Category Animal Wise

Animal Reiki and ‘people’ Reiki: key differences

Nancy Crowe
Woman on massage table in Reiki session
Rescued horse after Reiki session

Animals speak energy like a Ph.D. We speak energy like a kindergartner.

Kathleen Prasad

“You practice Reiki with animals? How does that work?”

Great question! Reiki is a Japanese stress relief modality, and relaxation helps the two-legged and four-legged alike feel and function better. While the benefits are the same, the methods of Kathleen Prasad’s Let Animals Lead® animal Reiki are different from the Reiki you’ll experience in human offices, hospitals, and spas.

I don’t invite the animal to hop up on a massage table (cats leave and horses laugh). The hand positions I learned in my “people” Reiki classes don’t apply, and that’s not because of different anatomies. Animals are much more sensitive to physical space and presence. Touch is unnecessary, even invasive, for them. A person can feel energy from the practitioner’s hands, but a horse can feel energy from a person standing across a pasture.

When I began studying animal Reiki years ago, I used the hand positions with my dog Ellie as I sat with her on the floor. If she had a hot spot on her foot, I lightly held her foot. More often than not, she’d get up and leave. I now understand that was too much for her. When I sat quietly and meditated — and better yet, ditched any expectation about the “problem” or what should happen — Ellie was more likely to come and lie down nearby.

My teacher, Kathleen Prasad, had a similar experience. That’s how she developed the Let Animals Lead® method I now practice. It’s based on meditation, not touch. Moreover, it puts the animals completely in charge of whether and how they participate in a session. They are free to decline. They can come closer, move away, sit, walk around, eat, sleep, etc. while the practitioner holds space in quiet meditation. Letting animals lead is important for a couple of reasons.

First, it respects the animals. They may have been abused, neglected, moved around, treated by veterinarians, or had their hooves worked on for the first time in years. Mind you — rescue efforts and veterinary treatment may be for their best and highest. So is the chance to choose.

That’s why I always ask for the animal’s permission before I begin. If I get a no, either telepathically or through body language, I thank the animal for letting me know and move on.

Second, how much more can animals relax when doing so is up to them? (Raise your hand if you relax on command. Didn’t think so.)

Every animal is different. Some will immediately come and lean on me or want to be petted; others soak in the energy from a distance. It works regardless.

I’ve worked with rescued horses who have rarely, if ever, had a chance to choose or say no to anything. One day a retired draft horse, recovering from trauma, decided he’d had enough and walked back into the shed. I thanked him and moved on to the chickens a few yards away. A short time later, he stuck his big head out of the shed and asked: “You got any more of that?” (I did.)

Another horse, recently rescued from a kill pen, declined the session and moved away. A few minutes later, she came back to where I stood at the pasture fence and asked for more. This happened several times in the course of half an hour or so. She was astonished that interacting was her choice. The next time I saw her, I tentatively held up my hands, telling her I’d lower them or step away if she preferred. She placed her head in my hands and stood perfectly still. (The photo above is of her drifting into a post-session nap.)

Animals understand energy better than we do. A horse senses the presence of a predator in the distance. A cat curls up next to someone who is sick. The kids’ new puppy stays away from Mom because he’s the only one in the house who knows how angry she is.

Just don’t ask that puppy to stay still for the practitioner. He doesn’t have to … and Mom is welcome to join in.

Helping your pet when schedules shift

Nancy Crowe
Image by Moshe Harosh from Pixabay 

Going from summer break to “back to school” can bring a learning curve for our dogs and cats, too. After having more of their humans around for three months, they may find themselves home alone for hours.

Some might be glad of a break. Others, especially if they don’t understand what is happening, may be sad, anxious, or bored. You could be looking at a furniture-scratching, pillow-chewing, garbage-raiding, howling back-to-whatever-passes-as-normal.

What can you do to ease back-to-school, back-to-the-commute transitions for both of you? Here are some suggestions from the ASPCA and my own experience:

  • Give the animals a treat every time you leave the house so they associate your departure with something pleasant.
  • Stuff treats in a rubber toy such as a Kong to give them something to work on.
  • Leave a radio on low volume. I like NPR for its calm voices and classical music, but if there is a particular kind of music your animal companion is used to or seems to like, go with that. 
  • Tell them where you’re going and when you expect someone will be home.  They understand more than you think.
  • Touch base during the day. You don’t need a phone or WiFi. Calmly bring your animal to mind, silently tell him you love him, and remind him of when you (or someone else in the household) will be home. Again — they get it.
  • When you’re at home, remind the animal that even though things are changing and perhaps stressful, you are doing your best. Thank her for all she does to help you. 
  • Keep school backpacks and lunchboxes not just closed, but out of pets’ reach. Many animals are poisoned when they get into things like raisins, sugar-free gum, and inhalers. (For an accessible, authoritative guide to what is and is not poisonous to dogs and cats, I recommend the Vet Protect app developed by an experienced veterinarian. It’s available on iTunes and Google Play.)
  • If your dog or cat’s separation anxiety persists, consult your veterinarian for help and to rule out any physical causes. 
  • Provided your animal has been seen by a vet for any concerns: As an animal communicator, I can also work with you to prepare pets for change, resolve behavior problems, and gain other important insights. All sessions are done remotely. I also offer animal Reiki sessions (in person in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area; distant anywhere) to help ease separation anxiety.

Here’s to a season of learning, however it may evolve, with the animals in our lives.

Let animals know about fireworks, thunderstorms

Nancy Crowe
Animal communication and meditation help animals frightened by fireworks, storms, and other loud noises.
After a ground-shaking firework went off nearby, I talked it through with the horses.

Five horses and I had just settled in for a Reiki session on a summer morning at a nonprofit equestrian center. Reiki is a meditation-based stress reduction modality that helps horses — especially during a busy season of camp, riding lessons and equine assisted therapy sessions — relax.

Suddenly a loud boom shook the pasture. The horses scattered, then huddled. Then they looked at me.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. A nearby pop-up fireworks store kept demonstrating its wares, neighbors were intermittently setting off their own, and nightfall would bring formal fireworks displays.

But this boom happened when I was there, and damned if we weren’t going to get a teachable moment out of it.

I switched into animal communication mode. Both animal communication and Reiki help animals cope with stressful events … but you know what they say about the right tool for the job, and it was time to talk about what was happening.

“Yeah, that was scary,” I told the horses, “but we’ve got this.”

Silently, using images along with the words, I explained that it’s OK to be unnerved (they’d seen me jump too!) but it was just noise and they could handle it. I also let them know they’d hear more of it in the coming days and nights. I pictured them standing together at night, alert but not panicked, amid the pops and bangs and streaks of light.

Then we continued with Reiki.

Many horses, dogs, and other animals (not to mention humans) are frightened to the point of severe distress by fireworks. The ASPCA offers strategies to help them cope with both fireworks and thunderstorms; ask your veterinarian if you think sedation might be needed.

Otherwise: Keeping calm yourself, letting the animals know what’s happening, and affirming your confidence in their ability to cope can speak louder than the booms.