Recent clinical studies showed using Reiki in a hospital setting can provide relief to patients. In the article Immediate Symptom Relief After a First Session of Massage Therapy or Reiki in Hospitalized Patients: A 5-Year Clinical Experience from a Rural Academic Medical Center, researches sought the answer for if Reiki could help hospitalized patients.
Reiki is often used for chronic conditions outside of the hospital, such as chronic pain, cancer, or depression. Reiki is to frequently offered in acute care settings, such as hospitals.
Many of traditional allopathic medicine’s treatments are based on medical studies that show benefits, risks, and possible outcomes. Evidence-based Medicine, or EBM, is used for most therapies, surgeries, and medications in the United States. EBM offers guidelines and a rational approach to the choice of therapies. Physicians like EBM because it helps to remove personal and professional bias, keeping the choice of which treatment to use objective.
Reiki and many complimentary treatments that work on the human biofield can be the most difficult to study in evidence-based Medicine as it is difficult to arrange studies that fit typical guidelines of EBM in energy medicine.
Evidence-based guidelines can be immensely helpful but for the most part they tend to ignore the individual. As we all know we all have individual bodies and individual needs. Although evidence-based medicine reassures us we may be taking the best option for our patients if our patients don’t respond it is likely that the individual simply doesn’t fit the mold based on the study and which the treatment was chosen. Having a therapy sessions Reiki can help fill the gap between evidence-based medicine and answering the needs of individuals.
Reiki has many benefits, including physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. This particular study showed that “reiki improved pain by 49.2% and anxiety by 59.8%1” These were patients being treated in the hospital experiencing an immediate improvement in some of the most severe symptoms related to hospitalization.
“Reiki improved pain by 49.2% and anxiety by 59.8%1“
Vergo, M. T., Pinkson, B. M., Broglio, K., Li, Z., & Tosteson, T. D. (2018). Immediate Symptom Relief After a First Session of Massage Therapy or Reiki in Hospitalized Patients: A 5-Year Clinical Experience from a Rural Academic Medical Center. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 24(8), 801–808. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2017.0409
Applying the discipline of evidence-based medicine to the practice of Reiki is very difficult, so the researchers in this study used questionnaires to quantify symptom improvement.
Reiki is a treatment modality with virtually no risk. It can be done hands-on or hands-off. During this time of social distancing, Reiki can be done from a distance, anywhere in the world.
As a Reiki Practitioner, I am accustomed to providing Reiki sessions in 30-minute and one-hour intervals. I was delighted to read that the healing arts volunteers who participated in this study provided 20-minute sessions. This is wonderful, meaning that a shorter duration of treatment, which is likely necessary due to the busy nature of hospital admissions, is still beneficial.
The research article reinforces the utility of a healing modality with so little risk and so many benefits. Reiki can feasibly be offered in a variety of medical settings. Beyond in-person sessions, Distance Reiki is a completely safe option in which Reiki practitioners can provide healing without having to risk being in a hospital setting.
1.Vergo, M. T., Pinkson, B. M., Broglio, K., Li, Z., & Tosteson, T. D. (2018). Immediate Symptom Relief After a First Session of Massage Therapy or Reiki in Hospitalized Patients: A 5-Year Clinical Experience from a Rural Academic Medical Center. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 24(8), 801–808. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2017.0409