Setting a Reiki Standard

I  recently received an email from a Reiki master who just moved to Seattle asking about why my vocational school, The Reiki Training Program offered state registration for Reiki practitioners and masters.

No official certification is required in WA, or in any other state (other than the LMP being required in FL and UT to practice Reiki), but my own background training includes a master’s in counseling and education and I worked within vocational and community education centers for years. I have seen the importance in setting a standard for education in training, hence my efforts to get the Reiki Training Program licensed.

Each student that attends either program that we offer, Registered Reiki Practitioner and/or Certified Reiki Master gets registered with the state of WA for completing a certain amount of training hours.

The requirements aren’t difficult to attain, several workshops, individual and group Reiki practice and advisory sessions to keep track of progress. The practiitoner program takes about 4-6 months, the master program about 9-12 months. And thats minimum. Some of my students take a lot longer between workshops, building up lots of additional experience before they go out into the world and market themselves.

Since starting the Reiki path over 13 years ago, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the field. The material being taught, for the most part, still remains the same, but the ways in which it is taught have been the reasons for me to establish a credited institution.

Students can download all 3 levels of Reiki from their computer and become a Reiki master in a weekend.

What I have found with those methods is that many of those students end up in my classes, taking them over because they have no idea what they have been attuned to or learned in such a short period of time.

As it is, I teach each level in a full day, but each student must wait months between levels, and usually a greater amount of time between the advanced levels.

The Reiki Training Program standard isn’t perfect, but its a start. Its a model I hope other Reiki masters will follow and help take Reiki into the next century.