Increasingly, Reiki is finding its way into institutional settings, from hospitals to hospices, and the push appears to be coming from patients as well as clinical practitioners.

 

Hospitals and healthcare facilities are responding to the many benefits Reiki can offer. The authors of Reiki Energy Medicine state, “As our health-care system challenges institutions to offer high-quality but cost-effective service, Reiki is being recognized as an important tool to maximize patient care and minimize recovery time.”[1]

 

Reiki helps through its calming effect, which helps to manage side effects without compromising the medical treatment. This illustrates why it is more accurate to call Reiki a “complementary” or “integrative” health modality, rather than an “alternative” therapy.

 

The following Canadian healthcare facilities offer and recognize Reiki as a complementary option to medical treatments:

• Mt. Sinai Hospital’s Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre, Toronto, Ontario

• Princess Margaret Hospital (University Health Network), Toronto, Ontario

• Ottawa Integrative Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Ontario

• Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital, Tillsonburg, Ontario

• Hospice Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

• The Canadian Cancer Society

• Wellspring Canada (nine locations and four partnerships throughout Canada)

 

According to the American Hospital Association, in 2007 over 800 healthcare facilities in the United States offered Reiki, including the following:

• John Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center, Lutherville, Maryland

• Boston Children’s Hospital Center for Holistic Pediatric Education and Research, Boston, Massachusetts

• The Abramson Cancer Center, Cancer Rehabilitation Program, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

• Harvard University Health Services, Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Hartford Hospital’s Integrative Medicine Program, Hartford, Connecticut

• Elliot Hospital’s Pain Management Center, Manchester, New Hampshire

• Yale–New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut

• Yale University’s School of Nursing teaches Reiki, Orange, Connecticut

• Columbia University Medical Center, New York

• New York University Medical Center, New York.

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