Reiki master spreads healing power

The Buffalo Sisters Gift Circle begins its monthly session with meditation and breathing.

Christine McKenna, founder of Heart Spirals, leads the women in the spiritual practice of Reiki — otherwise known as hands-on healing — to help bring them a sense of relaxation and ease.

Heart Spirals is an organization that offers Reiki workshops, and McKenna, a Reiki master, welcomes the Buffalo Sisters to her home on the first Wednesday of every month.

“Reiki helps people reconnect with the gift they’re born with — this innate ability to heal,” McKenna said. “It awakens people to their capacity to heal others and themselves.”

Members of the Buffalo Sisters come from all over Indiana to share their gifts of healing, which include Reiki, aromatherapy, boxing lessons, facials and one-on-one yoga lessons.

The warm and inviting atmosphere eases everyone into a sense of togetherness.

“The Buffalo Sisters Gift Circle offers an opportunity to women to connect with a wonderfully diverse and beautiful community of women in an intentional and meaningful way,” McKenna said. “There is never a monetary cost to attend — just an open heart and a loving presence.”

Each woman offers a gift to her sisters, which can range from healing art to a personal growth exercise.

“I have been in groups before, but never any that are so structured with their sharing,” said Nan Harvey, IU graduate staff member and first-time Buffalo Sister.

McKenna has made it her life mission to help others experience the power of Reiki’s healing energy. She said the practice has made her more connected to other human beings and all other life forms.

When McKenna recognized the power of Reiki, the concept of starting her own organization came to her. McKenna said all energy moves in spirals, be it whirlpools, galaxies or the shell of a snail. When left alone, she said, energy has the tendency to move, grow and balance as spirals — thus Heart Spirals’ name.

“A living heart spiral is not focused on a beginning or an end, but on a journey and a process,” McKenna said. “When we join our individual heart spirals, magic happens.”

Though many do not believe in the power of Reiki, McKenna said the world is slowly recognizing its potential as a powerful method of healing. The World Health Organization has recognized Reiki as an alternative therapeutic modality. Nurses and practitioners have started using Reiki to help speed the healing properties of the body as well as in the treatment of physical, emotional and psychological disorders, McKenna said.

And though traditional methods of pain relief are more popular and widely used across the globe, they differ because Reiki heals the root cause of the pain and not just the symptoms, McKenna said.

“I had this patient who had a car accident and came in for a healing session after months of trying physical therapy and medication,” she said. “When the
session was over, he was moved to tears with relief. What three months of traditional methods of pain relief couldn’t achieve, one hour of Reiki did.”  

McKenna’s clients describe a similar feeling.

“I feel changed, transformed, like a new door has opened for me in more ways than one,” Heart Spirals client Kim Kanney said.

But the results of McKenna’s work do vary among individuals.

“What is important is that Reiki helps individuals fully recognize the vast potential they all have,” McKenna said. “Reiki teaches individuals to nurture this inherent ability to be able to facilitate healing.”

It is important to McKenna that Reiki be accessible to all people, even those with busy lives. For this reason, she conducts 8 1/2-hour workshops in which she teaches the basics of Reiki and how to use it in everyday life.

“I love that we can take Reiki with us everywhere we go and that it doesn’t rely on anything other than what is already with us in every moment,” McKenna said. “I love what Reiki teaches us about ourselves, our fellow beings on this planet, our universe and the absolute wonders of energy. I love how Reiki changes lives.”