10 Steps to Starting a Reiki Share

Got a dream or a passion for traditional Reiki energy healing? We’re so glad to hear you have a compassionate heart and willingness to spread your positive energy with others! Reiki healing transcends self-healing and can be practiced within big or small groups. If you want to grow your practice, you might want to consider starting a Reiki Circle to reach more people. It’s really not that hard or intimidating, once you learn the right steps to starting a healing circle.

1. Do Your Homework

A great place to start learning about reiki is through the reiki.org website, where you can take classes and become a certified practitioner. There are various levels of programs starting at basic certification classes for a few hundred dollars to full-on reiki master courses. 

Learn everything you can about how group Reiki sessions work. In general, Reiki practitioners simultaneously practice Reiki on a recipient for a set amount of time, usually 15-20 minutes. The recipient then exchanges places with a practitioner until all in the group have received their Reiki treatment. It’s a very loving communal act, as it breaks down boundaries in a safe, compassionate manner and allows individuals to help each other.

2. Set the Circle’s Tone

Figure out how you want to facilitate these sessions, such as if you want to give out refreshments like tea or snacks. You also need to decide on music or no music. Pick your lighting…do you want natural light? Candles? Regular light bulbs? Your goal is to create a safe space for the group healing exploration, no matter where it takes place.

Living rooms, furnished basements, community centers, and practitioners’ treatment spaces can all become circles. As you get more attendees, you can also start a rotating cycle going from home to home. Some recommendations to consider: live music, healing lights, healing pets (make sure no one has allergies), incorporating other healing traditions (Shamanism, crystals, and aromatherapy).

3. Clear the Space

It’s important to keep the energy flowing and to make the space sacred. Have both rose water and sage to smudge. Rosewater is usually not as offensive an aroma as sage and can quickly be sprayed in and around the group. Chimes, bells, and ting-shaws (Tibetan cymbals used to mark the beginning/ending of a ritual) are sound instruments that can be used at the end of each session. These sounds not only mark the closing but also gently cleanse the space.

4. Set Boundaries and Expectations

Setting healthy boundaries for the circle creates an optimum healing space. Make sure everyone is aware of what will go on, and what the other healers will perform ahead of time so there aren’t any awkward or uncomfortable surprises. You may want to create guidelines, a website, or a Facebook group so that everyone is on the same page.

5. Let the World Know

There are a lot of ways to get the word out. You can make flyers and put them at the corner metaphysical bookstore or other alternative shops. Send a press release to the local paper and explain your healing intentions. Use Reiki networking websites, who knows maybe you’ll get a response from a local reiki master. CraigsList allows you to post events for free. Start a Facebook group and encourage your members to share and RSVP.

6. Stay in Close Communication

Keep in touch with your members. Email, Facebook, or a physical mailing list work. Make sure there is a place for people to ask their questions and feel like they know what’s going on.

7. Educate the Community

Welcome to the world of self-promotion as a certified Reiki practitioner! Facilitating a Reiki circle is an excellent way for you, as a budding practitioner, to build your public relations skills as well. You must organize the event, market it, and then facilitate with grace and ease. Each circle gets easier and easier, but in the beginning, you might feel overwhelmed, so shadow another facilitator for a while.

Ask to co-facilitate a session and get a feel for the flow and for what details they have to keep track of. Take notes! Reiki circles require grass-roots community organizing. But it’s important to keep a regular and posted schedule for your circles. Don’t be afraid to fail, try new things, or make mistakes, but make sure you are as consistent as possible.

8. Take It Global

Start some special events! Hold monthly circles for global healing. Instead of having clients lie on tables, reach out to groups of people in crisis and put them in the center of your circle where you are seated, and send healing energy from a distance. You can also coordinate internet events with not only your group but larger, global groups.

For example, a group out of Seattle, Global Earthsend, apparently has over 50,000 Reiki practitioners connected worldwide via the internet who send healing energy to a particular part of the world each Friday night. What a beautiful way to showcase community and love.

9. Understand the Social Significance of Circles

Empathy is a definitive part of a circle. Circles are places of deep healing and self-discovery. Their main purpose is to provide a safe environment of support and love reminiscent of being held by a universal mother. The circle becomes the receptacle for a recipient’s self-discovery and healing: “How do I feel about being held by those I had perceived as strangers? These people are now coming together to help me on my path. They have never met me, and yet they hold me.”

Each one in turn receives from the group in an equal balance of giving and receiving. There are no expectations. There are circles being held all over the world, in many different environments. As time goes on, we will see more of them in places like hospitals, corporate spaces, and educational institutions because circles offer immediate stress-reduction and relaxation.

10. Be Mindful and Aware of Progress

Keep doing your work. Hold a circle. Build your practice. Reiki circles as social healing phenomena are beginning to reach their potential. Continue to watch the world transform through the building of healing communities and the sharing of universal energy.