By Karen Wallace

Redstone Review

LYONS – According the International Center for Reiki Training, ICR, “Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by laying on hands and is based on the idea that an unseen life force energy flows through us and is what causes us to be alive.”

Local master-level Reiki practitioner and teacher, Alicia Pangilinan, has been studying and practicing Reiki for many years. She discovered Reiki while she was going through a difficult time in her life. She felt such peace and healing during her first few sessions that she knew she wanted to study the healing method and become a practitioner herself. Pangilinan studied one-on-one for over a year with Reiki master Leah Friedman-Spohn.

The Reiki “ability is passed on during an attunement given by a Reiki master and allows the student to tap into an unlimited supply of life force energy,” said Pangilinan . She is currently working with kids during a summer camp where they are given the attunement. “Kids are very receptive,” said Pangilinan. “As we age, we tend to loose our ability to tap into the natural connection. Kids are natural healers.”

Reiki is spiritual, but it is not a religion. According to ICR, “Reiki is not dependent on belief at all and will work whether you believe in it or not. Because Reiki comes from God, many people find that using Reiki puts them more in touch with the experience of their religion rather than having only an intellectual concept of it.”

Pangilinan was herself very skeptical of Reiki before she went to her first session. She recognized the need for a change in her life so opened her mind to this new idea. She walked away from her first session in awe. “The client lies on a massage table, fully clothed,” said Pangilinan. “The Reiki practitioner goes over the clients body without touching it, sensing energy shifts and feeling for disruptions in the client’s body. Then Reiki is channeled into those spots. I started going a couple of times a month and by the third month I knew that I wanted to learn more about it and share it with others.”

Pangilinan finds that people first come to her with a medical issue. Often it is something that traditional medicine has not been able to help. She first works with clearing out the emotional side of the disease, and that in turn, assists in the healing of the physical symptoms. Pangilinan is very clear that she does not consider herself a healer. She feels that she just assists in the healing process.

There are many success stories that Pangilinan has collected including a client who could barely walk and was in severe pain due to a herniated disc. Following a three-hour Reiki session he hobbled off the table but called later to share that he was virtually pain free.

Additionally, Pangilinan has seen success with clients who battle addiction problems. “The Reiki focus is on clearing trauma from childhood,” she said. “The depth of the clients suffering is deep and used in conjunction with other forms of therapy.”

Pangilinan uses her Reiki work with Boulder County Hospice. She has worked with terminal patients who are bedridden and often alone and in pain. Pangilinan brings her comfort touch to the patient and while they don’t necessarily understand what she is doing, she finds that they seem more comfortable and at peace when she leaves.

Reiki is not a magic cure, success and effectiveness depend on the client who “must accept responsibility for her or his healing and take an active part in it,” according to the ICR. “It must also include an active commitment to improve oneself.”

Pangilinan treats clients in either her home or theirs. Additionally she periodically offers classes. For more information please contact Alicia at 303-589-1377.

Karen Wallace is a freelance writer and photographer who lives with her family in Lyons.

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