Reiki Effects on Anxiety and Depression

Reiki is said to be a good technique for a person’s health and well-being as well as for a person’s budget. Reiki is of Japanese origin and the process of Reiki involves laying hands on the patient while he or she lies down fully clothed. The concept of the Reiki technique is to transfer life force energy from the universe, through the Reiki attuned practitian, to another person. Aside from physical health benefits of Reiki to a person, older adults are also said to gain benefits from Reiki in terms of anxiety and depression.

According to a Reiki study, mental disorders are very common to older adults and it seems that as people grow old, they become more prone to mental disorders. Anxiety, depression, memory loss, etc. are just a few of the mental illness that older adults experience. And because of fear that treatment may cause them pain or simply lack of faith that therapies could help them heal, most people just ignore their mental diseases. But, according to the study conducted in the year 2004, there is a great significance of Reiki technique when it comes to the treatment of anxiety and depression to older adults.

In terms of depression, a study gathered participants to test the effects of Reiki on depression reduction. The participants of the study were divided into three groups; the Reiki treatment group, the distant Reiki treatment group and the distance placebo group or non-Reiki treatment group. While the participants all have the same scores before the treatment, the result changed after the treatments were conducted. The groups which were treated using the Reiki technique were seen to have significant decrease on the symptoms of depression and the reduction was way higher than the result acquired by the placebo group.

A Reiki study was also conducted in terms of the effects of Reiki to anxiety. Anxiety can be one of the major causes of depression to older adults that is why it goes hand in hand with depression. With this, Wardell and Engebretson decided to conduct a study in 2001 that would help them determine if there are significant effects of Reiki to anxiety treatment. They gathered 23 participants all in all and they were all exposed to a 30-minute Reiki session. The collection of data was divided into three parts; one is before the treatment, then, during the treatment, and after the treatment.

The anxiety results that came out stated that all participants had the same result before the treatment. During the treatment, there was only a slight change, but after the Reiki session, anxiety state was greatly reduced compared to results before the treatment and during the treatment. In other words, the results state that Reiki can significantly eradicate and treat anxiety in older adults. According to these studies, Reiki can be the solution for older adults’ problems regarding anxiety and depression without feeling any pain during the treatment as well as without spending a lot for therapies that don’t work.

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