Are you the person who’s tried Reiki once and decided it’s not for you? But you’re still here, reading every blog post. Maybe you’re waiting for the “right time” or maybe you didn’t get the benefits you were hoping for in your first session.
One question everyone asks during a clarity call is, “How many sessions will I need?” The number is always dependent on the person. After 10 years of doing this work, rarely ever has that answer only been one.
Too often, on TV, social media, and online, you’ll hear about people having miracle healings from various gurus. Healing hardly ever happens like that.
This builds up expectations that Reiki practitioners are some kind of miracle workers. There to help you miraculously heal things that have built up within you for years and years.
It can be such a letdown when you receive Reiki for the first time when instead of feeling better you actually feel worse. Yes, Reiki is meant to bring relaxation, stress, and pain relief. The route to achieving that isn’t always direct.
Often in Reiki sessions, it gets worse before it gets better. I’ve had multiple clients have full emotional breakdowns in their first session with me. Difficult emotions can and do come up in Reiki. Things like grief, fear, guilt, shame, and fear will rise up to the surface.
Sometimes Reiki asks us to face our deepest wounds and our darkest shadows. I’ve seen many people leave their first session emotional and with a lot to process through.
This is a good thing, it’s supposed to happen. Which may be hard to hear, because none of us really want to face all of our wounds and shadows. Acknowledging your pain points is just the first step in the healing process.
If you’ve only gotten that far, you probably feel like you haven’t gotten anywhere. Acknowledgment is a huge first step, so celebrate it. Acknowledgment doesn’t actually change anything though. It’s not going to change your patterns and get you unstuck.
There are at least twenty steps that follow acknowledgment in the healing process and those steps cycle. When you decide to stop after just one Reiki session, you’re stopping long before any of the real magic even begins.
Yes, I know it sucks when you start to acknowledge all your baggage. It’s anything but fun. The thing is, acknowledgment is one of the most difficult steps. It gets better from there but if you never do the other twenty steps you’ll never get to better.
Instead of doing the other twenty steps, we meet our edge and get stuck in resistance.
The reasons you are stuck are:
- You’re waiting for the right time or the right opportunity. Right now isn’t enough. Things aren’t perfect enough and you are not enough. So instead, you’re choosing not to take the next step.
- It’s not a priority to you. You say it’s important to you and it’s not. You don’t trust the process. You’ve suspended belief that this won’t really get you what you want.
- You’re afraid of change and what it will bring. You’re afraid you’re not enough and you’re not safe. You don’t believe in your ability to actually solve whatever problems come up.
- You’re waiting for other people to change so that you can be happy. You refuse to take full ownership of yourself, your life, your results, and your experiences.
- You don’t want to do it because you’re comfortable where you’re at. It’s not necessary for you to lean into your edges, step into your shadow, and do the tough, courageous things. Things are fine as they are. Also, you don’t want to fail because that means you’re not enough.
- You’re procrastinating. You’re afraid to fail. You have to be perfect to be enough. You’re not allowing yourself any grace and you ultimately don’t trust yourself or the Universe.
So which one of these are you?
Are you ready to stop thinking about getting ready to take the next step and finally take action?
Here’s my real answer to, “How many Reiki sessions do you need?”… as many as it takes.
As many as it takes for you to continuously take action and take all the steps on your own. That’s a journey that, 10 years later, I’m still on to this day. Yes, I still receive Reiki and I do the work because there are always new challenges and opportunities for growth.
In my work with clients, it usually takes anywhere from at least 3 months to a year. Often, like me, those clients continue to do the work and maintain their health and wellness for years. I have clients that have been working with me during the entire time that I’ve been doing this work and many I’ve developed lifelong relationships with.
There is always a new edge and an opportunity to expand. If you’re still acknowledging what needs work, you’ve got a long way to go. Please don’t give up, because the journey is so worth it. I promise you it gets easier.
