Learning how to practice Reiki for pets is a favorite among students of the John Harvey Gray Reiki Center. Reiki presents us with special opportunities to bond with our furry friends and help them stay healthy and well. Most pets love getting their Reiki sessions and even “ask” for them. As your petreceives Reiki energy, its cells, glands, organs, systems, energy bodies, aura, meridian pathways, and chakras commence a balancing and harmonizing process, helping to strengthen his or her body’s natural healing abilities.
Reiki is just as effective whether the recipient of the Reiki session is an animal, a person, or a plant. Reiki energy will work the same for all three. The difference between treating an animal with Reiki and treating a person with Reiki is only in the delivery of the Reiki session itself. In our Reiki training classes, we teach our students how to administer Reiki for pets. It would be impossible to try to encompass all of this information in one article but here are some general guidelines for delivering Reiki for pets that you may find helpful:
Introducing Your Pet to Reiki
Animals are very sensitive to energy. If you have just become initiated in Reiki, your pet will sense it immediately. Some pets require a bit of time to get used to the “new you” …
other pets won’t leave you alone from the very first time they sense the Reiki energy!
Whatever the situation may be for you and your pet, introduce your pet to Reiki very gradually. Let your pet sniff your hands, then give him or her praise and gentle petting. This process may take time, so be patient. Never hold down or restrain a pet that you are introducing to Reiki. If you were to do this, your pet’s mind would create a negative association to Reiki. Not only is this unfair to your pet, but afterwards this conditioning would be hard to break.
Reiki for Pets … Giving Reiki To Animals with Long Standing Conditions
As Reiki practitioners we are not allowed to diagnose or prescribe. Reiki should never be used as a substitute for veterinary care. If your pet has a health related condition, ask your veterinarian first whether or not it would be appropriate to give Reiki to your pet.
With that said, let’s look at how to give Reiki treatments for conditions that have become chronic. Hawayo Takata, John Harvey Gray’s teacher, used to say, “if the condition is three weeks old or older, and has not healed, then the whole body becomes involved in the healing process and you must give complete Reiki treatments.” Even if the problem started as an injury … if it has not healed in three weeks time, assume that you must give complete treatments.
Attached is a drawing of a Reiki for pets hand position pattern (the same Reiki hand positions can be used for any four-legged animal). It has seven positions. It’s okay to reduce the number of hand positions when treating smaller animals. Repeat the same pattern of Reiki hand positions on the other side of the animal’s body. If you are working on a very large animal, then add as many positions as you would need in order to cover the entire head, neck and torso of the animal.
You can also create optional Reiki hand positions anywhere on the animal’s body that needs energy. Use either: the “hands next to each other with thumbs touching,” “long pad with an overlap” or “hand sandwich” Reiki hand positions for this purpose. We teach all of these positions in our Reiki I class in the “Reiki for Pets” part of the class. The Reiki hands positions for humans are included in our book “Hand To Hand.”
Ethics of Giving Reiki for Pets
When giving a Reiki for pets treatment you must be very respectful of the animal. Pay close attention to the signs the animal is sending you. If he or she seems uncomfortable and wants to get up, then stop the treatment. Give the animal a break, lots of praise, and wait a while before resuming the Reiki treatment.
It would not be ethical and fair to hold the animal down against his or her will. After the animal has had a break and you also are ready, resume the treatment, starting with the position located just after the position that was interrupted when you gave the animal a break.
Remember to repeat the Reiki hand positions on the opposite side of the animal’s body. At the end of the treatment, smooth the Reiki energy front head to tail three to five times. This will get the aura flow moving in the right direction.
Treating Very Sensitive Pets
Some animals are so sensitive to Reiki energy that you will need to break their Reiki treatments into short segments … two or three minutes at a time … and spread these segments out over the course of a few hours. For other animals even more sensitive, you will only be able to give them Reiki healing treatments from the aura—at a distance of 2 to 3 feet away from the physical body.
Reiki for Pets … Treatments for Animals with Recent Injuries
Use good common sense and follow every precaution when treating an injured animal. You don’t know how the animal will react. Reiki for pets is not a substitute for emergency veterinary care. If in doubt, consult your veterinarian before giving hands-on Reiki to an injured animal.
If you are treating an injury, treat the injury from the aura, i.e., let your hands hover about an inch over the affected part (for very sensitive animals keep your hands 2 to 3 feet above the aura). In this way you won’t have the risk of placing an uncomfortable amount of pressure over the injured area.
After you treat the injury, release the memory of the injury by giving Reiki energy to the adrenal glands. This would be “Position 5” in the Reiki hand positions for animals pattern. Refer to the drawing of the Reiki hand positions for animals, which is included in this article, and do both sides of the body.
Reiki Treatments for Injuries Are Given In 2 Parts:
- Treat the affected area first—the injury; and
- Release the memory of the injury from the body by treating the adrenal glands. Takata said “If you are treating an injury that should have healed long ago but has not, then the body is still holding on to the memory of the injury.” Always treat the adrenal glands after surgery.
- Also remember, surgery is an emergency to the body. Treat the part of the body that had surgery (let your hands hover from above without touching) and then release the adrenal glands.
The length of an emergency Reiki treatment will vary according to the severity of the injury. Last summer, a treated “Faith,”a neighbor’s thoroughbred mare that was limping. “Faith” had broken out of her stall severely injuring her shoulder and right front leg. I gave the horse’s aura a quick scan and found a break in the astral matrix right over the injury. I then gave hands-on Reiki directly to the area, staying on the position until my hands cooled off … this taking about 60 minutes before my hands cooled.
I finished the treatment by releasing the memory of the injury from her adrenal glands (position number five of the Reiki hand positions for animals), taking about another 10 minutes to accomplish. Within one day after the Reiki treatment, “Faith” stopped limping. I then went back and gave her several follow up sessions in order to complete the healing process.
Giving Reiki Treatments for Miscellaneous Pets
Treat a bird from the outside of the cage, if he is not tame. If the bird is tame you may hold the bird in your hands and treat. Adjust the positions to cover the whole body; a small animal will require fewer positions.
Treat a reptile from outside his cage … unless it is your pet and you know it is safe to hold the animal.
Treat the fish from outside the container that holds it; most commonly, this is a glass fish tank. Place your hands on the outside of the glass container. The Reiki energy will travel through the water.
Remember, if you are not sure whether or not it is safe to give the animal a hands-on Reiki treatment, it is best to give the animal a distance Reiki treatment instead.
Reiki for A Wild Perch
Frequently during the summer, my dog Sasha and I take rides in our pontoon boat. We enjoy boating in one of the New Hampshire lakes nearby. Our favorite spot is a beautiful small set of islands surrounded by a sand bar. The water is warm and crystal clear. The views mimic those of the coastal waters off Maine. While there, I enjoy swimming while Sasha explores the little islands. Last summer, I noticed a small perch guarding its nest close to the area where we had tied our boat. I gently and slowly placed my hands in the water offering Reiki to the perch. Little by little the perch inched its way, swimming into my hands to receive a Reiki treatment. Every day for the next two weeks, this little perch swam into my hands to receive Reiki!
The little perch presented me with a beautiful gift by allowing me to give it Reiki. In Reiki we are not just working with energy, we are joining as One with Spirit. Reiki manifests itself in our lives every day, in infinite ways … not just when we are at the table giving a session, but also in the way that we relate to others, in the way we seek to be of service to all things created by Spirit … the people, the animals and the Earth …
