Reiki, Pranic Healing, and Healing Touch are common terms used today to describe energy therapy.  Doreen Paradeis-Lopes, Certified Ayurveda and Yoga Practitioner and Reiki Master Teacher, is bringing Reiki training and services to Shine On Yoga. Doreen has trained and is certified in all of these different schools of training, however; after completing each, she felt the lineage and Gurkulu (1:1 teacher to student passing on of knowledge) aspects of Reiki methodology have special meaning and significance to her own experiences enough to teach in this lineage rather than the others. Doreen will be offering all levels of Reiki Training at Shine On. Level I is comprehensive enough for those wanting to know the basics and perform Reiki on family and friends.  Level II enhances Level I techniques and allows for “distance Reiki”, where you can send healing energy even at a distance. Level III and Master Teacher level training are reserved for those who have adequate experience at the prior two levels and intend to do this work professionally.

Energy therapy is intended to move Prana, otherwise known as Chi, Universal Life Force, or Reiki energy, and to clear out the pathways through which energy enters, leaves and travels within the body. Think of it as an energetic tune-up, or like removing the cobwebs from the body’s energy systems so that energy can flow more efficiently.  Energy Therapy is different from massage and other manipulating therapies because we are working with the energy field more than the physical body, and it can be given through clothing or even without direct contact with the person. Most clients experience heat or tingling sensations during the treatment and feel very relaxed and balanced afterwards.  Even with distance Reiki, even the largest skeptics usually report some significant response. A Reiki treatment usually lasts between 45 minutes to one hour..  Research has shown that the overall physiological benefits of a Reiki session are similar to three to four hours of deep sleep, and often times speed up healing by almost double (e.g. a 3-4 day cold can be gone within one day after receiving Reiki, post-surgical healing often occurs in ½ the usual time).
Reiki …..
•    Enhances your personal growth
•    Raises your level of awareness, self-esteem, self-love and universal love
•    Enables you to take responsibility for your own health and well-being
•    Reduces stress and tension
•    Increases your energy and vitality
•    Accelerates the natural healing processes by harmonizing the body & mind’s energies
•    Provides you with a constant first aid kit from your hands which is second to none
•    Promotes the rapid healing of injuries such as cuts, burns, bruises, stings, sports injuries and post-surgery effects
•    Effectively helps common health problems such as headaches, migraines, flu, allergies, asthma, colds
•    Eases pain and reduces the side effects of drugs
•    Helps alleviate other acute and chronic health problems and emotional disorders including depression, anxiety, insomnia
•    Combines with and complements all orthodox and alternative therapies and enhances their benefits
•    Enhances your creative, intuitive and intellectual abilities
•    Improves your memory
•    Effectively treats animals and boosts the growth of plants
•    Is not a cult, religion or belief system and in no way contradicts the individual’s beliefs
•    Helps you and others to live more happily and harmoniously for the rest of your life
•    Restores your whole person to a state of harmony and balance

How to acquire Reiki?
The only way to acquire Reiki is through a process of “attunements” which is carried out by a qualified Traditional Reiki Master. Everyone has Prana/Chi/Universal Life Force within them.  In fact, it is life: we would not be alive without it! Reiki is a particular system of attunements, tools and techniques to activate the ability to increase, direct and properly use this life energy.  Reiki training just amplifies our natural ability to heal and gives us techniques and explanations to direct the healing energy more appropriately. Anyone of any age or background can receive and learn Reiki.

Reiki First Degree
You need no prior training or qualifications to attend a Reiki First Degree training session.   However, I strongly recommend that you receive Reiki at least 3 times prior to undergoing your first attunement.  Ideally, this should be done with the Reiki Master whose training you intend to take, to make sure you feel a good personal connection with your teacher and understand their methodology from a client’s perspective, first.

Reiki I is a one day workshop followed by 2 personal 1:1 sessions with the teacher, which involves lecture and training in the history of Reiki, its basic principles, the causes of disease and disharmony, Attunement, and Reiki I techniques.  Attunements/Initiations from a qualified Reiki Master help activate and align your bodymind’s energy blueprint, empowering it with Reiki energy for life. This gives you the ability to radiate the Reiki energy from your hands whenever using it on yourself, other people, animals and plants.   The Reiki I techniques are a series of hands on (or near the body) positions to begin using Reiki energy and providing Reiki to yourself and others.  It is best for practitioners to plan at least monthly get togethers to share Reiki and practice on each other, to continue developing their skills and have the camaraderie of peers.

Reiki Second Degree
Reiki II may be taken when the Reiki I initiate feels that they have had adequate practice and knowledge of Reiki I techniques.  This usually occurs anywhere from 22 days to several years
after Reiki I attunement and training.  At this advanced level you are introduced to some of the Reiki energy patterns or symbols. You learn how to use them as ‘tools’ to perform tasks such as increasing the direction and particular effects of your Reiki, sending Reiki at a distance, further developing your intuition and beginning to learn Reiki analysis and therapy techniques through more of a zoom lens.
Reiki Third Degree
Reiki III is Reiki Master training, taken after the Reiki II practitioner has performed enough Reiki to feel they have full mastery of Level I and Level II skills, and by acceptance from their Reiki Master Teacher according to the teacher’s perception of the student’s readiness.  Reiki III provides an additional attunement and advanced techniques to add to the array of tools available for treating advanced symptoms of energy imbalances and any related physiology.  Many Reiki practitioners practice at Level II for one or more years before taking Reiki master training.
Reiki Master Teacher
Level IV is the final level of attunements and training, resulting in certification as a Reiki Master Teacher.  Reiki IV teaches the attunement/initiation processes, how to teach and attune all levels, and how to develop your own system of Reiki teaching according to your lineage of Reiki as passed down through your prior Masters.  Upon completion of Level IV, you are able to begin your own training practice to initiate and teach other practitioners.  Few Reiki practitioners go on to finish to the level of Reiki Master Teacher.  This level is usually reserved for those who are practicing professionally at least on a part-time basis, with regular practice and continuing development of their skills and teaching.

Many practitioners stop with Reiki I or Reiki II level training because they are mainly interested in Reiki for themselves and to treat their friends and families.  How far to pursue Reiki training is an individual choice.  Each level of Reiki is a complete system within itself.

Principles of Reiki
Just for today do not worry.
Just for today do not anger.
Just for today show love and respect for every living being.
Just for today earn your living honestly.
Just for today live the attitude of gratitude.
-Dr. Mikao Usui, founder of Reiki