Kay Gillard

healer | teacher | storyteller

Shamanic approach to Reiki


Building understanding of energy healing, from a shamanic perspective


I specialise in helping Reiki people develop their skills and understanding so they can reach their highest potential as healers. My unique, shamanic-inspired Reiki courses are my favourite way to do this. They are grounded in my 19 years of work as a shamanic practitioner and Reiki healer, and I first created these courses in back in 2009 so they are tried and tested!

This advanced training in a shamanic approach to Reiki allows a deepening of our understanding of how trauma is held in the body, how energy medicine really works, and how Reiki can soothe and protect us and our clients as we stand on the gateway of healing transformation.

All Shamanic Approach to Reiki workshops include comprehensive notes provided for further study and for reference later, giving more detail than we can cover on the day. The workshops themselves are focused on specific, practical work and shamanic journeying and/or perception exercises. I encourage you to read afterwards to integrate the teachings, but most of all to trust your own intuition and experiment with these techniques on your own and with your fellow practitioners. It is through your own practice you will find your own unique medicine and perspective as a healer.

About the Shamanic Approach to Reiki courses

This advanced training in a shamanic approach to Reiki allows a deepening of our understanding of how trauma is held in the body, how energy medicine really works, and how Reiki can soothe and protect us and our clients as we stand on the gateway of healing transformation.

All Shamanic Approach to Reiki workshops include comprehensive notes provided for further study and for reference later, giving more detail than we can cover on the day. The workshops themselves are focused on specific, practical work and shamanic journeying and/or perception exercises. I encourage you to read afterwards to integrate the teachings, but most of all to trust your own intuition and experiment with these techniques on your own and with your fellow practitioners. It is through your own practice you will find your own unique medicine and perspective as a healer.

Course background and origins

My own journey onto this path of healing began with Reiki, however that same week I also began my shamanic training. Both systems have been a huge influence on the way I work, both in my personal practice and in how I approach healing work for other people. However, I always kept the two ways of working very separate from one another, believing that they were separate systems and trying not to let them overlap in my professional work. In May 2008 my compartmentalised view of healing was completely shaken up when I trained as a Reiki Drum practitioner. This fusion technique of Reiki with shamanic medicine drumming, trance journeying and mental/emotional reprogramming with affirmations was many of my favourite techniques all rolled together. It wasn’t traditional, but it was still extremely powerful.

Given the importance of Shinto on Usui Sensei, and that part of the original symbol for Reiki means ‘Shaman who brings the rain (female Shaman, actually!) it is not surprising that Reiki is more and more coming to be thought of as a form of Shamanism. The more I learn from my Spirit teachers, the more ways I see for these two different ways of working to be united with great effect. I received a lot of guidance from Spirit after I did that training, and it has led me to bring my Reiki and shamanic knowledge together and form my own fusion techniques under the watchful eyes of my power animals and spirit guides. I have found that, far from diluting or undermining the original systems, this approach has brought the best aspects of different systems together to form something more effective than either system can be on its own.

Reiki energy is so beautiful and gentle, it works always for the highest good, it is balancing, healing and supportive. The energy itself carries within it the principles that Reiki people live by: the Reiki precepts, a sense of oneness with all beings, love and compassion. Shamanic work is so illuminating for the client, shining a light on exactly what they are working on and why. It encourages a truly active involvement with their own healing, it enables us as practitioners to work interactively with our clients, empowering then and encouraging them to take ownership of and responsibility for their own healing. When we bring a shamanic approach to healing into our Reiki practice, we are still working with that wonderful Reiki energy that you already know so well. But by drawing on shamanic healing techniques we can promote deeper healing and more effective changes than by using Reiki alone; we can engage our clients in the healing work and give them an understanding of the energetic world we inhabit, and their power within it.


Student testimonial:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU…Wow what a day we had on Saturday, thank you so much for what I can truly say from my heart, is the best workshop I have attended.  You are absolute gold, a real gem of a healer, intuitive, warm and kind with enormous spiritual depth. It was deeply moving work, a rare treat to be part of such a personalised, small group, enabling you to hold the space for each of us and as a group. I absolutely loved the day and the places it took us to!  The room was perfect, and your ability to know what we needed to learn and understand had such clarity, not to mention your very talented ability with the beautiful Reiki drum, which so resonated with me. I felt that magical vibrational sound enabled me to journey deeper into energy work than had been possible before. Following that up with such detailed notes and resource material for us afterwards was a huge added bonus.  I will definitely be keeping in touch and seeing what else I can come and learn with you! Thank you from my heart and soul. 

Sophie Harris, Reiki Master Teacher

The Shamanic Approach to Reiki courses

I have created three unique courses to lead Reiki people into deeper skill and open up a shamanic awareness. Each course includes comprehensive notes to take away with you, and a certificate to confirm your new skills, but the most important part is the power of the healing we experience together as a group. You can learn more about each of them and book your place here:

All courses are for Reiki 2 (practitioner level) and above.

Upcoming dates are:

Reiki sound healing: 13 & 14 April 2024
Reiki block removal: 13 July 2024
Reiki cord cutting: 14 September 2024