Welcome to RCGW Notes!

This is my first posting to the blog. I thought I would begin by giving a brief history of RCGW and my healing path, to give readers not familiar some background. You can see more information about Reiki and my practice at my website.

My healing path began in 1974, when I first joined a twelve-step recovery group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was 13 years old and struggling to overcome an addiction that was taking over my life. In the program, I was first introduced to the concept of a higher power, or HP for short. I learned about "turning it over," meaning releasing the recovery (and many parts of my life) to a Higher Power. This presented a bit of difficulty for me, since I had a G-d at that time who seemed too big for something as small as trying not to overeat. I began to visualize a Higher Power that was more intimate, more of a friend, and spoke to him in a conversational style.

I joined the Lambda Light meditation group in 1989 and began to connect to the meditation images I was given. The group would take regular retreats once or twice each year and members gave presentations on various topics: meditation, healing, psychic development, etc. In the group were a number of healers who offered their services freely.

As I was learning about meditation and relaxation techniques in Lambda Light, my work life was very much a contrast: I had high-stress positions that often had challenges that were almost impossible to overcome. I began to hold the stress in my body and developed some symptoms of pain in my solar plexus (back pain, digestive troubles, etc).

At one Lambda Retreat in 1995, when I was lying on the floor because my back was giving me so much trouble, I was offered a Reiki treatment for the first time. After determining that Reiki could do no harm, I accepted the healing and was shown to a massage table and told to lie down fully clothed, except for my glasses and shoes. The Reiki Practitioner, whose name was John Purdy, worked on me for about an hour and I noticed immediate improvements in my body. I no longer needed to lie down; I could sit for extended amounts of time; I had no more pain!

About two years later, I chanced upon a Reiki Master giving a talk on Reiki at a local bookstore in Falls Church, Virginia called Happy, Joyous, and Free. As part of the talk, he gave an attunement to me and the other attendees. This connected us to the Reiki energy stream and allowed us to begin to do healing. It amazed me how the energy felt.

I began to look for a teacher to learn more about Reiki and came upon Reiki Master Liz Tarr in 1998 in Columbia, Maryland where I did my Reiki I and II. Liz was a student of Reiki Master Diane Stein, author of Essential Reiki, one of the more controversial books about Reiki. The book was controversial because Diane believe that those things that had previously been exclusively confidential should be disclosed to the general public. Because of her work, the number of people practicing Reiki dramatically increased in the 1990's and beyond.

After the Reiki classes, I began to work with clients, usually giving sessions free of charge and eventually charging, if the clients continued treatment. I worked with a client with broken bones in her foot, a client with emotional issues, and a client with breast cancer. I began to see that I had found my passion and continued with my Reiki studies in a Master class (known as Reiki III) in October 1998 with Reiki Master Marie Ciociola in Brandywine, Maryland. She was also a minister of the Institute for Spiritual Development.

After that, my path expanded greatly. I studied other healing modalities at the Institute for Spiritual Development in Washington, D.C. and became a certified healer there. I took additional classes on psychic development, and my Reiki practice grew. I began to teach Reiki in 1999 after my move to Rockville, Maryland. I called my practice the Reiki Center of Greater Washington and had the desire to support a community of what I call "reiki people," those people committed to using Reiki in their daily lives.

I also began to study Shamanic Healing with Crystals with Herb Stevenson, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio in July 2000. This complemented my Reiki healing very well and I saw that it was helpful to use crystals and journeying in my Reiki healing, classes, and personal meditation practice.

The practice continued with a few clients a week and a class a month for the next year and a half. At that point, 9/11 occurred, followed quickly by the anthrax scare, and the Washington Sniper (who began his rampage in my neighborhood, Aspen Hill). I began to wonder whether it was really appropriate for me to continue living in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

I did a meditation in which Mrs. Hawayo Takata, the woman who brought Reiki from Japan to the West, came to me. She said that I was in the DC area for a reason and that all of her Reiki Masters earned their living from Reiki. I replied to her that she had died nine years before I found Reiki. She laughed that since I called on her spirit at each of my classes and was attuned to the same energy that she had brought, she was my teacher as well. She told me not to fear, that I would have her support in making my practice a success.

Two months after 9/11, I got on a plane and traveled to Del Ray Beach, Florida, where I studied Karuna Reiki (R) with Laurelle Gaia and Michael Baird. Karuna Reiki (R) is the trademark of the International Center for Reiki Training in Southfield, Michigan. Laurelle is the author of The Book on Karuna Reiki and also the Director for Teacher Licensing for ICRT. Karuna Reiki is about connecting deeply to your client at a cellular level. It is called the Reiki of Compassionate Action and I felt moved to do all of the things I was too afraid to accomplish after returning from the class.

Soon after that, in June 2003, I studied Sekhem-Seichim-Reiki with Carole Wright at Special Treasures in Gaithersburg, Maryland and three weeks later my job ended with Kaiser Permanente and I moved into full-time healing. It has been a fun, challenging year and few months of teaching, healing, and travel around the country (to rejuvenate myself and teach).

This October, I began studying Lightarian Reiki with Mary Ruth Van Landingham at Terra Christa in Vienna, Virginia. This modality of Reiki supplements the Karuna Reiki by connecting directly with ascended master energies.

I am so grateful for the path that I am on, the clients and students whom I have met, and the helpers I have had in my teaching and healing. I welcome you to join me on this path...it's really pretty amazing!