fullest expression of ourselves and create a life that feels free, joyful, and abundant.

Article by Isabel Wells

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Isabel is a Channeler, Shamanic Practitioner, Reiki Master, and Director of ReikiCafe University working to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. She has a background in nursing and psychology, and her passion for quantum physics, energy healing, and spiritual theory combine to create a unique perspective of the human experience. Her work with ReikiCafe University inspires and empowers Reiki practitioners to think outside the box and expand their practice while diving deep into their intuition. She currently holds space for students in the Soul Rising Shamanic Reiki online course, co-hosts the ReikiCafe Radio podcast, and supports the 4,000+ member community in the ReikiCafe Community Facebook group.