Should Reiki be Free?

My biggest issue in starting a Reiki business has to do with charging money for Reiki. I can't differentiate between people who can afford Reiki sessions and people who can't, and I don’t feel comfortable making that decision because who am I to judge who can have it or who can’t because of monetary reasons?

Many practitioners, especially newer ones, are nervous to charge for Reiki and not sure how even if they want to, and you're not alone. Our feelings about money are ever evolving, so please be understanding with yourself as money questions and uncertainties arise. But there are a few things to consider with this challenge.

First, many practitioners believe that Reiki should be free, since universal life force energy is free. They believe that we shouldn't charge for Reiki, since it's like charging for air...something that's all around us at all times and freely available to anyone. They may also believe that practitioners who do charge are going against the spiritual nature of Reiki.

I definitely don't have a problem with practitioners who want to offer free sessions only. Free sessions are not any less valid or valuable than paid sessions. A Reiki session with a practitioner volunteering in a cancer clinic is no less impactful than a session with a practitioner who charges thousands of dollars. So to those practitioners who say we should always charge for Reiki or people won't appreciate it, I completely disagree.

Some practitioners believe in the "energy exchange" doctrine that states that there must be some form of energy exchange for the energy Reiki to work, whether money or some other form of exchange. This is false. I'm not sure where this myth originated, perhaps in the Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage with Hawayo Takata's practices of charging exorbitant amounts for Reiki training. But Reiki will do its thing whether we pay for a session or not.

Second, when we charge for a Reiki session, we're not charging for the energy Reiki, since it's always already everywhere all of the time and not coming from us. We're instead charging for our time, experience, training, and knowledge. Reiki the energy may be free, but it's a normal expectation to be paid for our time, whether we're offering Reiki. building a house, holding a therapy session, or packing groceries. It's called a job.

We can indeed give all of our sessions away for free and that's ok. But if we are interested in reaching and helping more people, money helps us to do that. When we charge for Reiki, not only are we compensated for our time, but we're also about to reach more people through things like a website, business cards, a table, and etc. These things cost money and so by charging for our time, we can actually use that money to reach and help more people.

Many of us have also paid for our Reiki training and so it wouldn't be out of the question to charge for a session when we have paid for the training to offer the service. And even though universal life force energy is infinitely freely available to all of us all of the time, your time, energy, and attention is finite.

As far as making the decision for what someone can or can't pay — you can't. We don't have access to our clients' financial details, and whether or not they can pay is their decision. Set your prices and allow potential clients to determine for themselves whether or not they're willing to pay. None of us can differentiate between who can and can't pay, and the good news is we don't have to. They can figure it out for themselves.

Check out this episode of the Build Your Reiki Business podcast on Money Mindset and video on our evolving money journey for more encouragement.

You may also want to grab the free Reiki Biz Kit full of Reiki business information.