Beyond Reiki: Redefining Energy Work

People often ask me what energy work is, and sometimes the words feel too small for the experience. It’s subtle, yet powerful. Gentle, yet transformative. It doesn’t always look like something is happening—but something always is.

For a long time, I called it Reiki, because that was the framework I first learned within. I studied the Reiki system—rooted in early 20th century Japan, with its own language, lineage, and hand positions—and I’m deeply grateful for what it offered me. It opened the door. It gave me structure, safety, and a language for something I already felt in my bones.

And I honor that.

But as I’ve grown, as I’ve deepened into my own practice and intuition, I’ve found myself reaching for something broader. I’ve come to see that Reiki is just one beautiful expression of energy work—one cultural lens through which the universal flows. And while it was the beginning of my journey, it’s not the whole of it.

The more I work with energy, the more I feel its boundlessness. It moves beyond systems, beyond symbols, beyond step-by-step sequences. It is ancient and living. It’s multicultural, multidimensional, and deeply personal. And what’s coming through me now—what wants to be shared—isn’t about following one modality. It’s about allowing something more universal to speak through my hands, my presence, my knowing.

Energy work is about presence. It’s about the space between the words, the breath before the release, the quiet movement of something old making its way out. It’s not about fixing you—because you’re not broken—but about reconnecting you to what’s already whole inside.

When I place my hands on someone, I’m not just touching muscle or skin. I’m listening. Feeling. Offering. Channeling. Letting the body lead. Letting energy move, clear, recalibrate. Sometimes it’s warmth. Sometimes it’s a wave of emotion. Sometimes it’s peace so deep it brings tears to the eyes.

This work has ancient roots, yes—but it also lives in the now. It’s intuitive. It’s quantum. It transcends language, lineage, and belief systems. And for me, it’s sacred.

Lately, I’ve been shedding the need to name it in ways that limit or confine. I’m stepping away from the labels that once helped me feel grounded, and leaning into the mystery and expansiveness of what this work actually is. I want to honor the cultural origins that opened the door for me, while also making space for a more universal expression—one that includes all of me, all of my lineage, and all the unseen forces I work with.

I’m not interested in limiting it with a label anymore. I’m interested in letting it unfold. In honoring its intelligence. In letting the energy speak for itself.

So no, I can’t always explain energy work in a neat little definition. But you’ll know it when you feel it.