Reiki Sessions
Returning to the Intelligence of Life
Do You Long to Feel Deeply Rested Again? Have you ever felt as though your body is carrying more than your mind can explain?
There are seasons in life when everything feels harder than necessary. You may be living with chronic stress that never seems to leave your body, recovering from illness or surgery, navigating grief, burnout, a major life transition, or simply feeling exhausted by the constant demands of life. Maybe you've done everything you know to do—slept more, exercised, talked it through—yet something deep within you still feels tense, depleted, or unable to settle.
Perhaps you've noticed that even when your mind wants to relax, your body doesn't seem to know how...
Sometimes the greatest longing is simply to feel at home in yourself again.
While Reiki was once considered an obscure alternative practice, today it is offered as a complementary therapy in major medical centers including Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to support relaxation, emotional well-being, and quality of life alongside conventional medical care. While science continues to investigate precisely how Reiki works, countless people experience it as an invitation to settle into a state where the body remembers how to rest, regulate, and repair.
If you've been searching for a gentle approach that asks nothing of you but your willingness to receive, Reiki may offer exactly that.
Not because someone else heals you.
But because it creates the conditions in which your own innate intelligence can begin to move freely once again.
Imagine two tuning forks tuned to the same note. Strike one, and the other begins to vibrate—not because anything is pushed from one to the other, but because resonance awakens what was already possible.
Traditional Usui Reiki can be understood in much the same way.
Your Body Knows More Than You Think
We live in a culture that teaches us to push through, figure it out, and keep going.
Over time, many of us become disconnected from the quiet wisdom of our own bodies. Even when the mind longs to relax, the nervous system continues bracing for what comes next.
Many people don't realize how much tension they are holding until they finally experience what it feels like to let it go.
Reiki understands healing differently than many therapeutic approaches. Rather than trying to eliminate symptoms or force change, it begins with a simple trust: life naturally moves toward balance when the conditions allow it.
Every cut knows how to heal.
Every seed knows how to become a tree.
Your heart has been beating faithfully since before you were born, without consulting your thoughts.
Beneath the countless processes that sustain your life is an extraordinary intelligence—one that requires surprisingly little from you except the opportunity to do what it has always known how to do.
The Art of Getting Out of the Way
One of the deepest teachings of Reiki is that the practitioner is not the healer.
The effectiveness of the practice does not depend on possessing a special gift or extraordinary power. If anything, it depends on the opposite. It depends less on what the practitioner does than on how completely they have learned to stop doing.
The practitioner does not direct the current. They simply stop standing in its way.
Through dedicated practice, they tend their own inner channels — clearing the knots, maintaining an unobstructed flow — so that energy can move through them freely without being intercepted or absorbed. They learn to quiet the mind, soften personal effort, and release the impulse to fix, control, or make something happen. As striving falls away, they become a stable, coherent presence—like the first tuning fork that sets another into resonance.
From that stillness, the universal life force, already flowing through and as all living things, can naturally express itself where it is needed most.
The clearer and more settled the practitioner becomes, the less they interfere with that expression. Healing is not something they produce, but something they allow.
For this reason, traditional Usui Reiki is more than a healing modality. At its heart, it is a contemplative practice.
Traditional Usui Reiki Ryōhō
Founded by Mikao Usui in Japan in the early twentieth century, Traditional Japanese Usui Reiki Ryōhō emerged from a profound spiritual awakening during Usui's 21-day retreat on Mount Kurama. He described a direct realization: that Reiki — the universal life force — is not an external force brought from elsewhere, but the natural intelligence of life returning to balance when the mind ceases to interfere.
Rooted in the Buddhist traditions that informed Usui's spiritual training, Reiki reflects an understanding of awareness as inherently luminous and present in all beings. Amithabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, as this innate luminosity, and his seed syllable Hrih, also found in Reiki symbolism, echoes this spiritual lineage.
Usui went on to establish a practice rooted not only in hands-on healing, but in cultivating the qualities that make such healing possible.
This is why the Five Reiki Precepts remain at the heart of the tradition:
Just for today: Do not anger. Do not worry. Be grateful. Work diligently. Be kind.
They are not moral commandments, but practical instructions for becoming a clearer, quieter vessel through which life can move unhindered.
This understanding also shapes the way I practice.
Reiki asks nothing of you. There is nothing to achieve, nothing to understand, and nothing to change. It simply allows what is no longer serving to dissolve, revealing spaciousness.
Your Invitation Is To Receive
I was initiated into Usui Ryōhō Reiki in 2000 by my sister, Suzi Or-El Behar, during one of her workshops in Israel. I continued my training at the International Center for Reiki Training in New York City and became certified as a Reiki master/teacher in 2002.
In those years, I carried my portable treatment table through all five boroughs of New York City, meeting people wherever they were—in their homes, workplaces, community gatherings, hospitals, and hospice settings.
Back then, Reiki was still unfamiliar to most people. Skepticism was common, and I occasionally responded with a bit of playful mischief by charging people's mobile phones with my hands after they questioned whether there was any energy there at all.
Much has changed since then.
Today, Reiki is welcomed into leading medical institutions around the world, yet I still occasionally encounter the same skeptical smile.
I've come to appreciate both.
Because after more than two decades of practice, I'm less interested in convincing anyone how Reiki works than I am in witnessing what happens when someone finally experiences deep rest and openness.
If you’re curious, I warmly invite you to find out for yourself.
I offer in-person Reiki sessions in a quiet, supportive environment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and distance sessions worldwide via Zoom.
Come exactly as you are.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No. Reiki is not bound to any religion or belief system. You don't need to believe in a particular philosophy or adopt any spiritual views. Many people come simply because they are exhausted, overwhelmed, tense, or curious. Your openness to receiving is far more important than holding any particular belief.
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No. Reiki is a complementary practice, not a substitute for appropriate medical diagnosis or treatment. It can be a beautiful companion alongside conventional healthcare, which is why many hospitals and hospice programs now include it as part of integrative care.
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Distance Reiki works on the understanding that the universal life force is not confined by physical space. Just as a radio wave carries its signal across vast distances without losing its essential nature, and just as one tuning fork can set another into resonance across a room, presence — not proximity — is what matters.
What makes this possible is something both ancient wisdom traditions and modern quantum physics point to: that what appears to be empty space between us is actually a brimming fullness—a continuous, interconnected matrix of awareness and energy in which everything already participates. There is no void to cross. The practitioner doesn't "send" energy across a gap; rather, by tuning into a shared presence that was never divided to begin with, the impulse of healing reverberates instantly — offering the same depth, resonance, and restorative impact as an in-person session.
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In short: no. Reiki has no known adverse effects, no contraindications, and nothing about a session can interfere with conventional medical care. It can be received safely alongside any medical treatment or intervention.
One thing I've come to understand deeply through more than two decades of practice is that Reiki only flows where it is truly welcome. The energy is not imposed — it moves where it is invited and where it can be of benefit. I have experienced sessions where the energy was quite literally bounced back by a person who, consciously or unconsciously, was not ready to receive it — even when they had asked for a session. In those cases, nothing harmful happens. In the worst-case scenario, you simply don't receive it.
There are a few things worth naming honestly. If you are managing a serious health condition, please continue working with your medical team — Reiki is here to support that process, not substitute for it. It is also worth knowing that sessions can sometimes invite repressed emotions or old patterns to surface. This is generally part of the natural movement toward balance rather than something to be concerned about, and it passes. A qualified practitioner will hold that space with care and know how to support you through it.
The deepest safety of Reiki may lie in its very nature: it does not override, force, or impose. It simply offers. What your system is ready to receive, it receives. What it isn't, it doesn't.
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Every session is its own experience, and every person receives it differently. There is no single right way to experience Reiki — and whatever you experience is exactly right for you.
That said, many people report a profound sense of warmth, either from the practitioner's hands or arising from within their own body. Others notice gentle tingling, a feeling of heaviness or lightness, spontaneous waves of relaxation moving through the body, or simply a deep and unfamiliar stillness. Some people see colors or imagery. Others drift into a state that is neither quite awake nor quite asleep — a threshold place that many describe as one of the most restful they have ever visited.
Some people feel very little during the session itself and notice the effects in the hours or days that follow — a quieter mind, deeper sleep, a sense of having set something down that they didn't realize they were carrying.
Occasionally, emotions may arise — not because something has gone wrong, but because the body, given permission to settle, sometimes releases what it has been holding. This is welcomed and held with care.
What most people agree on, regardless of how they would describe the experience, is that something shifts. The quality of their inner atmosphere changes. They leave feeling different than when they arrived — softer, more spacious, more themselves.
I often think the most honest answer is simply: come and find out. The experience tends to speak more clearly than any description of it.
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That's perfectly okay.
You don't need to adopt anyone else's explanation.
Some people understand Reiki through the language of subtle energy. Others see it as a contemplative practice that helps regulate the nervous system through deep presence. My invitation is simply this: notice your own experience rather than trying to decide in advance what is or isn't possible.
What Clients Are Saying
“This whole experience gives me a real sensation of our burgeoning edge of self-healing. Thanks!”
∞
"Tchera is elegant and thoughtful. Her experience with both technical and the artistic side of life are masterful and uplifting!"
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“It’s been over a month and I’m still feeling so good and so light ... It really has made a big difference in my life, and of course having such a great facilitator.”
∞
“Struggling with a deeply rooted issue for years, I was haunted by a persistent, self-fulfilling prophecy that seemed to affect me profoundly ... the process is deep and kind, and under the intuitive, graceful, and compassionate guidance of a coach like Tchera, it turns into a magically transformative journey. “
∞
"It's really fun and wholesome and so connected with natural healing flow."
∞
“Even as I continue to double check the transformation within myself, I find that everything has become clearer. Where there was once stubbornness, now there is understanding and tranquility. I’m immensely grateful for your presence and our encounter, Tchera!”
∞
“… As far as what we worked on, wow, it’s been a major shift! I am so much kinder and more self-compassionate. All feelings are valid. I don’t see myself as weak for having any feelings. I don’t shame myself or feel guilty. “
∞
"It has been a real pleasure working with Tchera. She is kind and very talented. Her choices are progressive, inspiring and enlightening. I am looking forward for an opportunity to work with her again."
∞
"Tchera has the ability to take an ordinary subject and transform it into a captivating and personal statement. She has a strong point of view but her process does not exclude divergent opinions--she is able to assess and incorporate them comfortably.”
∞
"The ability to touch the psyche in this way is truly profound."
∞
“... And you know what, it’s really upped my pickleball game! A noticeable difference! I don’t get stuck in that mindset of being perfect in every play.”
∞
“Tchera is as kind as she is straightforward. I enjoyed working with her as she brought laughter into my life, and helped me grow."
∞
"Tchera has a great understanding of life and she is sensitive to the clients that work with her. She is very creative in her ideas and has an open and innovated mind."
∞
“… Funny how I'm writing about my own opinions but you're helping me figure my life out.”
∞
“Thank you so much! I really value your help.”
∞
"Pleasant, intelligent and dedicated to the field. Highly recommended."
∞
“This whole experience gives me a real sensation of our burgeoning edge of self-healing. Thanks!” ∞ "Tchera is elegant and thoughtful. Her experience with both technical and the artistic side of life are masterful and uplifting!" ∞ “It’s been over a month and I’m still feeling so good and so light ... It really has made a big difference in my life, and of course having such a great facilitator.” ∞ “Struggling with a deeply rooted issue for years, I was haunted by a persistent, self-fulfilling prophecy that seemed to affect me profoundly ... the process is deep and kind, and under the intuitive, graceful, and compassionate guidance of a coach like Tchera, it turns into a magically transformative journey. “ ∞ "It's really fun and wholesome and so connected with natural healing flow." ∞ “Even as I continue to double check the transformation within myself, I find that everything has become clearer. Where there was once stubbornness, now there is understanding and tranquility. I’m immensely grateful for your presence and our encounter, Tchera!” ∞ “… As far as what we worked on, wow, it’s been a major shift! I am so much kinder and more self-compassionate. All feelings are valid. I don’t see myself as weak for having any feelings. I don’t shame myself or feel guilty. “ ∞ "It has been a real pleasure working with Tchera. She is kind and very talented. Her choices are progressive, inspiring and enlightening. I am looking forward for an opportunity to work with her again." ∞ "Tchera has the ability to take an ordinary subject and transform it into a captivating and personal statement. She has a strong point of view but her process does not exclude divergent opinions--she is able to assess and incorporate them comfortably.” ∞ "The ability to touch the psyche in this way is truly profound." ∞ “... And you know what, it’s really upped my pickleball game! A noticeable difference! I don’t get stuck in that mindset of being perfect in every play.” ∞ “Tchera is as kind as she is straightforward. I enjoyed working with her as she brought laughter into my life, and helped me grow." ∞ "Tchera has a great understanding of life and she is sensitive to the clients that work with her. She is very creative in her ideas and has an open and innovated mind." ∞ “… Funny how I'm writing about my own opinions but you're helping me figure my life out.” ∞ “Thank you so much! I really value your help.” ∞ "Pleasant, intelligent and dedicated to the field. Highly recommended." ∞
Artworks from top: [Valerya, Open Hands], [Christina Burch, Hri & Valeriya, Reiki Hands], [Evolutionary Collective, Mutual Awakening], [Valeriya, Lotus Hands]