What To Expect From Your First Reiki Session?

Mar 3, 2023Self-Care & Healing

What To Expect From Your First Reiki Session?

Mar 3, 2023Self-Care & Healing

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If you consider booking your first Reiki session, or if you have your first Reiki session coming up soon, you may wonder what to expect.

I absolutely love what Reiki can do for you and will share, from my own experience, what you can expect from your first session (I am a Reiki 2 practicioner).

If you are interested in Reiki, and would like to know more about what Reiki is, I recommend also reading my post Reiki Energy Healing 101.

In this article, I will talk about a Reiki session in person (where you and the healer are in the same room). If you are interested in distance Reiki, also read How does distance Reiki work?

What To Expect During Your First Reiki Session

Because Reiki is an intuitive way of healing that makes use of energy flow, every session is different. It can feel very intense during, or immediately after a session, but it can also happen that you don´t feel an instant effect and that it takes some time to sink in.

This all depends on how open and relaxed you are, and what your body requires at that particular moment. The more you are able to quiet your mind and tune into your body, the easier it will be for you to sense the subtle Reiki energy.

During your session, the healer will ask you to sit in a chair or lay on a table. You can keep your clothes on during the session.

Often a healer will ask you if you feel ok with their hands touching your body. If you don´t want this, the healer can hold their hands slightly above your body (without touching). This will work just as well. Always do what you are comfortable with!

In some cases a healer will ask you to take a few deep breaths together, or even do a short meditation, but that is not always the case. Either way, just try to relax as much as you can so you can benefit from the session as much as possible.

9 Tips for before during and after your Reiki session

3 Tips For Before Your Reiki Session

These are 3 tips for BEFORE your Reiki session:

Go into the session without expectations and keep an open mind
Wear what you feel comfortable in
Try to relax and surrender to the moment

During your session, the healer will intuitively place their hands on your body. Mostly, a healer will work from the head down to the toes, while revisiting some areas that need more attention, normally ending at the feet so you feel grounded after the session.

The healer will begin by inviting the Reiki energy to flow, and will transer this on to you through their hands. By tuning into your energy flow, they will focus on the areas where energy is dense, or where they sense a blockage in your energy.

If you suddenly need to cough, burp, shake or cry, let it out. That is stuck energy being released from your body. For a full list of the symptoms that you can experience during a Reiki session, also read How do you know if the Reiki works?

If you don’t instantly feel the effect, don’t stress and trust that the energy will find its way through your body and will do just what it should.

Reiki will positively affect your parasympathetic nervous system, which can be reached in a state of deep rest. This is how deep healing and stress relief can take place. This is in a way similar to what acupuncture does to the body.

3 Tips For During Your Reiki Session

These are 3 tips for DURING your Reiki session:

Try to feel into your body during the session. Just relax and enjoy the moment.
Indicate whether you are ok with the healer’s hands touching you. If you feel uncomfortable in any way, then express that.
If you feel the need to cough, burp, shake, fall asleep or cry, that is normal. Let it out, don’t hold anything in!

Find a full list of symptoms during or after a Reiki session here

What to expect from your first Reiki session - 9 tips

Feeling Worse After Reiki

Firstly, Reiki is NOT harmful to anyone. Most people feel instantly better after a Reiki session. They feel more relaxed, peaceful and experience a relief of their pain.

In some cases however, it can feel as if Reiki made you feel worse. When pain or trauma is stored away in the body, a Reiki session can be the initiator that brings this to the surface.

Needless to say, a deep trauma will not instantly be resolved in just one Reiki session, but it can spark the healing process to begin.

Because healing is a detoxification process of the body (all trauma is stored in our body in the form of energy), this can in some cases, trigger someone to first feel worse before they will feel better.

If this is the case, don’t stress. See this as a positive start of a healing process that will help you to release your pain and feel lighter in the end.

Make sure to drink enough water and get enough rest after your session. Take some time to relax, go out into nature, lay in the grass and get some sun on your face. (–> or try any of these grounding techniques 🌱)