How Reiki Differs From Massage

In states that don’t explicitly exempt Reiki from jurisdiction by the Massage Board, Reiki typically raises the ire of people that would favor to have it regulated. Causes can vary from conservative non secular teams on the lookout for methods to attenuate the proliferation of other spirituality, to massage therapists desirous to eradicate competitors from these with much less formal training, to a misunderstanding of what Reiki truly is. I provide this text as a place to begin for folks making an attempt to grasp the variations between Reiki and Massage.

This record additionally serves as a place to begin for anybody making a petition focused to a specific state’s definition of massage. (You should definitely test your state’s precise definition when writing such a petition.) In a world of elevated regulation, it is essential to follow Reiki each responsibly and freely.

The “Rei” in Reiki stands for “common” or” religious,” and the “ki” corresponds to the “life drive vitality” generally known as “Chi” or “prana” in different Japanese programs of therapeutic and vitality work equivalent to feng shui, Tai Chi, Qigong, or yoga. Thus, Reiki refers to “common life drive vitality,” “divinely directed therapeutic vitality,” or “life vitality of a religious nature,” with an emphasis on refined vitality fields somewhat than the bodily body. For the next causes, we don’t imagine Reiki matches the authorized definition of massage:

1) Massage is primarily bodily, however Reiki works with refined vitality fields surrounding the body. Though some massage therapists might draw upon Reiki vitality whereas giving massages, a conventional Reiki remedy includes 11 to 14 stationary, non-pressured hand positions held for 3 to five minutes every. Whereas massage includes the manipulation of tissue, Reiki requires solely a light, non-invasive contact or no contact in any respect. Reiki Degree 2 college students learn to carry out Reiki remedies at a distance with out requiring somebody’s bodily proximity, however it might be unimaginable to provide a massage with no body in the identical room. Reiki is akin to “the religious laying on of palms” or “therapeutic prayer,” somewhat than a massage modality or approach.

2) With a view to present efficient massage, massage therapists want information of anatomy and physiology, together with numerous massage strokes like “Effleurage,” “Petrissage,” “Tapotement,” and so on. Against this, Reiki college students be taught that common life drive vitality has innate intelligence and is aware of the place it must go. Reiki practitioners don’t manipulate the body or forcefully direct vitality throughout a Reiki remedy. With a view to follow Reiki, the practitioners should obtain an attunement or initiation from a Licensed Reiki Grasp Trainer. The attunement opens the scholars’ personal pure vitality channels, permitting Reiki vitality to movement by their palms. The standard Reiki hand positions and every other Reiki course of don’t require massage schooling as a way to be efficient 강남안마.

3) Along with the aforementioned variations, preparations for receiving Reiki or massage are completely different. Earlier than receiving a massage, most sufferers disrobe after which have lotions rubbed into their nude or semi-nude body, draped beneath a sheet. Against this, recipients of Reiki all the time stay clothed, and Reiki remedies don’t contain using lotions or crèmes.

4) The American Most cancers Affiliation makes a distinction between massage and Reiki when recommending complementary therapies. Based on the ACA, “Manipulation of a bone in an space of most cancers metastasis might end in a bone fracture. Additionally, individuals who have had radiation might discover even light contact on the remedy space to be uncomfortable… Individuals receiving radiation remedy shouldn’t have lotion or oil used on the areas on which radiation was used. Even with out radiation remedy, just a few folks have allergic reactions to oils used throughout massage… One other concern for folks with most cancers is that tissue manipulation within the space of a tumor would possibly enhance the danger that most cancers cells would possibly travel to different elements of the body. It could be prudent for most cancers sufferers to keep away from massage close to tumors and lumps that could be cancerous till this query is clearly answered.” Against this, the ACA considers Reiki a “protected” remedy for most cancers sufferers, noting that “Reiki includes very light contact or no contact.”

5) The Nationwide Middle for Complementary and Various Medication (NCCAM) on the Nationwide Institutes of Health lists Reiki beneath “Power Therapies”, that are “supposed to have an effect on the vitality fields that encompass and penetrate the human body.” As outlined by the NCCAM, “Reiki is predicated on the idea that by channeling religious vitality by the practitioner, the spirit is healed, and it in flip heals the bodily body.” Massage is listed beneath a distinctly separate class, particularly, the “Manipulative and Body-Primarily based Strategies”, which NCCAM defines as “strategies which might be based mostly on manipulation and/or motion of the body”, whereby “massage therapists manipulate the gentle tissues of the body to normalize these tissues.”

6) At the very least twenty U.S. states explicitly exempt Reiki from massage regulation.