Energy healing on CNN int'l with Carolyn Coleridge

I saw this on YouTube and thought it was worth sharing.   Wouldn't it be wonderful if stories like this were broadcast and published more often!?  

I have looked around in New Jersey to see where Reiki is being offered in medical settings and I haven't found much in the southern area.   The Catholic hospitals have removed Reiki from their services and teaching facilities because the bishops ruled against it last year.  I wonder how many Catholics practitioners there were before it was determined inappropriate and if they are still practicing, albeit very quietly.   I'm sure they must be still involved but I wonder in what capacity.

My Reiki Master told me of another hospital that had Reiki practitioners but that program isn't currently running.   And yet another hospital does list it on their complementary medicine webpage but when I called to inquire about volunteering the woman told me that it was not requested very often at all, she had a hard time getting it going.  I called again at a later date to follow up, as I saw it was still listed on their site, and spoke to the same woman.  She said again that Reiki was not being requested much by patients or their families but this time added that since I wasn't a Reiki Master she wouldn't really consider me an appropriate candidate for her program anyway.   She had her go-to people available to her if a Reiki request came in and they were professionals in one way or another.  She was nice enough and I understood what she was saying, but I also felt a bit disappointed. 
Regarding it not being requested there, I don't know why that is if it's something they offer.   It may be that the program has more paid practitioners than it does volunteers so unless those services were free maybe patients aren't as interested in something they have to pay for that they aren't familiar with.   Most people know what a massage is, or could guess what one is like even if they have never had one, but Reiki may be something they have never heard of at all.  I don't know if that facility hosted events to provide information about complementary healing therapies and if so, what the turnout was.  Maybe they don't offer much information to their patients about certain things because the administrators or directors have their own personal likes and dislikes and that comes in to play with what modalities are highlighted and which ones are not promoted much.   That may not be the case at all but I know sometimes individual views can have their effects. 

Also, it was a bit frustrating to hear that just because I am not at the Master level, a person wouldn't consider me to have something valuable to offer.  I explained to her that being a Reiki Master would only give me the ability to teach, it doesn't make the Reiki stronger.  Basically, she said that she sees it as an additional valuable training, shows more dedication to being a professional.  While I got what she was sharing with me, I guess I disagreed with it in my own mind.   Master classes vary from instructor to instructor.  Some are intensive and take months to complete.  Others can be done in one afternoon.   If you took a one day class, I guess you would receive the attunement and information on how to attune others, but just those basic things don't necessarily make you a professional or ready to teach classes on your own.  That would come with further preparation and practice.  Some people prefer to do that part of it on their own.  I'd be more inclined to want to do it that way because then I wouldn't be taking on the exact style of my Master, but developing my own.    But the bottom line is,  you can become a Reiki Master in a number of different ways but that title doesn't make you better than anyone else or more professional.  It's how you value it and what you do with it that makes the difference.   

So I'm thinking that to be part of a volunteer program, the main requirement should be that a person has a desire to help others.  That they are kind and compassionate and willing to follow whatever rules and regulations the facility requires.  It's up to those who manage the programs to provide training regarding privacy issues, and working with patients and their families.  That's how you learn to handle yourself in a hospital setting, not at a Reiki Master class.   

Just my personal thoughts. 

A few questions....
If you are a Reiki practitioner either with a full-time business or just seeing clients occasionally, do you also do volunteer work?   Do you send Reiki to friends and family all the time?  Do you take clients for no fee if you know they are on a limited income or cannot afford to pay?