Why Reiki?

My personal journey from skeptic to Reiki practitioner.

Reiki can be a triggering topic. There is so much misinformation out there regarding Reiki healing and energy work in general. Two common misconceptions: that Reiki is connected to a religion or that the Reiki Practitioner will pass negative energy to the receiver. (These have been debunked, btw)

Honestly, I started as a skeptic. I feared Reiki, feared “the woo” & “mystics” in general. I tried to keep my distance from it all, but my intuition kept guiding me towards this practice; even when I was resistant or completely unaware.

So how did I go from skeptic to practitioner?

Join me as I dive into my personal journey from skeptic to Reiki practitioner. My own testimony to the magic and benefits of Reiki healing.

The Good Girl

I grew up in a small conservative town in Iowa. Life taught me early on to played the “good girl” role in my family. I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, I wanted to be liked by others and loved by my parents. That looked like listening, following the rules, and taking what everyone with authority told me as “the truth.” It wasn’t until my “rebellious” college and early adulthood years that I began tapping into the personal liberation of thinking for myself.

I started opening up to ways of living, ways of thinking that were previously unfamiliar to me. I may have been a bit self-destructive at the beginning of that “opening up”, but the steps were necessary to creating a pathway for greater learning and understanding later on.

Let’s take a moment to send love to our younger selves real quick, shall we? Ahhh…bless them.

Let’s get to the healing…

Reiki healing wasn’t on my radar until my mother in law, Diana introduced me to her friend Lisa DiTomasso (Reiki Master). We met for the first time at my wedding, of all places. I’m not even sure how that happened looking back. The introduction was brief, but I could just feel this different energy about her. She felt peaceful and radiated joy.

That left a lasting impression on me, but I was newly married and in a swirl of fast-paced changes and life things. I wasn’t ready, yet, but made a little mental note. Diana had shared with me that Lisa offered Reiki sessions prior to our meeting, and of course my skepticism alarms went off. After meeting Lisa in person though, I knew when I was ready, I wanted to try a Reiki session with her.

First Reiki Session

Well, for my birthday that year, want to know what Diana gifted me? A Reiki session with Lisa. Bring on the mixed feelings. I was excited, nervous, curious, hopeful, and hesitant all at once. Not sure exactly how long it took me to book my session…but eventually we got there. I called up Lisa (or probably texted because I hate talking on the phone) and set the date.

Fast forward to my session and I was excited but also scared as hell. Lisa held sessions in her home and walking up to ring the doorbell to someone’s house I barely knew for a session that I had zero informed expectations for…ya girl was stressin. 1:1 interactions terrified me, you guys, still kinda do most of the time. Anyway, I faced my fear, rang the doorbell, and was instantly greeted with Lisa’s peaceful energy again. I took a deep breath, followed her guidance, and within a few minutes was completely at ease.

What that session looked like.

We began with a sage/palo santo cleansing before briefly chatting about what was going on at the time. For me, that was extreme meltdowns, anxiety, debilitating depression, and suicidal ideation. I felt hopeless all the time and was at a loss for what was happening to me. I hoped Reiki may help and shared that with Lisa. She received all of the information with compassion and non-judgment and invited me to relax on the Reiki table and began my first healing session.

Lisa is a master at her craft. I remember peeking open my eyes a few times and seeing her waving or swirling her hands over my body and wondering “wtf is she doing?”, but staying quiet and letting her do her thing. If you were to ask me any specifics from the session, I got nothing. I do remember, however, feeling this calmness and peace I hadn’t felt in…well ever. We had a good cry (meaning I cried, and she held space for me 🙂 ), reflected on the experience and she gave me some energetic tools I could take with me. After saying our goodbyes, I left feeling lighter than when I came, that’s for sure.

Conflicting Feelings

Over the next couple years I bounced back and forth between believing so much in the Reiki, and doubting if it was something I should be dabbling in at all. I was on a constant seesaw between what I felt was right and what I was being told was right. My husband, Garrett, and I were part of an extremely manipulative MLM business, and got heavily involved in church again. The churches I was exposed to weren’t too open to the energy healing world, so I kept it hidden. Cue the “good girl” persona from childhood; I was right back to not wanting to ruffle any feathers, obeying authority, and questioning my intuition.

Meanwhile, the anxiety, the suicidal ideation, and long bouts of depression had gone nowhere. In fact, it was getting worse. I would book a Reiki session here and there, usually without telling our MLM mentors (we were to run every life decision by them), and felt like I was doing something wrong by doing so. But I kept booking them, because I could not deny the peace it brought me when I finished a session.

Intuition vs. Authority

Around the time I really started believing in the Reiki and seeing it work, the pastor at our church gave a sermon about dun, dun, dun… why we should fear mysticism. How terrible and misguiding these practices were. How trying to predict things with cards or healing with energy beyond the Christian faith was dangerous. I swear my mind and logical thinking broke in half that day. How could something that left me feeling so at peace, be bad?

This was a lightbulb moment. The riff between my intuition telling me one thing and my outside influences telling me another was too great. I couldn’t handle going against myself so blatantly anymore. I would take that information from my pastor, filter it through my own belief system, and make decisions on those practices for myself. He didn’t get to tell me what was wrong or right, and he hadn’t experienced what I had. That declaration was made on shaky legs and with a lump in my throat, but it was the first baby steps toward unlocking a new way of being.

2020

We all know what happened in 2020. I feel guilty every time I say this, but for me personally, the shutdown saved my life. The unconscious misery and burnout that kept me tiptoe-ing the line of suicide way too many times were lurking around every corner. The shutdown was time to rest without the guilt of having anywhere else to be. It was the space I desperately needed to be with, me.

With that space and time, I discovered how misaligned my life had become. Garrett and I exited the MLM opportunity, I was unemployed with the shutdown, and I started trying to build a spiritual business of my own. Y’all, I had no idea what that looked like, but I thought my worker bee mentality, carried over from the MLM environment and my upbringing…would get me the life I was dreaming of. Great intentions, questionable methodology. I think I really just needed some solid rest…but here we are. And thank goodness I tried something because it led to my own Reiki attuning experience.

Getting Reiki Attuned

In October of 2020, my therapist, Lauren C. McGauley (who is also a Reiki Master Teacher), was offering a Reiki Levels 1 & 2 attunement. I was stoked, hesitant, but I just knew I had to do this. After talking to my husband, and getting over my financial investment fears, I took the leap.

That experience was in-freaking-tense.

It was beautiful, it was raw, it was eye-opening, and I went deeper within than I ever had before. It brought up some of my darkest shadows. Some of that darkness scared me to my core, but it was necessary that I faced it head on in this attuning process. Shout out to Lauren and the women she collectively welcomed into this attunement, for creating such a safe space for this process. My experience was not all butterflies and rainbows, and nothing like I expected it would be, but it opened up so much.

Unfortunately, while it opened up so much within the energy healing realm, I still had much work to do in the personal power realm. The thought of sharing this Reiki healing with other people felt unattainable at this point. Though I had just learned all of these things in my Reiki attuning journey, I didn’t trust myself to share Reiki properly with other people. It hadn’t integrated fully, I was questioning my abilities, and I was paralyzed by perfectionism.

I was, however, utilizing self-Reiki in my own practices and this led to infusing clothing with Reiki.

Unbound Threads

My first real business, y’all. Unbound Threads was established in 2020 as a creative outlet for my newfound passion for bleaching flannels. Anyone else remember that trend? Yeah, well I jumped on it like a cowboy hopping on a bronco, held the reins tight, and bucked into an unexpected creative/spiritual business combo.

Unbound Threads evolved from bleached flannels and tie-dyed t-shirts to 1 of 1, reworked sweatshirts, but one thing remained the same…I infused each piece with Reiki-energy.

This business was a great way for me to utilize my Reiki healing, and express my “woo” side, but still stay hidden for the most part. I got to share the healing energy in a my own way and that felt safe.

Shameless plug, I’ve grown a lot as a creator since the launch in 2020, and the threads are getting pretty dope these days. If you’re not already, follow the Unbound Threads instagram to stay in the know with all the future happenings. Now, back to the story.

February Meltdown

Fast forward to this year, 2024. I was enjoying working as a freelancer, both as a golf caddy and promotional model, but was really struggling behind the scenes. I had no consistency in my Unbound Threads business, my self image was in the dirt, I had no sense of purpose, I was struggling with an addiction, had recently been diagnosed with AuDHD, and I was not taking care of myself. But…I had interviewed for and landed a job that many girls dream about. Hell, that I had dreamed about for a few years. I honestly couldn’t believe I had actually booked the gig, and tried to ride that high while shoving all the anxieties under the rug.

The week came quick, and I went to work the gig with a smile on my face and hope in my heart, meanwhile ignoring my gut feelings. I was afraid to ask all my questions, had no idea what advocating for my AuDHD needs looked like at the time, and I didn’t address the fears I had, not directly anyway. My plan of attack, rely on a “I’ve done this before in my previous hustle culture years, I can do it again” mentality…not recognizing how much had changed for me in the self work I was doing, how much I had changed.

Well, as I’m sure you can predict from the heading, this gig didn’t end well for me. I had a full on meltdown. Multiple, actually. I pushed myself right back down into the dark place I’d been trying to run from with a fast pass to suicidal ideation. Really thought that was it for me.

Healing with Reiki

In the weeks after my meltdown, I focused only on my healing and getting out of this dark place. I let go of all of my responsibilities for a little while and surrendered to help. Part of that healing included a Reiki session with a wonderful woman named Jan Sass. We connected in the most unexpected of places and that Reiki session was truly special and life-altering.

She could tell I was depleted, my energy was completely drained, and that we had some serious work to do. Jan guided me and kept me involved with that Reiki session more than I ever had before. I’m not sure if that was because I had shared my Reiki attunement with her prior or if that’s just how she works, but that session was visceral. We cleared some very dark energies lurking in my field. I had no idea just how blocked I was, but afterwards, things started shifting.

Now, I’m not saying the skies parted and suddenly I was shone down upon with all the answers. What did happen? I started to piece together understanding and recognition of patterns that had reappeared in my life, and how ready I was to let them go. We had cleared enough in that Reiki session to get me back on track, realigned, and ready to receive some pretty unexpected downloads in the weeks to come.

Feeling the Pull

As I settled back into normal life after a few weeks of only resting & healing, I made a conscious effort to maintain balance and calm. Thankfully, I was in “slow season” for my job and could ease into work at a feasible pace for me. I started practicing Reiki on myself more often, meditating on the Reiki precepts, and putting on my learning hat again. Out came the old Reiki attunement materials, Reiki & Energy Healing books, and I started diving into Reiki more than I had since 2020.

That desire and pull spread to holding Reiki healing sessions for not just myself, but my husband, too. After a couple of sessions together, I knew I was onto something special. The healing work we were doing together felt far too powerful to keep to myself.

I remember telling Garrett, “I feel like the Reiki is moving me, like it wants to work through me, and I can’t stop it.”

My Reiki Practice is Born

It didn’t take long before I had a full blown plan for starting a Reiki practice of my own. I knew I wanted to start this venture in service. What did that mean? Reaching out to some of my closest friends to offer free sessions. I was able to gain invaluable experience through practice, and they received a free healing session catered to their needs. Practicing on people I felt comfortable with first, helped me gain the confidence necessary to hold sessions for others I may not know as well.

Quick tip: If you are new to a practice of your own, this is a great way to start. You may be afraid to initially share this part of you with friends (if you’re anything like me), and some will probably politely decline (don’t take it personally). But, there is something to be said about beginning a service venture by sharing it with the people who’ve impacted you most on your journey to get there. It’s just special.

Wrapping things Up

So where are we now?

Personally, I feel more at home with myself than I ever have in my life. We’re never a finished product, and the road will never be “bump free”, but I feel confident that I am more in tune with who I am, what my needs are, and how to stay in alignment when the world starts spinning out of control. I credit that to so many things, but my top 3 would have to be therapy, learning to work with my neurodivergent brain, and my “woo” practices, specifically Reiki healing.

Professionally…

I am holding both virtual and in-person Reiki sessions. Virtual sessions can happen from anywhere. In-person sessions are only available in Las Vegas, NV.

Y’all, I have cried in gratitude after nearly every session. Helping people heal, holding a safe space, and being a vessel of hope in these very rocky times is a privilege that I hold with the highest regard. I also honor the self work and village it took to get here, to be sharing Reiki healing with others. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

If you’ve read this and are thinking, well shoot, maybe I need to check out this Reiki stuff for myself, I got you. Visit the Reiki page for more information, or head to the contact page to reach out directly and I’ll be in touch.

Here’s to your healing, my healing, our collective healing.

To getting our energy right.