LIMINAL SPACES
PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC REIKI THROUGH AN EXISTENTIAL LENS
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
-Albert Einstein
There are moments, while sitting across from my clients, when I wonder how much of their suffering is really a matter of their eyes being closed to the mysterious. Or rather, that somewhere along the way, their vision somehow became damaged, and they no longer know how to see the mysterious, or to regard it as an important part of their life. To be at once unremittingly skeptical and deeply invested in a materialist, secular worldview seems to be a hallmark of our time. In my work as a mental health counselor, I have had the opportunity to interview hundreds of people across a broad spectrum of mental and emotional distress - from an acute hospital setting to private practice. I’ve come to conceptualize most of what we consider to be symptoms of “mental illness” - whether depression, anxiety, ADHD, disordered eating, bipolar disorder, OCD - the way psychodynamic psychologist Jonathan Shedler once described depression: as “the psychological equivalent of a fever. It is a non-specific response to a wide range of underlying problems - which require very different treatments.”
And so, even when two individuals present with similar symptom profiles, the underlying cause can be vastly different. This could include acute or complex trauma, personality-based tendencies, neurological injury, developmental delays or disabilities, metabolic dysfunction, self-defeating beliefs or thought patterns, substance use, abusive or dysfunctional relationships, social isolation or lack of social support, grief and loss, economic hardship, incompatibility with one’s environment, directionlessness, nutritional deficiencies, iatrogenic harm, major life transitions, war or natural disasters, circadian disruption, or exposure to toxic environmental conditions such as harmful chemicals, radiation and EMFs, or unnatural light and sound, to name a few - often several of these interacting in complex ways.
With this understanding, it is often more helpful to reframe symptoms as “signals,” which carry important information and meaning. This aligns with the “biopsychosocial” model of illness (BPS), proposed by psychiatrist George Engel in the 1970s. By and large, clients find these causal factors plausible and acceptable. But in the 1990s, this model was expanded to the “biopsychosocial spiritual” model (BPSS), to account for the protective role of spiritual beliefs and practices to psychological wellbeing - and the suffering that can arise from their absence. And it is this latter addition that I find clients struggle with the most. What was once an essential facet of life and organizing part of society is now virtually nonexistent for a large percentage of the population, and most of my clients are no exception - mostly young, middle class, adrift, and quietly struggling.
In fact, while these individuals may be struggling with any single or combination of the aforementioned biopsychosocial causes, they almost always have a noticeable lack of any sense of the spiritual or the mysterious in their lives. In its place, young people cling to secular ideologies with the same fervor that once would have been reserved for religion - instead placing their faith in institutional science, centralized medicine, technology, climate change, gender theory, politics and government, and medicalized mental health diagnoses, to name a few. Communities and identities are formulated around these ideas, to the point where belief is calcified and curiosity closed off. Alternative perspectives are then experienced as threatening and dangerous. These clients adhere to a cartesian, mechanistic worldview, with low tolerance for ambiguity. They live in uninspiring cities surrounded by brutalist architecture. Art and creativity have been reduced to soothing crafts in the name of self-care - well-intentioned, yet somehow never quite seeming to have the restorative resilience-building effect one might hope. They are glued to screens flooded with cruel opinions, unrealistic standards, dopamine-exhausting reels, endless tragedies. Often these clients come to our first session already fluent in a kind of mental health vocabulary, armed with a diagnosis, neurotically preoccupied with monitoring and mining the depths of their own internal state, desperate to get to the bottom of their suffering, and fearful of that which remains mysterious - all of which begets more anxiety. In an eerily prescient 1987 interview, famed existential psychologist Rollo May shared his views on the growth of the psychotherapy profession, explaining, “Our Renaissance began the modern age, and at the beginning of an age, there are no psychotherapists. This is taken care of by religion and by art and by beauty, by music. But at the end of an age, every other person becomes a therapist, because there are no ways of ministering to people in need, and they form long lines to the psychotherapist’s office. I think it’s a sign of the decadence of our age, rather than a sign of our great intelligence.”
As a counselor with a creative temperament - and all the scatterbrained, forgetful tendencies that tend to accompany it - I have never found myself at home in manualized therapeutic modalities. The guidelines, protocols, and skills we learned in school made sense to me in the abstract - but the practical application in the therapy space felt forced, superficial, and alien. Once I began clinical training, it wasn’t long before I rejected the idea of mental distress as an inherently brain-based pathology (although biological factors can certainly play a role). I found fixating on symptoms through a medical lens to be limiting and self-defeating. Unsurprisingly, I gravitated toward a more flexible existential approach - utilizing systematic manualized techniques occasionally when appropriate, but embracing spontaneity and uncertainty. Existential therapy is a philosophical approach derived from the works of Sartre, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger, one that highlights free will, self-determination, and the search for meaning. I welcome the intrinsic messiness of two imperfect people talking about major life themes, navigating misunderstandings and misinterpretations in real time, finding humor, sitting with tears and despair, viewing suffering as holding meaning, considering depression and anxiety as opportunities for reinvention and valuable parts of the human condition. Moreover, I place high importance on having these interactions in person - there is a powerful energy exchanged between two people in the therapy room. And while I appreciate virtual therapy for its ability to connect those who would otherwise not have access, I believe we do a disservice to our fundamental nature as energetic beings by claiming the experience is the same.
Along these lines, I find it helpful to formulate all of the aforementioned forms of suffering as energetic events. The understanding of ourselves as energetic beings has been a given across most cultures for most of human history. Canadian sociologist and energy-healing historian Edward Mann once said “Western civilization is virtually unique in history in its failure to recognize each human being as a subtle energy system in constant relationship to a vast sea of energies in the surrounding cosmos.” Most traditional cultures have a form of energy healing, closely tied to religious or spiritual beliefs - such as Qi Gong in China, Ayurveda in India, and shamanistic practices in indigenous cultures throughout the world. These can include the utilization of movement or breathwork to move energy through the body, applying pressure or needles to specific energetic points (acupuncture), harnessing the energetic properties of specific plants and herbs, the use of sound vibrations, tapping into the power of energy-dense geographical locations, and the laying on of hands.
Reiki is one such popular form of energy healing, founded in Japan in 1922 by Mikao Usui and quickly spreading to the west. The word “Reiki” loosely translates to spirit energy, and is understood to be a universal divinely guided energy that suffuses all things. Reiki is a method of energy activation, used to restore balance and vitality, and to connect with spirit. A person is initiated into Reiki practice via an empowerment or attunement (Reiju), given by a Reiki teacher or master. There are three levels of Reiki practice, starting with the beginner level, or first degree (Shoden), which focuses on self-Reiki; the second degree (Okuden) where students shift to practicing on others and learn inner teachings; and the third degree (Shinpiden), where students are empowered to attune and train others. Its practice is guided by five precepts (Gokai), which serve as reminders of daily living:
Just for today:
Do not anger.
Do not worry.
Be grateful.
Be diligent in your work.
Be kind to others.
According to the principles of Reiki, all disease begins in the human energy field (H.E.F.), which is comprised of several layers radiating out from the densest central part of the field - our physical body. Reiki heals within the H.E.F. It is built on a deeply spiritual foundation, influenced by Buddhism, Shintoism, Qi Gong, and Chinese Medicine, and involves the application of Reiki energy via the hands of a practitioner directly on or slightly above the body of the recipient, concentrating on areas where energy is believed to be blocked, stuck, depleted, congested, or disrupted - often correlating with chakras in Indian medicine or meridians in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Since its inception in 1922 and its introduction to the west, many discrete forms of Reiki have developed, each with slightly different techniques or symbolism, but all based on the same principles of the healing power of Reiki energy. Reiki is often used as a complementary alternative medicine in private practice and hospital settings, for the treatment of physical, mental, or spiritual ailments. The Center for Reiki Research lists several published clinical trials and literature reviews demonstrating the effectiveness of Reiki on a range of physical and mental conditions. In addition, there are countless books, articles, videos, social media posts, and personal stories detailing healing via Reiki or hands-on energy healing more broadly - such as Dr. William Bengston’s The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing, which presents the author’s research and investigation of energy healing on a range of illnesses, primarily cancer, via a series of controlled experiments and empirical methodology. As demonstrated in this book, neither the practitioner nor the recipient are required to believe in the spiritual underpinnings of energy healing. It is understood even by skeptics to at the very least have a deeply relaxing effect, and serve as a de facto exercise in mindfulness, forcing the recipient to slow down and be present.
In 2015, clinical psychologist and Reiki Master Richard Curtin released a book entitled Psychotherapeutic Reiki: A Holistic Body-Mind Approach to Psychotherapy, where he outlines his unique practice of combining Reiki with talk therapy. It draws on the principles of Reiki, in that it is predicated on the idea that we attain psychological health when our energy flows freely through the H.E.F. When energy is disrupted, this can affect the quality of our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, mood, behavior, and physical health. Psychotherapeutic Reiki infuses an element of mystery into the therapeutic space - something is happening that the client cannot see or quantify, even if they do not believe in the spiritual basis. I have found many clients, in spite of their deeply secular materialistic worldview, are deeply curious about this approach; it’s as if part of them is starved for this experience of the ineffable. It allows us to create a sacred container where they have permission to quiet the mind and make room for the mysterious to enter.
Psychotherapeutic Reiki begins like most conventional therapy - with an exploration of the presenting problem, personal history, and background context, often over more than one session. The practitioner listens for significant traumatic events, losses, unusual experiences, recurring relationship patterns, baseline affect, medical history, substance use, and behavioral issues. The presenting problem is then reframed as “an energetic event occurring on and across all levels of the H.E.F. - physical, emotional, mental, interpersonal, and spiritual” (Curtin, p.44, 2015). Targets are identified and a treatment plan is carefully developed. Reiki is only part of the treatment plan if the client is willing and open, and if Reiki is decided to be potentially useful in treating the presenting problem. From there, the practitioner and client together determine whether to utilize Reiki in any given session on a case-by-case basis. While there are surely times when the whole of a session is best used engaged in traditional talk therapy, there may be other times when Reiki is indicated for all or part of a session - for example, to help a client decompress at the end of a particularly stressful session, to complement other stress reduction techniques, if a specific target symptom that was previously identified as benefitting from Reiki arises in session, or to support integration when discussing a specific issue.
Dr. Curtin guides the use of Reiki throughout a course of treatment by outlining four therapeutic tasks - usually followed sequentially, with the understanding that some tasks may take longer than others. The first is the task of practicing presence, which concerns the relationship between the client and their symptoms. This task employs techniques to help clients learn to stay present with their symptoms, while receiving supporting Reiki energy. The client is directed to shift into observer mode, connecting to their present experience with an attitude of acceptance and nonjudgment. Mindfulness, breathwork, and body scan techniques may be encouraged to help facilitate this process. The witnessing state of mind combined with the application of Reiki energy breaks down the client’s resistance to the symptoms, and helps clear the way to the possibility of change.
The second therapeutic task is exploring the body-mind, which entails a deeper investigation of the client’s symptoms. While the target symptom (belief, thought, emotion, or memory) is present, the practitioner and client together explore the quality of the client’s thoughts, the emotions that arise in relationship to the symptom, and any physical sensations that can be felt in the body. Techniques such as breathwork, directed attention, visualization, narrating experience, naming associations, and chakra balancing may be used to help facilitate this process. Reiki is directed into the H.E.F., where it engages both the target symptoms as well as unresolved aspects of the client’s experience and sense of self. In so doing, the target symptom may lessen or intensify, depending on what is required for resolution. The goal of this task is to promote greater insight and strengthen the client’s ability to stay with the experience rather than avoiding.
Releasing and clearing energy blocks is the third therapeutic task, which utilizes a series of techniques to help the client let go of stored traumatic or negative energy, memories, thoughts, and emotions. Where cognitive work may disempower a maladaptive belief by examining the evidence, and emotional work by tracing it to its source, Reiki works on an energetic level - releasing the negative charge that anchors the belief to the etheric body. During this process, it is important for the target belief/emotion/memory to be re-experienced and faced before it can be released, so the client must have cultivated a capacity to tolerate the experience of strong emotions and distressing thoughts or memories. Techniques to help facilitate the release and clearing of the underlying charge may include directed attention, balancing specific chakras, auric clearing, emotional flooding, and what Dr. Curtin calls the mental-emotional release technique; this requires the client to call up their target symptom, remain present with the emotional reaction while the practitioner sends Reiki into the client’s solar plexus and heart chakras, and send the belief/emotion/memory into the practitioner’s hands while imagining light radiating from them until it slowly fades as the charge is released.
The final task is installing corrective experience, rooted in the idea that awareness of how our thoughts shape reality opens the door to seeing ourselves differently in the world. Throughout this task, techniques are used to help the client begin to think, feel, and act differently and with intention. After releasing the negative charge of previous unwanted beliefs and emotions, Reiki is used to strengthen and vitalize their corrective counterparts. This requires both the client and the practitioner to hold the intention at the same time, such that their energy fields merge. New information in the form of affirmations, positive images, successful outcomes, or good feelings are directed to take root in the space from which prior beliefs or images were released.
There are of course several safeguards to address before beginning psychotherapeutic reiki. In addition to being a licensed therapist, the practitioner must hold at least a second degree Reiki initiation, which confers the training necessary to practice on others. Dr. Curtin insists practitioners be trained at the master level before offering Reiki in this context. In part, this is to ensure the highest level of competence. But this also allows the practitioner to offer attunement to clients, so that they might be empowered to practice Reiki on themselves outside of session. Practitioners are also advised to obtain proper malpractice insurance for the use of Reiki, in addition to their standard psychotherapy malpractice insurance. There are many professional bodywork and massage associations that offer affordable insurance policies for Reiki and energy-healing.
The use of touch in a therapeutic session also requires careful consideration. Practitioners must be attuned not only to their own comfort level, but to each client’s history - assessing for trauma, personality, and any factors that may contraindicate physical contact. It is worth restating that Reiki can be practiced without touch entirely, though these same considerations apply; some clients or clinical situations may simply not be a good fit for this work. When Reiki is deemed appropriate, the therapeutic environment must be safe, professional, and well-boundaried. Practitioners are responsible for clear communication from the outset - explaining the process, describing hand positions, and collaboratively establishing a plan should the client become uncomfortable. In any form of body work, there is the potential to elicit a range of unexpected responses - physical discomfort, unsettling thoughts or memories, and on occasion, sexual arousal. The practitioner must remain present and attentive throughout, ready to respond to these experiences as they arise, reestablish boundaries if needed, and, if necessary, pause to reevaluate whether continuing with Reiki remains appropriate for that client.
In 2015, British psychiatrist Anthony Daniels published a book called Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines Morality, under the pen name “Theodore Dalrymple,” in which he argues “Psychology is not a key to self-understanding, but a cultural barrier to such understanding as we can achieve; but it is my belief that we shall never be able to pluck out the heart of our mystery. Of this I am glad rather than sorry.” Traditional talk therapy remains the gold standard treatment for a wide range of mental and emotional suffering. But in a world increasingly bereft of the mysterious, it often falls short of touching existential suffering at its root. The introduction of a spiritual element - such as psychotherapeutic Reiki - has the potential to go further, providing a glimmer of what many clients are missing from their lives. It is a doorway to the numinous; a way to illuminate a path rather than eliminate the dark, a liminal space in which to meet the mysterious without dismantling it as if it’s a puzzle to be solved.