Reiki and Mental Health
Live webinar
Date: Wednesday 15 Nov, 7pm (GMT)
Cost: Donation-based
In this live webinar, we will hear how Reiki plays an important part in the welfare of patients, and the evidence that speaks to the value of Reiki for mental health related conditions. We invite medical professionals to hear and learn from healthcare colleagues how Reiki is making a difference to patients, sometimes in the most acute settings.
For Reiki practitioners with an interest in mental health and developing their professional practice in medical settings, the content of this webinar will offer a unique opportunity to learn from those working at the forefront of mental health care in the UK and US.
Our co-host and guests are specialists in mental health from the medical and Reiki communities both sides of the Atlantic – a doctor, psychotherapist, two mental health nurses, all of whom have Reiki, and a Reiki master, with 44 years’ experience, who runs a Reiki treatment service at a mental health centre in the US.
We will hear inspirational stories, learn about amazing community projects and gain valuable insights into the background challenges and opportunities for the integration of Reiki into mental healthcare settings.
Our webinars are all eligible for CPD.
Co-host: Alexander Gray, BSc (Hons), MA (Transpersonal Child, Adolescent and Family Therapy), BACP, Integrative Psychotherapist, CAMHS Clinician and Child Psychotherapist, Reiki practitioner.
Guests: Dr Kavita Prasad, MD FACP; Diane Anderson; Aimee Greaves, RNMH; Liz Watkin, Dip COT.
Guests
Dr Kavita Prasad
Dr. Kavita Prasad qualified from the University of London in 1994 and trained at the National Institutes of Health and Mayo Clinic in General Internal Medicine and Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
She incorporates a holistic approach to health, recognizing that true wellbeing is created by addressing the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of a person. She incorporates evidence-based Integrative Medicine practices including Reiki into patient care, education and research.
Dr. Prasad is currently the Medical Director of Integrative Medicine for Zumbro Valley Health Center, a non-for-profit organization serving the underserved and homeless in the USA where her team is developing a program in integrative healthcare. She is also a research collaborator with Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Prasad is passionate about the underserved population and providing equality in access to healthcare. She is also a Trustee for Full Circle Fund Therapies in the United Kingdom, hosts of Connecting Reiki with Medicine at St George’s University Hospital, London.
Diane Anderson
Diane Anderson has been a Reiki practitioner for over 40 years. She has authored several articles on Reiki, its uses in everyday life, and its benefits. In addition to Reiki, Diane’s practice in Rochester, MN includes shamanic healing, energy medicine, and spiritual mentoring.
Diane retired from the Mayo Clinic where she also worked as Reiki volunteer, providing Reiki treatments to hospital patients as well as individuals visiting the Cancer Education Center.
As a current provider of Reiki for Zumbro Valley Health Center’s Integrated Health Program, Diane witnesses Reiki’s positive results for individuals suffering from mental illness. Clients report experiencing significant decreases in anxiety, pain, fatigue, and sadness.
Aimee Greaves, RNMH
Aimee is a Mental health nurse of 20 years, working in a community mental health team specialising in psychosis. She has been a Reiki practitioner for 6 years, specialising in children and family mental emotional and spiritual wellbeing. She is the founder Merseyside Mindful Mammas.
Her role as a mental health nurse is to support patients in their own home who are experiencing psychosis by assessing mental health and intervening with appropriate treatment. She also works extra shifts at the local mental health unit where she gets the opportunity to practice Reiki successfully, such as on the Psychiatric Intensive Care ward.
She is a Reiki Master and feels called to teach Reiki Level I to children and young people to support their mental health.
She runs wellbeing groups within her role as a mental health nurse, where shes techniques such as Reiki, meditation, mindfulness, grounding, nature, and cold water therapy have a positive impact upon serious mental health conditions such as Psychosis, and suicidal behaviours.
Liz Watkin, Dip COT
Liz, a Reiki master, graduated from Salford School of Occupational Therapy in 1986 before working in a range of NHS settings over 22 years. During this time she worked in Adult Mental Health (a long stay rehabilitation unit and an Acute Admissions Unit), Child and Adolescent Mental Health and later as a Mental Specialist in a Paediatric Assessment Unit before leaving the NHS to develop her Reiki practice and other interests.
Reiki found Liz in 1995 but life, a young family, work and a move to a new town meant that she didn’t become a Reiki Master until 2008, by which point she had already got a small public practice which she ran from a treatment room in her garden. Leaving the NHS allowed her to branch out to take Reiki into a wider world. Over the years since then, she has worked with clients in local charities including a Substance Abuse Recovery Centre, the Parkinson’s Support group, the Derbyshire Stroke and Neuro Therapy Centre and as the ‘Connections’ telephone support line person for The Reiki Association, most of which would not have been possible without her OT qualification.
The combination of a long background in Occupational Therapy, Mental Health work and as a Reiki Master has put Liz in a unique position to help and support many people over the years – even though her original plan was to teach Reiki to others, Reiki clearly had other plans for her and she has never regretted the change of plan!
