If you provide Reiki or any other health based modality and charge for these sessions you are a business with clients or customers depending on which terminology is more esthetically pleasing to you. You are providing a product even though you may prefer to describe it as a service because in your customers eyes you are the product.
When people want to make a purchase of any description they usually have a good idea of what it is they want. The initial thought is fleshed out to create an image in their mind so they know it when they see it. All well and good when it comes to all things material but if you are selling an element of spirituality as part of your product how much of your practice is based on tradition, personal values and beliefs or your clients perceptions of what they should be getting for their money. At one end of the spectrum you are providing an element of education but the farther you go to the other extreme it becomes more of a performance in order to fulfil the clients expectations.
The energy we work with is pure and simple; totally uncluttered in design and definition yet so often the room in which the client is introduced to this energy is the exact opposite. Sometimes full to overflowing with props and paraphernalia; the inspiring wall art, the obligatory Buddha in one or more of its many forms. Incense and candles; water features, shrines and Whale songs, none of which are remotely connected to the energy we work with. If anything these are for our benefit as much as the clients who if they were honest, may say they are ‘’nice if slightly weird’’. Comfort zones come in many shapes and sizes and are dressed in many different ways all of which brings security to the person who designed and constructed it.
We can’t add to, or detract from the energy we have throughout history given different names to. It suits our purpose to believe the energy we work with is special and unique in some way, and we possess the ability to enhance it simply by our presence, and the rituals and techniques we construct around it. Having done so we give it a special name to separate it from the rest. In effect a rebranding of a very old tried and tested product.
Stripped back to basics with all the addons and ego based props removed to the point of becoming minimalist, the energy remains untouched and unaffected but leaves the practitioner paradoxically with more room to move around in but with less places to hide.
Article by Phillip Hawkins
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A Reiki practitioner since 1999, Phillip started teaching Reiki in 2000 and using those skills and abilities he has spent the majority of the last seventeen years working with a wide range of social and educational needs including Autism and ADHD. Working with addicts dependent on alcohol and drugs, people whose lives were extremely violent and abusive, and others who had to deal with severe mental health issues. This has enabled him to work extensively in the private sector, schools, colleges, education and care in the community, the prison service and psychiatric units.
In 2016, Phillip decided to semi-retire from full-time employment to concentrate on developing his career as a published author and the setting up of his Reiki personal development programme at the Chilton Community College.
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