My Journey with Learning Reiki

When I started my journey with Reiki in 2019, I didn’t really know what it was. 

I was working in an acupuncture clinic in Southern Wisconsin running the front desk for my then fiance’s acupuncture practice.

The clinic had other acupuncturists, herbalists, and massage therapists. The owner of the clinic was big into essential oil therapy, astrology, and crystals.

One day the clinic owner told me, “You should learn Reiki! You’d be so good at it!”

At the time, I was super intrigued by all the crystals and the astrology and all the other “woo” stuff. I say I was extremely “Spiritually Curious”

I was also very eager to have my own thing at the clinic. Running the front desk for my fiance’s practice was great, but I was more just supporting his work, not building anything for myself.

So when she told me I should learn Reiki, even though all I really knew about it was it was some sort of energy healing thing with the hands, I said sure! 

My fiance knew a Reiki Master Teacher from his Acupuncture schooling.

He connected me with her, and we set up my Reiki Level 1 class.

My Reiki level 1 class was an in-person class (Reiki 2 was also in person, but I completed the Reiki Master class of traditional Reiki and all 6 levels of advanced Reiki virtually). I remember seeing my Reiki Master’s Aura during class. It was the first time I had ever seen an aura and I was so excited. It ignited an even deeper curiosity in me for I actually had tangible “proof” that this spiritual and energy stuff was real.

The class itself also surprised me. Again, going into this, I knew virtually nothing about Reiki. I had this notion in my head that learning Reiki was going to be learning some sequence of movements or some sort of ritualistic thing that would allow me to manipulate energy.

I’m a big Avatar the Last Airbender fan. I imagined some movements like what the characters in that show use to bend the elements.

I was surprised at how simple it all was.

The process of learning Reiki is really as simple as receiving an energetic activation that then allows you to channel Reiki… And to then channel Reiki, all I had to do was simply intend and allow it to flow through me.

“Really?” I thought.

“That’s it?”

Seemed almost too simple… like c’mon that seems a little too easy to be true.

But it was. And granted there was more to the class than just the activation. We went through a lot of the Reiki Manual (much of the reading I now assign my students for the pre-class work that I require). We also went through how to get started giving Reiki to others, energetic hygiene and grounding techniques, and how best to work with this energy on a daily basis to strengthen my connection to it.

I remember getting home that night and being able to feel energy for the first time.

I would place my hand, palm side down, about an inch above the counter or the wall, and I could actually feel the energetic “resistance” between my hand and the surface.

From there I started seeing clients right away in the clinical setting. I was lucky to be in an already established clinic that had a whole network of patients who knew me as the front desk guy and were eager to try out my new energy healing modality.

It was a wonderful way for me to dive deep into this relationship with Reiki. 

The sessions were incredibly beautiful and powerful. My energetic awareness and 3rd eye continued to open and expand.

I took Reiki Level 2 as soon as I could - I believe about 3 months later, and continued seeing clients in the clinic space. Each level of Reiki is a new upgrade to your capacity to channel Reiki. I remember all of my existing clients commenting on how much more powerfully they felt the energy after level 2.

My clairvoyance continued to grow. I remember I could see clouds of magenta energy billowing into the room from the ceiling and into the clients where my hands were. I was literally seeing Reiki enter the room from a higher dimension and flow into my client.

I had a few really interesting sessions too where I could see energetic fleas dancing on clients, a glowing Christian Cross appeared in the room during a session with an elderly woman, and one session that was particularly spooky where I could tell the client had a destructive entity attached to them. 

It was the coolest thing in the world. I definitely made some mistakes as far as client-care goes. Reiki itself can never do harm. Ever. Reiki is only healing, aligning, productive, and balancing energy. Where I fell astray was how I spoke to clients, the semi-codependent relationships I allowed them to form to me, and where I was over stepping as the practitioner and going beyond the scope of my awareness. For my students who do go on to open their doors and have clients on their table for formal Reiki sessions, I go into much greater detail around what’s required to be a proper Reiki Practitioner. 

Now back then, I was in a toxic marriage. I was still on my western pharmaceutical meds for my Bipolar 1 Diagnosis, I was still playing out major addictive habits, drinking 4-6 White Claws a night after the clinic shifts, bouncing back and forth between vapes and cigarettes, and going through life with a very dysregulated nervous system, spewing the pain I was avoiding feeling within my onto my husband and many of those around me.

I put on a good show. But at the end of the day I was still at the very early stages of my healing and spiritual journey. 

Reiki was more of a toy back then. It was a little hobby, a cute little vibe/aesthetic to show off and to mess around with when I was feeling good - but I wasn’t truly honoring it. I had no real spiritual practice and I was mostly using it on clients more than I was using it on myself. The clairvoyance stuff was more of a party trick than anything else. Something that made me feel cool and “So spiritually advanced” in the eyes of others - but something that really carried little weight to who I really was.

It wasn’t until I started working with my Reiki Master Teacher, Erin, in High-level Energy mentorship containers did things begin to change.

These containers are very similar to the containers I hold with my Reiki students where it’s a mixture of live calls paired with real time support via voice notes and texting.

In these very intimate spaces with her I finally had someone to hold me energetically, witness and guide me through what proper healing looks like. The type of healing that the western medical system failed me of for decades. 

Don’t get me wrong, I was doing all of the heavy lifting. I  learned to lean into my triggers, and start properly vacating my system of the 20+ years of stored complex and shock trauma my body was holding for me. But Erin was there by my side every step of the way. I was hooked into her nervous system energetically to co-regulate with. I had someone who could see the bigger picture and help guide me through it. She helped point out the blind spots that my pain was hiding from me and offer perspectives I didn’t always want to hear. And it was all through the lens of spirituality and energy. A language that finally clicked inside me.  A language that actually made sense. 

I still work with Erin today.  We just wrapped up our most intensive container ever last month. 

But back to the timeline above…

Through my work with Erin, I was able to get off nicotine once and for all, I stopped drinking nearly as much (I don’t drink at all these days but it took me until 2024 to reach 0 alcohol), and most impressively of all, I was able to get off my western psych meds for the first time in 10 years. It was epic. I eventually left my toxic marriage and got out on my own. I took Reiki Master Teacher along the way and started teaching Reiki. And Reiki and energywork became the foundation of all the erotic and pleasure work I now offer today.

One of the beautiful things about the work I continued to do with Erin is that she was advancing down her spiritual path rapidly along the way. Meaning she was always bringing me fresh codes and higher levels of potency, clarity and refinement in the containers she held for me as we went. A good chunk of my daily spiritual practice today, and the teachings I provide my students come from what I’ve learned from Erin.

Over time my relationship with Reiki evolved from a little toy that I played with when convenient to the foundation of my spiritual practice. I call Reiki the “gateway drug” to your spiritual journey because it definitely was for me. It was my access point to this new reality that I live in. The reality that would make the average Joe laugh in my face and call me a complete “woo woo” joke. I see the  world of energy-work and spirituality as a rabbit hole that just gets deeper and deeper as I dive further into it. And the deeper I go, the more pleasure, satisfaction, joy, fulfillment, and trust I’m able to access and hold on a daily basis.

Today, Reiki is an integral part of my day. While I access it more consciously during client work and within my daily practice, at this point it’s virtually always running through me.  It’s said that you don’t master Reiki, you let Reiki master you, and I agree completely with this.

I’m so grateful to have found this path. I joke and say sometimes it feels like I’m trying to convince people into joining a spiritual cult. It feels like I found one of the best kept secrets. I’m incredibly eager to share it with those who are curious enough to give it a go. 

I’m a firm believer that we all have spiritual gifts and medicine to bring to the world. However, in order to bring them through us, our channels have to be open and our systems have to be free from a certain level of density and distortion. What’s beautiful about Reiki is receiving the activations to learn it and working with it consistently does both of these things. I also see Reiki kind of like a “carrier oil” for our other spiritual gifts because it grants us an additional connection point to the divine for the codes of our gifts to start coming through us faster and sooner.

The codes I bring to all my clients, erotic bodywork and Reiki students alike, all evolved from my work with Reiki. And that’s why teaching it is such a passion of mine. I get to help my students down the path of their unique spiritual journey as they start unlocking and refining the gifts waiting for them. Reiki surely isn’t the only way to do this, but it’s definitely one that I can attest to the power of.

Thanks for reading,

xx

Steve