Leanne Barker from Holistic Care Durham offers Traditional Usui Reiki Training & Healing Sessions for her clients. She worked as a nurse with the NHS for many years until her passion for Reiki took over her life. She now lives and breathes Reiki.

What does Reiki represent in your life, spiritually and physically?

EVERYTHING! I am an ex-nurse of twenty years so have the experience of working with conventional health care. I first started my Reiki path to heal myself, as I wasn’t getting what I needed from the medical sector.

I then decided to train in Reiki and gradually completed all the necessary degrees and am now qualified to teach Reiki to others. Reiki is everything to me – I live and breathe Reiki. Emotionally, it makes one very grounded and deals with deep seated personal traumas as well as day to day life. We also follow a set of principles daily and this keeps us balanced on an emotional level. I suffered quite badly from Crohn’s disease. On a physical level Reiki was able to alleviate the symptoms enormously and while I still have the disease, it is very well controlled and requires no medication whatsoever.

Do you consider Reiki to be a holistic treatment?

Yes, very much so. Although it is a complementary therapy, I believe that Reiki gets to the deep rooted issues and causes of why people are feeling so poorly today. This is what inspired me to take up Reiki in the first place – ‘the silent counselor’ – instead of simply giving somebody a pill. We know that most diseases stem from trapped emotions and traumas that we have experienced during our lives. The Reiki gets to the root causes of these. We work on the chakras which work in 7 year cycles and this allows us to establish why somebody is suffering from a certain issue.

I do, of course, direct my clients to seek medical attention if they need it and we do have to look at Reiki as a complementary or holistic treatment of the whole body.

Why does Reiki resonate with you over any other energy healing modality?

We are all energy and we channel the energy of the Universe. I do like touch therapy as well so I practice massage although this is almost always accompanied with Reiki.

How would you explain the marriage between Aromatherapy and Reiki?

Reiki can be performed simply on its own with pure heart and intention, with no other modality and no other tools. I love aromatherapy as it is earth energy. We are taking the ‘salt’ of the earth to make an essence. It creates a beautiful atmosphere for the client to walk into, and can help them to relax and prepare for their treatment.

I worked in dermatology when I was a nurse and had first hand experience with skin problems. I love aromatherapy for its holistic and wholesome approach to healing people’s skin issues such as psoriasis, dermatitis and eczema. Essential oils accompanied with Reiki offer a magnificent treatment and they marry together beautifully.

Does teaching Reiki to others deepen your energetic relationship and understanding of Reiki?

Absolutely. Becoming a Reiki Master and a Reiki Master teacher does not make anyone a master at anything. Infact, it takes you back to basics again and one really has to get the ego out of the way. It is always a progression in learning.

Teaching other people Reiki is beautiful – I have had to write manuals, go back and research and relearn Reiki. Teaching Reiki has certainly deepened my love for it. I teach it over a weekend or over two days. Students sometimes arrive quite nervous and don’t know what to expect. Throughout the course of the weekend there are often revelatory moments where people realize they no longer want to be in the jobs they are in, for example, and you can observe people gaining confidence and releasing emotions. It is wonderful to be there to support these people as they heal and grow.

I do free Reiki shares twice a week for the students to gain confidence and deepen their learning and healing needs. It really creates a wonderful community.

Do you or your clients ever experience bright colors, or ‘different’ sensations whilst undergoing a treatment, and if so, why?

Many many times, both for myself and my clients. Their level of consciousness will determine how much depth I go into when explaining colors. I am a psychic and practice mediumship, and this was developed through Reiki. I can be standing at my client’s crown chakra and my intuition will guide me with colors around a client’s body.

I ask the Reiki to guide me where I need to go. I link the colors to the chakras. Often the client will wake up and tell me what colors they saw and where – it’s almost as if we are working together, through the third eye. Reiki is a spiritual intelligence and the Reiki energy goes where it needs to go.