Clinical trial NCT06937359: Healing Space Reiki Therapy: Effectiveness and Experiences
Official title: Prospective Observational Study of Self-Reported Outcomes in Reiki Healing in the Netherlands Using the Measure Yourself Medical Outcomes Profile (MYMOP)
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: The Focus of the Study is on Any Volunteer With Any Symptom or Condition
Keywords: Reiki
MYMOP
symptoms
Lead sponsor: Louis Bolk Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Healing Space
name: National Research Centre of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Norway
First posted: 2025-04-22
Enrollment: 93
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Any adult person with any complaint contacting Healing Space for treatment

Brief summary: Reiki is an energetic healing method in which a therapist uses his hands on or near the clients body to channel life energy and send it to the client. This activates healing within the client and restores balance.

In this study clients at the Reiki training institute Healing Space are monitored for 4 weeks during 4 weekly Reiki healing sessions. Any client 18 years or older with any complaint can participate. A validated MYMOP questionnaire is used to monitor one main complaint, one secondary complaint and overall wellbeing after each of the 4 treatment sessions and before the start of treatment. A small number of clients will be interviewed for additional in depth data about their experiences. The aim of the study is to gain understanding about the effectiveness of Reiki.

Detailed description: Given the substantial international socio-economic burden of healthcare, the development of inexpensive, safe, and evidence-based treatments is highly desirable. Reiki, as a non-invasive and low-cost therapy, holds potential as a complementary approach to conventional medical treatments. However, the lack of consensus on its efficacy and mechanisms necessitates further investigation. This study aims to address these gaps by exploring the conditions clients report when visiting a Reiki healer and evaluating the subjective effectiveness and experiences of Reiki therapy. By doing so, the study seeks to contribute to the growing body of evidence on Reiki and inform its potential integration into healthcare systems.

This study is an observational prospective pre-post study with a convenience sample. The study is conducted at the Healing Space Reiki center in the Netherlands by Reiki practitioners trained at Healing Space. Each Reiki session lasts 1 hour and is conducted by 2 Reiki practitioners supervised by the founders of Healing Space. MYMOP questionnaires are provided before the first treatment (baseline) and then after each of the 4 treatments. A number of interviews is conducted after the complete treatment. All participants provided written informed consent. A waiver for full ethical assessment will be obtained from an ethical committee.

The MYMOP complaints are categorized into four primary groups: pain, psychological problems, fatigue, and other. Pre- and post comparisons of the four MYMOP measurements were performed usign paired t-tests and independent sample t-tests. Interviews are analysed thematically.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Presence of any self reported complaint
* 18 years or older
* No other treatments for this complaint during the intervention period

Exclusion Criteria:

* Other treatments for the complaint during the intervention period

Primary outcomes:
measure: Self reported main symptom
timeFrame: 1 week
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Self reported secondary symptom
timeFrame: 1 week
measure: Overall wellbeing
timeFrame: 1 week
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Bussum
country: Netherlands
facility: Healing Space
state: Utrecht
Study officials:
References: