Offering Reiki at Retreats

Christian Stone

What advice do you have for offering Reiki at a retreat, including fee? A friend of a friend reached out asking if I'd be interested in offering Reiki at a women's retreat. I am excited and think this could be a great opportunity, but also feel a little unprepared. Do you have any advice about what questions I should ask the retreat manager or anything specific I should share with her? How do I handle negotiating offering Reiki for a retreat? What should my fee be?

I've offered Reiki and readings at numerous events like this and have been paid anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands. While there's a lot of variety in the kind of events, I always have a set of questions that I want answers to. Here are a few things I always ask:

1. What is their vision for my participation?
How do they see me participating in the retreat and how does my participation fit in? How does having Reiki fit in with their overall retreat goals? When would the sessions take place? What are other activities for the weekend and how does my participation fit in?

I like to get clarity on their vision for my participation because perhaps they have some vision in mind that doesn't align with mine or that might change the fee. Clarity with events is so important...actually, it's essential (I know this from personal experience.) So getting clear on what they need or want from you is the most important first step. Because if that vision doesn't align with yours and you're not interested, there's no point in continuing the discussion, including talking about a fee.

2. What is the space set up/location like?
What kind of event space do they have? What is the set up? Will you be in a separate room, in a group? Will you be in an office, bedroom, classroom, outside? What is the retreat space and does it suit your needs?

And where is it located...how far away is it, how accessible is it, and do you even want to go there in the first place? These might all impact your fee, as well. Or at least it does for me. For instance, I accepted less payment for an event I could walk to versus one I had a 3 hour drive for.

3. What is their fee structure?
Once you have clarity on the questions above and a full understanding of the scope of event, you can discuss payment with knowledge of the whole situation.

I recommend first inquiring about their budget when you start discussing a fee. You may offer an amount you will do it for, say $200 for the whole event, that is lower than what they have in mind to pay you. Don't shortchange yourself and work to get an idea of where they stand and what they're interested in paying before blurting out an amount. Once you have a clear understanding of the event, your role, potential number of guests, and etc., you may have an idea of the kind of fee you would charge, but I recommend holding off on sharing it before getting an idea of what they're willing to pay. You may end up getting paid more than you would have done it for, anyway.

Payment for these kinds of events have all kinds of structures, flat fee to hourly to per person. Usually an established event will have a budget and a process, so you will want to get clarity on what kind of fee structure they typically work with. Make sure to clarify if it's per person whether it's per registrations or per people who elect to have a session. Is this fee structure negotiable, in other words, if they offer per person and you'd prefer a flat rate, is that possible? Either per person or flat fee can be better depending on the circumstances and one isn't necessarily better than the other.

Rates for events really depend on a lot of different factors. I never tell someone an amount they should charge because it really depends on so many things, from the scope of work to the number of attendees to the venue to your location to your relationship with the event planner. In these kinds of situations, you also might be willing to be paid less for other benefits, like being able to sell sessions to participants. All of this means that giving you an amount you "should" charge doesn't take into account all of the variables. 

4. Do they have a contract? How/when is payment sent?
​If this is an established retreat that brings in outside vendors, they'll have a set process they like to follow. There's always flexibility and the opportunity to negotiate with the process, but they should have a framework they like to follow for vendors. Pay attention to how well organized they are. If they seem disorganized and unclear in their conversations, they might be challenging to work with, and it may impact your enjoyment of the experience.

These are some recommendations for approaching this kind of discussion, but I encourage you to write down a list of things you'd like to know and that are important to you before you have these kinds of conversation. And have the list handy so you don't forget to ask and get the info you need.

Sending blessings to your participation in the retreat, and make sure to grab the free Reiki Biz Kit full of Reiki business information while you're here!