From the moment I was given reiki ability, I knew I wanted to share this healing energy. I started by giving reiki to my family and friends. I knew that many practitioners chose the path of giving reiki treatments as a transactional service similar to massage, but something inside me felt that wasn’t my path.

After taking the master level class in 2005, I created an online forum, a blog, and then a website about reiki. I continued building my reiki library, collecting and reading as much published works as I could find about this energy.

In 2009, I wanted to grow even further in my reiki practice and moved to California where I joined any reiki shares I could find. Eventually, I began hosting reiki shares myself and taught a few classes. I discovered and joined the Reiki Program at the Stanford Cancer Center as a volunteer reiki master and met many incredible reiki masters there. As a group, we gave reiki to staff and patients on a weekly basis. By this time, I had probably given well over a thousand reiki treatments.

In 2016, when I became pregnant with my first child, you could say I became a student again; I learned how to use reiki in pregnancy, during childbirth, and with babies and young children. Reiki was such an huge help for me as a mother, I knew I wanted to teach reiki to other would-be mothers one day.

In 2019, my father was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live if something wasn’t done. In the time that followed, I became his caregiver by day and read medical literature by night. I recognized that modern medicine would play the key role in his treatment, but as a reiki practitioner, I also held space for reiki. And what a difference it made. I credit reiki with placing my father back on the path to healing time and time again before surgery, during surgery, and facilitating his full recovery after surgery. He later joked that I got a lot of great reiki practice with him and I did feel like I earned a Ph.D. in reiki after that experience! Joking aside, that intense experience brought me to some important realizations.

Reiki is profoundly essential to humanity and our world. Reiki empowers those who feel powerless against disease. Teaching reiki is what I was born to do. Passing on the wisdom of reiki is my duty. Empowering people to help heal themselves and their loved ones is my path. This is why I teach reiki.

Thank you, friends, for listening to my story… just for today!

Love and Light,
Crystal Hayama Chen
Reiki Master-Teacher