The Online Publication of the Reiki University
Teaching
To The Unspoken Need
by Ellen Louise Kahne,
Certified
Reiki Master/teacher
My first Reiki teacher used to say "you must always teach subtle energy work to the unspoken need of the student ." When I asked her how to know what that need was she said "you must learn to trust the Reiki energy to guide you and you must read that need and teach to it both on spoken and unspoken levels." Teaching subtle energy healing also requires "holding the energy" of the class for the duration of the workshop.
Learning how to meet the unspoken needs of others in a subtle energy class requires being fully present for each student, "tuning in" to the energy current of the class. while unfolding the materials in a vital, interesting and sometimes surprising manner. This type of teaching is dynamic and constantly evolving, even through the traditional framework of the healing discipline.
The surprises come about when an unexpected emphasis emerges from the Reiki Master's lips and words pour forth that are in me but not of me. On such occasions, I have found myself relating stories about how I have seen Reiki affect particular physical conditions or emotional states, how it has unblocked creativity in others or how abusive relationships or addictive behaviors have been ameliorated and healthy relationships have been enhanced using this 19th century Japanese hands- on-healing method. Amazingly, light shines on different facets of the Reiki diamond in each class for each student, personally.
Students have pulled me aside or called me after the class to tell me "I've received the message that I needed to hear regarding that very issue in my own life (and/or the life of my loved one)."
Since the dynamic of each class is different. I have found that subtle energy healing energy classes come together through a non verbal contract mutually agreed upon over distance and time prior to the class once the date of the class has been set. The right students arrive at the right time for the right reasons.
Reiki energy originates in the Universal field, that is, the ever present energy field which establishes order out of chaos and is the source of infinite wisdom, limitless abundance and life force energies in the Universe. Classes emerge synergistically through the organization of this subtle energy field to meet the underlying needs of the individual students in a common energy matrix (enfolding the class itself). To understand this it helps to realize that Reiki energy has both physical and metaphysical aspects which travel over distance and through dimensional time and space.
My class compositions have included the following: mothers and daughters learning together, creative energies (actors and actresses, writers, professors, musicians, fine artists), healing professionals (psychologists, nurses, medical doctors, dance therapists, chiropractors), elite athletes, cancer patients and their relatives, people with depression or anxiety, people with back problems, married couples, spiritually evolving energy workers and people in transition, police officers and martial artists, child healers (ages 5-12), emergent middle aged women and people who have traveled from the four corners of the world to take the class.
All of these permutations have manifested in the over 250 classes which I have taught on all levels of Reiki and (always) I've had to teach to the needs of each student while focusing a balance of energies to serve the entirety of the class. Furthermore, the students in each class support and facilitate dynamic healing in one another through the unique healing gifts which come through them.
How is it possible to open people of differing age groups, life circumstances and backgrounds to do subtle energy healing to balance and de-stress themselves and help others for a lifetime in the space of a one day or two day workshop? This becomes possible when you meet each person where he/she is, not where you would have them be and when you center yourself in the energy itself, literally embodying the energy and you step out of your own way to allow the energy to do the teaching and the healing. For the Reiki Master, this is an ability which is grasped in an instant --through letting go--after what may be years of trying to "get it." It is a gift of grace from the Universal energy field.