How to Choose a Great Reiki Instructor and Course

"When the student is ready, the master will appear". I was lucky that this was my experience, but it's not the case for everyone.

You may want to research a bit before choosing a Reiki Master Teacher. And rightly so. I've had a number of people contact me who want to be "re-attuned" after learning Reiki elsewhere, and others who haven't learned and are shopping around for the right teacher. To help you, here is what to look for.

The ideal Reiki Course will have:

About 16 hours of training. A Level One course is focused on Reiki only and is spaced over two or more days, but all completed within a week. If done privately or semi-privately it may be a bit shorter (14 hours) as there are fewer students to attune.
A small group size. Two to eight students are ideal and actually manageable by an instructor. This way, you get the benefit of sharing learning with other students whom you practice with, while receiving enough individual guidance from your instructor. If there are more than eight students in the attunement room, don't be one of them.
Qualifying students. Attunements should never be given to those hospitalized, under 13 or to those who are more than three months pregnant. Anyone having terminated a pregnancy must receive a Reiki treatment by a practitioner fluent in spiritual healing prior to their course.
Four individual Reiki Level One attunements. Four attunements will give you the full ability to channel Reiki for yourself and informally for others. Level Two also has four attunements, as does Level Three, and so on.
Practice Time. At least one self-treatment over the course time, and at least two treatments on others under the guidance of the instructor. I can't stress enough the importance of this practice time with your instructor's guidance.
Reiki Manual covering Reiki History and Practice. The manual is a complement to what is taught in the class; history, theory and, safety and practice elements should all be present in a manual.
Ongoing / Continuing Education and Practice. Good teachers offer monthly Reiki Shares - where their own students come to practice Reiki with further guidance and coaching and receive treatments from other students who have learned with their teacher and share experiences.
In-person training. I can't stress this enough. Learning Reiki online is questionable to begin with and will not benefit you in the long run because you will lose out on a personal connection with the teacher, the ability to observe their character and their approach to teaching and to the practice of Reiki, which are all important. Reiki isn't taught as information, but is passed down through initiation by a lineage dating back to Mikao Usui. It can only be passed down through the care and discernment of a qualified teacher. If you don't have an instructor in your area, consider travelling for a course or getting a group to learn together and inviting an instructor to come to you.
Ethics, Standards and Safety Training, including Infection Prevention & Control Training, especially tailored for situations and circumstances like COVID-19 or other disease outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics.
A Community and Coaching. This goes along with the last two points above, as I see so many websites and forums on social media where after having taken a Reiki course, practitioners at all levels are asking the most basic of questions and answering in conflicting ways, resulting in confusion, misinformation being shared, lost time and energy, and all too often, conflicts stemming from, and resulting in different approaches. A good teacher will take care of creating their own community: providing a forum, helping their own students connect with each other, answering questions patiently, honestly and ethically, and providing information that is of the highest integrity to help their students develop as fully, as safely as possible as they connect with each other.

By the end of your course, you will have experienced shifts in your sensitivity to energy, be encouraged to practice on yourself daily, and can confidently give Reiki treatments to others.

The Ideal Reiki Master Teacher will have:

The ability to read auras and sense energy congestion and the root cause of that congestion.
The ability to sense and help clear away emotional and spiritual blockages.
An understanding of what Reiki energy is and where Reiki healing comes from.
A personal dedication to self-care (daily or regular self-Reiki practice, meditation and ideally other forms of self-care).
Experience. A true Reiki Master Teacher has taken her or his Level Three / Reiki Master Course and waited at least a year with lots of training before taking their Reiki Master Teacher course, just to be able to teach Reiki Level One.
The ability to look at a prospective student and assess where they are energetically, rather than simply welcoming anyone who wants to pay to take a course at any level.
The ability to clearly tell you where your own energy is congested and how to balance it.
The ability to tell you about what energies you're working with already, as well as what Reiki energies you are working with during your course, once attuned.
The willingness to speak with you and answer your questions thoroughly before you take a course.
An openness to having you contact existing students to inquire about the instructor / course.
The energy and flexibility to respond to, and provide knowledgeable assistance and guidance in the face of changes and challenges, like COVID-19 or other disease outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics.

After your training, your instructor should continue to provide ongoing support and opportunities for further learning and developing beyond your Level One course.

Re-Attunement?

Once you have completed your Reiki training according to the above requirements, you will have been properly attuned to channel Reiki for yourself and others and can harness Reiki for life. If you've received four attunements in your course, there is no need to be re-attuned. Even if you don't practice often, you can start to sense it again by giving yourself a few consecutive daily self-treatments.

In fact, if you've been properly attuned to Reiki by a qualified instructor, you will notice a lot of development coming from your own daily self-practice. Like the saying goes, "You get out of it what you put into it". If however, you continue practising and feel as if something is missing, that you aren't developing greater sensitivity, you can always find a qualified instructor who you feel is the right one to be assessed by and receive training from. Always talk to your instructor first so they can help you, instead of bouncing around from teacher to teacher, which will confuse tire you - and lessen the value of your training. Go as deep as you can with a good teacher.

Quality Control

Did you know that traditiinally, a new Reiki Master Teacher cannot start teaching a newcomer Level Two until one of their own Level One graduates returns to request to Level Two training, without being prompted? One of their own Level Two students must return to request to learn Level Three before the Reiki Master Teacher can teach a newcomer Level Three, and the same goes for teaching Level Four, the Master Teacher Level. This is to ensure there is quality control built in. If the teacher's own students aren't returning to request higher levels of training, surely something is amiss.

Each Level has its own Training

Over time, you may want to take the Reiki Level Two course to learn how to send distance healing and find and clear away the deeper mental and emotional roots of symptoms. A Level Two course should be taught independently from a Level One course as it is a huge step forward. There are four distinct attunements, specifically for Level Two. These will open you up to be able to harness double the amount of Reiki energy. Some teachers offer Levels One and Two together, without any or enough attunements or practice time. Taking a Level One and Level Two course together waters down your learning and would require eight attunements -- too powerful to experience all at once. The Level Three Reiki Master Course is another massive leap forward, has four attunements and requires a high level of practice, experience and work with the instructor before the course can be taken and one begins to call themself a Master of Reiki. Level Four, which is teacher training or the Reiki Master Teacher course, requires, at bare minimum, a full year of intense practice and preparation, after Level Three.

In many schools Levels One and Two are taught together and Levels Three and Four are taught together, which is an indication of poor quality of a course and lack of understanding of an instructor, and even of the instructor themselves being improperly attuned or not at all attuned to Reiki. They may have taken an online course or a course with fifty students all "initiated" at once, which isn't possible. That individual is using their own energy to heal - or using lower energy - and not harnessing Reiki at all. This can even pose a risk to clients and students.

Many students are eager to learn and develop, which is fantastic, but there is no substitute for patience, thorough training and practice. So many people are eager to rush the process, or to have the title of a "Master" or "Master Teacher". This is the reason why few Reiki Master Teachers themselves are properly attuned and why Reiki has become so "watered down" or has garnered a "flaky" reputation, even though it's perhaps the single most powerful healing tool available to us, if one's properly attuned to harness this intelligent and pure healing energy. It is also the reason why many clients come to a Siam Reiki practitioner and are blown away by the quality of healing they receive. I've been told by clients that one Reiki treatment was the equivalent of ten or twelve years of therapy!

Lineage

Many people ask me how Siam Reiki is different from Usui Reiki. All Reiki that is practised today is practiced because of Master Mikao Usui. Although Reiki itself is timeless, Master Usui is the person who harnessed this energy and made it available for use in our modern times. The word "Reiki" is a Japanese word (meaning "spiritual energy"), simply because Master Usui happened to be Japanese. So no matter what school of Reiki you learn from, if it's called "Reiki", it is all Usui Reiki. The different lineages are branches of his students, including Master Hayashi Chujiro, who developed standard hand positions, and Master Hawayo Takata, who took Reiki beyond Japan and taught it far and wide.

Siam Reiki is a very powerful lineage of Master Usui's, mainly because it has the highest standards known in Reiki and due to the purity of the Reiki energy channeled. Students in Siam Reiki are taught traditionally; to develop an intuitive capacity that is cultivated and highly encouraged, the result being that they channel the purest healing energy. This results in very powerful and specific healing for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual issues, and the treatments elicit remarkable and miraculous healing benefits in those who receive them.

Do You Want to Learn Reiki?

No matter where you learn Reiki, if you are properly attuned by a true Reiki Master Teacher, you will notice that Reiki is a catalyst for change in your life. It opens up new understanding and is a wonderful tool for positive change, whether in the quality of health, relationships, success, or spirituality. If you follow the guidelines here, you will have a great Reiki Course and instructor and in turn, Reiki itself will change your life.

Want to take a Siam Reiki Course? Find out when the next one is offered here.