Reiki at a homeless Shelter

by Jessica Miller, July 2010

I was teaching Reiki classes in Northern California at the center of my friend and student Francie Soito in Milipitas, CA (near San Jose), and Francie said "Would you like to go do Reiki at the homeless shelter with me"

I had never been in a homeless shelter, it seemed like an ideal opportunity.

Initial Impressions

It is an inviting building. We went in, signed in at the desk and started setting up in the cafeteria. They had just finished dinner (which looked pretty tasty). We helped the residents rearrange the tables and chairs so we would have enough space. The environment felt very positive. We cleared the energy of the room before we started, but it already felt pretty clear in there, especially for a cafeteria.

How we did Reiki there

Normally Francie does Reiki treatments on 4 residents, which are chosen by lottery from the pool of residents who wanted one. Since I was there, we decided to do more of an open healing night format, so that we could do something for all of the residents that chose to come. How much Reiki could we do in an hour?

Francie gave a short talk on the philosophy of Reiki, and explaining that healing attunements are like meditation, that let everyone receive some Reiki at once. A number of those attending had received Reiki from Francie before, and were enthusiastic. One was especially thrilled to see us, because she has severe pain, which always goes away for a few days after a Reiki treatment. Another commented on how much better she felt emotionally after Reiki treatments. It was humbling to hear what a difference Reiki made in their lives.

Then we did double healing attunements. I often compare healing attunements to a laundry presoak. It is a way to get a lot of Reiki healing energy into people quickly. When you have multiple Reiki Masters you can do double attunements. Francie started on one end of the group, and i started on the other, so each person ended up getting attuned by both of us simultaneously. I felt the room fill up with energy. Whenever doing something special with Reiki, especially as a service to other people, it is like extra Reiki guides come in to support the work. Everyone went very deep into meditation, so we gave them a couple of extra minutes to come out of it.

One of the most skeptical people there said, "My legs don't hurt" We asked her how long they had been hurting and she couldn't remember when they didn't hurt. We encouraged her to get up and walk around the room. She was afraid at first that this would make the pain come back, and was delighted when she was still pain free. We put power symbols in the hands of a number of people as temporary Reiki tattoos, and they really enjoyed being able to feel the energy and help each other. I also taught my headache relief technique, which can be used by Reiki and non-Reiki people alike and the people who typically got headaches could really feel it.

About Innvision & How Francie Got Reiki In There

Innvision operates a number of shelters in the Bay area. We were at their center on Commercial street, which is a 90 day residential program for women and children. The program includes job training, counseling, and other kinds of support to get their lives back on track. You can learn more about InnVision here.

Francie has a strong business background and originally volunteered there to help with resumes and other job related functions. When after some months they started including more of that in the standard daily program, Francie asked if she could do Reiki there. This worked because Francie was already a known quantity there, and so they were more than willing to have her come in and try it.

Conclusion

Doing Reiki at homeless shelters is a great way to make a real difference with the homeless population, especially in centers such as Innvision which are trying to rehabilitate people and help them get on with their lives. Reiki's ability to help with stress, and to empower people to believe the world may be a bigger place than they expected is a huge help to the world.

Francie is now talking about how to get a program on teaching Reiki into the center.

I hope this story inspires more Reiki people into looking into programs for the homeless in their area, and volunteering there as a real way to make a difference.