Reiki – A Journey Toward Alternative Healing by Dorothy Wills-Raftery

Last week I had the great pleasure of providing a distance Reiki session for Gibson. Gibson has been diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy a few years ago and suffers from a number of side-effects from the medication he is on. His mom, Dorothy, works very hard to bring awareness to Canine Epilepsy through her GibStrong campaign, and she’s an all around wonderful lady!

After the session, she took the time to write a long and very thorough account of her experience. You can read an excerpt below and for the full post you can go visit FiveSibesBlog.

And here’s what Dorothy has to say:

“As many of you know, I recently held an auction for Canine Epilepsy Awareness. One of the many items so generously donated was a 30-minute Reiki session with animal massage therapist and Reiki professional Marta Banat of All Paws Massage in Vancouver, Canada, who as you recall, was also my wonderful guest speaker on “The Sibe Vibe” back in August. I bid on the session – and was thrilled when I won!

Marta’s room in Canada.

Now I’ve always been intrigued by the practice of Reiki. I have a friend who became a practitioner years ago, before alternative therapies such as this were in the spotlight, and I always wondered about it. Quite honestly, when she told me what she did, and explained she healed through her hands, I thought it was a bit, well, hokey. But, fast forward about five years. Gibson has his first seizure, and then five more a month later and was put on anti-seizure meds. Then, three years ago about six months after two life-threatening emergency surgeries, I started becoming ill and after much testing, I was diagnosed with degenerative rheumatoid arthritis. Before I agreed to a strict daily injection medication regimen, that would “probably” not “possibly” have some serious side effects, I told the rheumatologist that I first needed to digest what he just told me and do some research of the disease for myself. My own physician was telling me that I would be crippled, in great pain, and on heavy narcotics to try to deal with the pain and need to make a decision to “stop playing around” with alternative methods. And, as if that wasn’t harsh enough, I was also advised that it would eventually move into my organs – like my heart and brain. And recently, I’ve had bouts of it affecting my eyes. (Ouch).  I’ll admit it, I was scared. Still am a bit. But, being a journalist by trade, I did my research. I’ve always been aware of alternative therapies. My own mother has been on the cusp of that for almost 30 years with chiropractic care and vitamin therapy. Then, about 10 years ago, when she was in her 80s, she started acupuncture. Again, I was leary. As a journalist, I deal in facts and research. Tangible evidence. Things I can see and touch and experience for myself…

  “Reiki is an ancient Japanese form of gentle and non-invasive energy healing…” ~Marta Banat

Watching my mother week after week, to this very day (and she’s 93.5), I have witnessed firsthand the positive effects of alternative therapy. Her amazing acupuncturist has now been mine for the past three years and we have many talks about nutrition, and “chi energy.” This then led me to do more research and discover that in both the canine and human world, successful alternative therapies are being explored, more and more every day. So I began examining alternative healing treatments with Gibson. Since he suffers from side effects from his Epi-meds with lethargy, hind end weakness that resulted in two torn CCLs, vomiting, etc., I decided to add some holistic and non-invasive alternative treatments – vitamin supplements, coconut and omega oils, and laser therapy to his regimen. What I’ve seen him overcome over the past few years is nothing short of amazing. But then again – if you were to ask the folks who administer these holistic treatments, they will tell you that they knew it would help all the long.

So why are we so resistant to trying something…different? Something alternative? Acupuncture, vitamins, and laser therapy have proven to be very successful with humans, and is now having great results in the canine world. Just look at Gibson. But Reiki? And I’m not talking about hands-on Reiki. I can understand that – that makes more sense to me than “distance” Reiki, where the practitioner is logistically elsewhere and not in the same room – or even state – as you and your pet. In Gibson’s case, Marta is located in Canada. But I’ve seen and experienced enough over my lifetime to know that just because I can’t “see” it does not mean it won’t work. Life force is quite something special – and while we may not see it, it’s there, working all the time.

Gibson right before treatment began.

So how does distance Reiki work? What was it like? What did we have to do? Was it via telephone or Skype? And more importantly, did it do anything? These are most likely your top questions. They sure were mine! So I asked Marta if we could both take photos of the “before” areas to show how our half-hour session was set up, and then I would follow-up with Gibson’s and my experience. And like any good story, you won’t find out the answers to your questions until the end! Instead, I’d like to take you along on a virtual journey of how our experience with distance Reiki was. Up front, I want to say that I did not ask Marta what to expect because I wanted to go in and have my own experience and not be predisposed to any ideas or suggestions.

Marta with her Sibe Rocco & a client.

First, just exactly what is Reiki? According to Marta in her AllPawsMassage website, “Reiki is an ancient Japanese form of genlte and non-invasive energy healing, which is based on the premise that universal life energy is present. This healing energy is channeled through the practitioner’s hands to assist with self-healing, releasing energy blocks, easing pain and discomfort.”

Sounds good to me!”

To read the rest of her account visits FiveSibesBlog.