Photo: Reiki master Diane Todd
Reiki is an ancient Japanese healing art, which can have many benefits. The hands-on healing of the Reiki practitioner can help a person to release anger and sadness, which stabilizes emotions. Energy from the healer’s hands does most of the healing work. The Japanese call this energy “ki.”
Diane Todd is a Reiki master from Ocean Grove, who has been practicing Reiki for more than 20 years and has helped many people to live healthier lives.
“I take a holistic approach that means mind, body and spirit. So, they all work together, not independently,” Todd said.
While Reiki has been practiced for over a century and is performed throughout the Monmouth County area, many people do not know much about it.
In the local area, Reiki is now being done out of Reiki practitioners’ homes, some hospitals and some clinics. It is said to make individuals feel better and do better with relationships, school work, regular work, health, and other things in their life as well.
It is also a holistic healing modality used for coping with stress and emotional healing. It can help with tension and pain, and improve a person’s well-being overall.
Reiki can be an important part of a person’s life by getting it going in the right direction spiritually, although it is not a religion or faith.
“One of my close friends from childhood who moved here had ovarian cancer. She lived with it for 16 years,” Todd said. “Nobody with ovarian cancer lives that long. Even the doctors were amazed, and she attributed her longevity with it to Reiki and her positive attitude.”
“Reiki always improves the health and well-being of the person,” said Todd, who has taught many students to become Reiki masters like her. There are four levels in the Reiki system. They are Reiki one, two, three, and master levels.
Some BCC students became familiar with Reiki last year during the opening week of the Caroline Huber Wellness Center.
“We had a special Reiki event where we were giving out 15-minute Reiki sessions,” said Patrick Zavorskas, the cooridnator of the Wellness Center, in an email. The center does not currently offer Reiki but does offer yoga, weekly walks and a variety of other wellness-themed activities.
Wellness Center Director Summer Deaver is also a certified Reiki master. “My stepmother attuned me in Reiki in 2000. I practiced for 15 years before receiving my master level Reiki attunement,” she said. ,
Deaver has no current plan for offering Reiki at the Wellness Center, https://www.brookdalecc.edu/mental-health-wellness-resources/wellness-center/
In addition to Reiki, Todd also offers craniosacral therapy, meditation, tuning fork therapy and other healing practices. “What I try to do is take an integrated approach to helping people,” Todd said. Her website, www.holistichealthandreiki.com, displays the many modalities that she offers.