Reiki for Kids

Bamboo and Latte getting a joint Animal Reiki session from my twelve-year-old cousin Jeremy, a Reiki II practitioner. I can speak from firsthand experience, the kid can send ReikI!

One of my all-time favorite emails started out like any other, asking the typical questions about what taking an online Reiki class entails, how they work (Reiki I is three weeks), how much they cost (Reiki I costs $200), and so forth. But the last sentence was the best:

“Does it matter that I’m only ten years old?”

Of course, the answer to his question is a resounding, “No”.

Not only does it not matter, I personally have found in teaching Reiki to children that they tend to “get it” faster than us adults.

Here’s eleven-year-old Mariana with her Reiki doll and Reiki I certificate.

Let’s just say that the girl is good! She stayed focused during the whole class and helped her mom (not to mention me) in ways that we’ll probably never understand or realize.

Mariana really wanted to continue on with Reiki II and the Reiki Master class, but they moved to Columbia not long thereafter and there just wasn’t time.

But I have no doubt this amazing human will become a Reiki Master in this lifetime. She’s already a master in many, many ways.

Reiki and kids just seem to go hand in hand.

One, children seem to be able to tap into that connection we all share with Universal Consciousness easier than we can. Child psychologists and researchers have shown that before age 7, children are extremely aware of energy and “conscious”, even if their parents or social structures negate their connection to All That Is.

“Oh, you’re just making that up,” a parent might think about his child’s comment that he saw a scary person by his bed at night. Or a mom might say, “Isn’t that cute…” when her daughter explains how she talks to their family dog who passed away the year before. Children have less blockages and barriers to prevent them from recognizing the truth about energy and how our world works.

One of my favorite quotes is the famous, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”

If a ten year old kid learns Reiki and how to do the traditional Usui hand positions on himself (not to mention others!), he has a tool at his disposal for the rest of his life when it comes to healing himself. If he hurts his knee, he can send Reiki to it. If he wants his football team to win the game (an actual example from my eleven year old cousin), he can transmit the healing Reiki energy to the game.

Knowing Reiki not only empowers children and helps them understand they have the ability to heal themselves, it gives them an action they can take to do so, anytime, anywhere.

YES.

Also, kids love to learn! In teaching Reiki to children, I’ve found that my little students are not only eager to practice, they often make comments that make me realize that while they may be younger than me, it is very clear in those particular instances who is the teacher and who is the student.

Take my eleven year old cousin Jeremy for example…

The night before I taught my first in-person Reiki class ever, I practiced giving Reiki attunements to my mom and Jeremy. My mom has always humored my fascination (okay, obsession) with Reiki, even though it is always clear she is just going along with it. Jeremy knew absolutely nothing about Reiki before we started. I sat them down and attuned them together without explaining anything about what Reiki is or how it works.

Afterward, I asked them if they had felt anything during the attunement. My mom, ever the realist, didn’t feel anything, but JerBear immediately started to describe the different colors and light waves he saw around him.

The next day, I was giving my mom a massage and Reiki for a back injury, and Jeremy wanted to help. I let him, even though I hadn’t taught him anything about Reiki yet or even explained what it was.

Here’s Jeremy being the gracious model for the Usui hand positions section of my Reiki I manual.

To my surprise, Jeremy started to put his hands over my mom, moving them in a very tai-chi fashion, as though he was pulling energy out of my mom. He looked very focused and “in the zone”, and I didn’t want him to feel self-conscious because I was looking at him, but every time I could I would steal a glance. I was blown away with his concentration, but he took the cake when he started to draw what looked like symbols over my mom!

I asked him afterward what he did during the Reiki session, and let’s just say the kid was very busy! I would tell you precisely what he did, but he asked me not to tell people and I want to honor and respect his decision.

Essentially, however he was practicing Reiki and doing everything ‘right’ without even knowing what ‘right’ was. Among other Reiki techniques, he pulled energy from my mom and gave it to “Spirit” to be changed (a word I have never heard this football kid ever use in his entire life!)

When it looked like he was drawing symbols, in actuality he was drawing words he explained. Although, in truth, words are just symbols that mean a particular thing, right? After all, the Usui Reiki symbols are just ‘words’ drawn in the Japanese language of Kanji.

When Jeremy practiced Reiki on me a few weeks later, I could feel the energy flowing right away even though he never laid his hands on me as soon as the session began. The Reiki treatment was extremely powerful, lasting all of about ten minutes, and when it was over he had once again hit the nail on the head.

He explained to me, very nonchalantly,  that he had just pulled fear out me and replaced it with courage.  :D  (Which just so happens to be one of my core life lessons I was currently working with.)

Now in the healing arts we often hear about love and fear, and as adults, we talk about fear of failure, fear of success, fear of absolutely everything, even fear of fear and being afraid! But I don’t quite think eleven year olds do the same.

So, as a Reiki Master Teacher, I will happily take students of any age any day, regardless of how many years they may be in this lifetime. Of course, it also goes without saying that children, as most humans, are typically very receptive to receiving Reiki as well. They may not have the patience for a longer session or you may have to send the Reiki long-distance. Overall, however, children really seem to enjoy the attention and relaxation a Reiki session offers.

To conclude, here is beautiful eleven year old Mariana Ortiz giving Reiki to her mom in an extremely powerful session:

Mariana sending her mom the Power Symbol and Peace Symbol. What a beautiful sight to see…