Restorative Reiki

Usui Reiki and its early lineage

Reiki is usually traced to Mikao Usui, a Japanese Buddhist monk, who is credited with founding Usui Reiki in the early twentieth century. Britannica reports that, according to professional Reiki associations, Usui sought enlightenment through meditation and fasting and then received a vision of ancient Sanskrit symbols in a cave on Mount Kurama. That account is attributed to the Reiki community. The sources reviewed do not include an independent historical record of the vision.

The same reference states that Usui taught students, including Chujiro Hayashi, who opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo, and that Hawayo Takata, a patient, brought Reiki to Hawaii in 1937 and taught it across the United States. The reference's question-and-answer summaries are generated from its articles and are marked as AI-assisted. The dates and sequence given here should therefore be checked against primary or scholarly histories before they are relied on.

The origin of Restorative Reiki

No founder, date of origin or teaching lineage for Restorative Reiki was found in the sources reviewed. A web search for the name returned restorative yoga teacher trainings that include a Reiki attunement, a Reiki master trainer course and a one-off workshop in Toronto that combined restorative yoga postures with Reiki. None of these documents a system called Restorative Reiki with a named founder.

This page therefore places Restorative Reiki within the Reiki family as an approach that uses the same basic hands-on framework described by the reference and by NCCIH. It attributes no origin story to a named person. If a teacher or organization publishes a verifiable history, that history should be added with its own citation and reviewed by an editor.

The word Reiki

Britannica explains that rei refers to a supernatural or universal power and that ki, similar to qi, is the localized energy in each living thing. It describes Reiki as a spiritual healing technique and as a complementary and alternative medicine approach. NCCIH describes Reiki as an approach based on an Eastern concept of energy that supports the body's own healing response. These are the terms the sources use, and they describe the framework as the sources report it.

The word restorative in the name

The sources reviewed do not define the word restorative as used in this name. The same word is used for several wellness practices, so the name alone does not show a shared method, lineage or meaning. Where a teacher or organization uses the name, this page should describe that party's published definition rather than assume one from the word.

How a Reiki session is described

Britannica describes a standard session in which the recipient stays clothed and relaxed on a mat, chair or massage table while the practitioner touches or hovers the hands above the body in a series of positions. The reference says some recipients report warmth, tingling, deep relaxation or sleep. NCCIH describes a similar approach, in which the practitioner places the hands lightly on or just above the person to direct energy that supports the person's own healing response.

Britannica adds that Reiki can be performed on plants, animals and oneself, and that students are expected to practice self-healing before treating others. These are descriptions of the tradition as the reference reports it. They are not evidence about what a session does to the body or mind.

What the sources do not describe

The sources reviewed do not describe the hand positions, session length, training route or any distinctive feature of Restorative Reiki. Without material from the approach's own teachers, this page cannot say how it differs from Usui Reiki. Readers who want the method should consult a named teacher's published material and check its date and author.

Uses reported by the reference and by practitioners

Britannica states that many patients find Reiki effective for stress, anxiety, depression and pain. It also reports that Reiki practitioners say quantitative trials may not capture its holistic benefits, and that Reiki has been incorporated into some mainstream medical settings alongside conventional treatment. These are reported beliefs and experiences. They are not established effects.

NCCIH notes that Reiki has been studied for conditions including pain, anxiety and depression, and that the research is mostly not high quality and gives inconsistent results. The conditions listed here are those studied in Reiki research generally. No claimed use specific to Restorative Reiki was found in the sources reviewed.

Limits of the energy explanation

NCCIH states that there is no scientific evidence supporting the energy field the practice relies on. Claimed uses therefore rest on the practitioner's framework rather than on a tested mechanism. Any benefit described for this approach should be attributed to the people who describe it, and the energy explanation should not be presented as established.

Systematic reviews of Reiki in general

Lee, Pittler and Ernst reviewed randomized clinical trials of Reiki in 2008. They identified nine trials and concluded that the evidence is insufficient to suggest Reiki is an effective treatment for any condition. They reported scarce data for each condition and small, poorly reported trials.A review by vanderVaart and colleagues in 2009 identified 12 trials. Nine of them detected a significant therapeutic effect, but 11 of the 12 ranked poor on the Jadad quality score, and the authors concluded that the limitations precluded a definitive conclusion.

A Cochrane review by Joyce and Herbison in 2015 looked at Reiki for anxiety and depression in adults. It found three randomized trials, which reported anxiety and depression subgroups of 25, 17 and 20 participants, and it reported those results narratively. The review concluded there was insufficient evidence to say whether Reiki is useful for adults with anxiety or depression, and found no evidence of benefit or harm in that population.

Reviews of specific conditions and outcomes

A 2025 meta-analysis by Liu and colleagues of randomized trials reported a significant improvement in quality of life after Reiki, with a standardized mean difference of 0.28 (95 percent confidence interval 0.01 to 0.56) across 661 participants. The authors reported larger effects with sessions of eight or more and of at least 60 minutes, and with acute sessions of 20 minutes or less. The effect is small, and the full text was not opened for this page, so trial-level risk of bias was not checked.

A 2023 systematic review by Avci and Gün examined Reiki for pain in patients with cancer. It included seven experimental and quasi-experimental studies with 572 patients. Reiki reduced pain in five studies and did not in two, and the authors described the evidence as limited and called for randomized trials of higher methodological quality.

A 2026 systematic review by Turan and Tülüce of Reiki in breast cancer patients included four studies with 339 participants. The included studies suggested possible reductions in fatigue and improvements in comfort and well-being, and the authors called for larger trials.

Nonphysical contact trials and the limits of the literature

Hammerschlag and colleagues reviewed biofield therapies in which only nonphysical contact is used, including Reiki, external qigong, Healing Touch, Johrei and Therapeutic Touch. Of 90 randomized trials of biofield therapies, 28 met their criteria for nonphysical contact, and 18 remained after quality review, one of which tested Reiki. The authors described the trials as essentially pilot studies with low sample sizes that preclude robust conclusions.

Taken together, the reviews describe Reiki research as small, inconsistent and of low certainty, with few trials for any single condition. The searches run for this page were a PubMed search for restorative Reiki, which returned no study of the approach, and web searches for the name, which found no trial. No study addressing Restorative Reiki specifically was identified, so its evidence is not separately known.

Harms reported in the sources

NCCIH states that Reiki has not been shown to have any harmful effects. Britannica states that there are no known harms associated with Reiki, and notes that some members of the scientific community are skeptical about its ability to treat medical and mental health conditions because the studies are inconsistent and not rigorous enough. The reviews of Reiki trials describe small samples, so a lack of reported harm in them does not establish that harm is absent.

The Turan and Tülüce review reports that Reiki appeared to be well tolerated in the included breast cancer studies. That observation is limited to a small number of trials and participants.

Care boundaries and suitability

Britannica notes that Reiki may be used alongside standard medical care or in place of it. This page does not replace diagnosis or treatment, and Reiki should not delay the assessment of a new, worsening or unexplained symptom. Decisions about any health condition should be made with a qualified clinician.

The sources reviewed do not establish suitability rules for Restorative Reiki, and the reviewed trials include very different groups. Lee and colleagues list trials in pregnant women undergoing amniocentesis and in women undergoing breast biopsy, and those populations do not establish suitability for other people. Practitioner training and experience are not described in the sources reviewed, so a person considering a session should check those directly with the practitioner or organization.