Does Reiki Work Well with Guided Imagery?

Question:
Someone told me that you recently mentioned using guided imagery and Reiki together. I am very much interested in this as I am a Reiki Practitioner/Master. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and any suggestions. Is there anything available I can use as a guide?
Tonya

Answer:
Actually, Tonya, I think I was reporting on an exciting, ongoing study at Scripps in La Jolla, where returning, traumatized Marines are given treatments of Healing Touch while listening to our Healing Trauma imagery, and, even mid-study, it's clear to the investigators that this is a dynamite combination. PTSD symptoms drop and the completer subjects in the control group (who get EMDR + individual therapy) have insisted on getting a CD and an HT treatment as a goodbye present.

We think that the HT makes the intense, emotionally evocative, powerful Healing Trauma imagery - which can be too much for some people, right out of the box without some more neutral, relaxing imagery to build up to it - tolerable and even more helpful than usual.

I don’t think you’d need a guide, as the combination is pretty straightforward. If you want to look into all the possible reactions to imagery or the ways to potentiate it further, I’ve covered all that in Chapter 10 of Invisible Heroes, General Guided Imagery Wisdom and Tactics. (Basically, I threw everything new in there that I’d learned about using imagery, because I wasn’t sure I’d ever have the patience to write another book, and we’ve actually discovered a lot since 1995, when I wrote Staying Well with Guided Imagery.

We’ve also heard great things about combining this imagery with biofeedback, bilateral tapping and massage therapy, but these reports are anecdotal as opposed to definitive outcomes from controlled studies.

One thing we can safely say: if the combination of Healing Touch and guided imagery helps with PTSD, then you know it has to be good for the more garden varieties of stress, anxiety, panic and conditions such as depression, OCD and so forth. It’s also been used very successfully with dying patients and people in chronic pain.

I would think Reiki would have similar effects but I don't know of any clinical trials to point to that would prove that. It just makes logical sense.

Hope this answers your question.
All best,
Belleruth

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written by Sally , November 03, 2009

I used Reiki with guided imagery during cancer treatments (surgery and chemotherapy) to manage stress. Within a month, my blood pressure dropped from 160/110 to 110/75! I handled all my treatments calmly, with minimal side effects, and a great positive attitude.

I have taken Reiki 1 training and plan to continue with additional training and to work with cancer patients. I've recommended both Reiki and guided imagery to all my doctors and nurses. (Most of the doctors had little interest despite the significant change in BP. My oncologist had been given free CDs with guided imagery and he never even bothered to mention them to his patients. He also never mentioned there was a support group that met in the hospital.)

Thanks for your CDs! They were awesome and really helped me make it through.

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written by Evelyn MacKay, November 03, 2009

Since Belleruth came to Toronto a couple of years ago and spent time with the 250 or so practitioners at the Therapeutic Touch Network of Ontario Conference, I have used her relaxation exercises with my clients. They tell me the combination of the imagery along with the Therapeutic Touch 'lifts' them out of the everyday and into a space of loving and supported awareness. For the clients receiving palliative care visits, the relaxation exercises allow the clients into a place of total peace an experience of 'otherness'.

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written by Kathy Hagan Diebold, November 03, 2009

As I understand Reiki, it is a non-directed energy. The Practioner opens herself as a channel for Universal Energy to pass through her and into the client. The practioner does not direct the energy. A "guided imagery" would attempt to take control of the energy, which seems counter-intuitive to Reiki's intention.

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written by tonijoy, November 03, 2009

HI, I am certified from The Academy of Guided Imagery and a Reiki Master Teacher. I use both skills together and wow .. does that work wonders. I don't do this with everyone.. it can be overwhelming. The first time I did this the client had been working on an issue for some time in therapy and he had success with the imagery and reiki together. Thank you, tj

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written by Gerry Box, November 04, 2009

I only practice reiki with friends and family, but although I cannot base comments on a wide experience of 'clients' I have given reiki to many, informally, over the years. The experience I have had is that although the reiki practitioner does not 'guide' the reiki energy - the recipient certainly does! Often an on-going problem not even mentioned to me clears up, the wisdom of the body directing energy to the more important area despite the intentions of practitioner and recipient alike! It can be quite astounding - I suspect guided imagery would facilitate this process considerably and will certainly try it out!

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written by Jeanette, November 04, 2009

I am a Reiki 2 practitioner and a guided imagery enthusiast, but I never thought of using them together. When I give Reiki, the recipients often have very intense experiences anyway, so I do wonder about the best way to combine them. Tonijoy, what is the wisdom of your experience?

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written by Su, November 04, 2009

I use Reiki and Guided Imagery together especially for a PTSD client who suffered from child abuse and several other traumatic incidents during his life. The results can be profound. As for the intention of Reiki and how it works: it is true that Reiki connects to a universal energy and that the practitioner does not 'guide' the energy. Instead the energy goes where it needs to go to align the body, mind and spirit and the chakras. The intent is to help the body do what it does best - heal itself. Guided Imagery would not 'take over' the energy or direct it in a particular way. The client on the table is never powerless and is always in charge. It is their body that responds and participates in the healing process. Guided Imagery allows the client to enter a relaxed, receptive state (much like meditation), and uses verbiage and imagery designed to help the mind and emotions heal. It does not take control of the person's mind. The imagery blends well with the relaxed, receptive state of the body and mind experienced during Reiki and the results are profound.

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written by belleruth, November 04, 2009

I'm loving this discussion and appreciating mightily the expertise and thoughtful input.
It's a similar tension, perhaps, with the choice of using imagery with massage therapy or without. Sometimes the client needs to do his or her own exploring, see what comes up during the process, unencumbered by external input.
And sometimes they come in with the intention of remediating their rheumatoid arthritis, and the additional, targeted imagery component is just the ticket for some juicy synergy....

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written by Judith Sweet, November 06, 2009

I am a Certified Healing Touch (HT) practitioner and also certified in Integrative Imagery (II) through the Beyond Ordinary Nursing program. I have combined both these techniques for quite some time. Though hHaling Touch is taught differently and has some areas of differences in philosophy than Reiki, they both are techniques that allow a practitioner to "channel" universal energy to blend with the client's in order to allow the client to self-heal. There are many different ways to combine these two modalities. For example, one client I was doing imagery with began to have severe pain in her feet from neuropathies during the imagery. As I assited her through guiding (done in II) her to determine how to decrease her pain with imagery, I also moved to her feet and did HT to help decrease it. Or, in an energy session use of imagery can assist the client in decreasing pain in a specific area of the body while that area is being "worked" on with HT. There are many ways, as are mentioned above inothers' comments and the work being done at Scripps. I love combining these two--they are both so powerful and both work with clients/patients to allow self-healing to occur!
Thanks for the discussion.--Judith

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written by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos, February 15, 2010

I am a Reiki master. When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer 12 years ago, I had never heard of Reiki. By my second diagnosis, I was a master.I believe that visualizing the Reiki symbols during meditations helped me to heal and survive recurrence. www.survivingcancerland.com

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