Animal Reiki Book Reviews

Optimum Choices Newsletter

Book of the month
Animal Reiki: Using Energy to Heal the Animals in Your Life
by Elizabeth Fulton and Kathleen Prasad
ISBN 1569755280

review by Margaret Auld-Louie

This is an eye-opening book on how to work with animals doing Reiki, although it would be applicable for any form of energy healing work with them. I wish this book had been available when I studied Reiki for Animals several years ago (the book was just published this year). It would make a perfect textbook for such a class, as well as being enlightening for anyone doing energy healing on animals. Since Reiki can be done on any living creature--human, animal or plant, students often graduate from human Reiki training thinking they know all they need to know to work on any of the above. However, as this book shows, there are differences in how one works with animals vs. working on humans.

One of the most important differences is not to "force" Reiki on animals. When working on a person, the person comes to the practitioner asking for a treatment, they lie down on the table and the practitioner puts their hands on them and moves through the different hand positions, completing the treatment after about an hour. However, when doing Reiki on animals, the authors state that animals can often feel uncomfortable receiving Reiki hands-on; the energy can be too strong for them. Also, since the animal's person is asking for the treatment on their behalf, the animal often doesn't understand what is going on, particularly at first. So, the authors emphasize the importance of asking the animal for permission to do Reiki, telling the animal to only take the amount of energy that is comfortable for them, and often doing Reiki from a distance, rather than hands-on. To substantiate these claims, as well as their other recommendations, they offer numerous case studies throughout the book. For instance, they tell of a case where the Reiki energy did not flow when they had forgotten to ask permission of the animal. Then when they remembered and asked permission, the energy started flowing. This seems strange to our Western minds when we are used to doing to animals as we please. But asking permission is a show of respect and occasionally an animal may not be in a space where it is open to receiving Reiki.

This book thoroughly covers all aspects of doing Reiki with animals. After the introductory material in Part One, Part Two provides guidelines for doing Reiki on animals including preparing for a treatment, giving a treatment, including respecting boundaries, allowing animals to move around, how to tell if the animal does not want a treatment and signs of acceptance of the treatment. Then it covers when and how to give hands-on treatments, how to handle insights gained during treatment (including whether to share such information with the animal's guardian or not) and how to tell when a treatment is complete. In Part Three, the authors cover working with specific animals including different species (dog, cat, horse, bird, etc) as well as senior animals, wild animals and dying animals.

Part Four goes into how to work with clients (when doing Reiki as a business), guidelines for doing Level 2 Reiki (which involves long distance healing and working with emotional issues) and how to do Reiki in shelters and animal rescue organizations. The authors have extensive experience with shelter and rescue animals, which they share throughout the book in the many case studies. The case studies in the book are invaluable for illustrating and validating the author's recommendations for working with animals.

Whether you are a newcomer interested in learning how to do healing work with animals or an experienced animal energy healing practitioner, this book is very valuable for understanding how to work with animals and energy. As an animal Reiki practitioner, I found the book valuable for confirming what I already understood about working with animals (but could not always clearly articulate), as well as providing additional insights into how to be effective with them.

 

 

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