Guest Blog: Allison Brooks

Reiki: Touching One Cancer Patient at a Time 

Recently traditional healthcare professionals and programs have started to treat cancer in a new way, incorporating alternative therapies with regular methods of treatment in order to promote healing. The recognition that traditional medicine is not the only answer to relieve the suffering of the disease and the side effects of treatment, has opened new doors for patients to receive therapies such as Reiki, sometimes within hospital settings or at a patient’s bedside, while undergoing usual cancer treatment. Reiki is a very interesting and calming procedure utilized by trained practitioners, and causes no side effects or harm to the patient.

 Freeing Energy Fields

Reiki promotes overall wellness and healing by a practitioner placing his or her hands above the patient’s body and transmitting the life force energy to the person. The theory behind the practice is that Reiki uses the body’s own fields of energy to heal diseases and maintain health. It is believed by some that when the energy field is disrupted by a blockage, whether emotional, mental or physical, it causes illness of either physical or emotional in nature. Reiki therapy moves the field of energy to get it flowing in the correct direction. Removing the blockage allows the body to accelerate healing.

Reiki and Cancer 

When a person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole life turns in a heart-racing panic attack. All the mixed emotions and being unsure of what’s to come, can block energy fields and actually prevent healing. The side effects of conventional cancer therapies can also make a patient stressed and depressed, making it harder to overcome the battle. Chemotherapy has a number of side effects including nausea, fatigue, weakness and other debilitating symptoms. In addition to the physical discomfort, patients in hospital settings or in outpatient chemotherapy treatment experience anxiety, stress, and sleeplessness, added to the pain they may already be suffering.  

Many cancer patients are introduced to Reiki therapy in hospitals. Many doctors and nurses that aid patients with shot life-expectancy-cancers, like phyllodes tumors, pancreatic cancer, or mesothelioma, actually recommend reiki or other natural therapies to compliment conventional treatments. Several hospitals are even offering Reiki to cancer patients for free and if not, interested patients should consult their healthcare provider for a recommendation or referral for Reiki therapy.

Though there is not much scientific evidence proving that reiki has healing abilities, clinical trials have recorded patients claiming to feel less pain and a better sense of well-being after reiki sessions. Proponents of Reiki therapy and patients report the side effects of chemotherapy are greatly relieved after a practitioner performs therapy sessions. Patients tell of feelings of calm, peaceful relaxation as well as reduction of pain and the symptoms of chemotherapy.