Below is an article written for Touch magazine by Valerie Fillery, Canine Concern’s CEO. This is a magazine for reiki practitioners (reiki being a Japanese form of complementary therapy relating to energy healing). Valerie feels very strongly that our skills, often related to our professions outside of working for Canine Concern, can certainly help with our visits. We have several teachers, nurses, carers and other medical practitioners who work for us. Being a Canine Concern volunteer team involves our human volunteers as well as our dogs. We all contribute in so many ways, some of which are unseen but still play their part. Valerie certainly believes her reiki training has helped her to continually guide Canine Concern towards maintaining its friendly, caring and welcoming philosophy that we all know so well.
Is reiki given, received or shared? This question often comes up. People say, “I have given reiki to…” or “I have received reiki from…”, but I believe that reiki is shared. It is shared when a person or animal is in a calm, happy place. It is shared when all concerned wish it to be. It’s always an individual’s choice, whether a human or an animal.
I have felt this choice and the effects of shared energy throughout my life with reiki. I had my first reiki treatment in 1997. After an hour of feeling the unconditional love and gratitude flow through me, the practitioner thanked me. I thought that was strange, but did not question when she said she was feeling poorly and the session had helped her too. I decided to look into reiki training and soon found the right teacher to guide me through. By June 1999, I had become a reiki master. I have also studied karuna reiki and animal reiki.
When I ran monthly reiki gatherings, Cadbury, my chocolate labrador would lie under the treatment couch. Was he enjoying receiving it from the many hands on each participant on the couch? I believe he was joining in sharing the reiki.
In 2016, I was asked to take over the role of running a national charity, Canine Concern, I had been volunteering with since 2007. I would accompany my chocolate labrador, Cadbury, into care homes and schools, for him to share his unconditional love and calm happiness. We have seen people smiling for the first time, moving limbs to stroke Cadbury for the first time, talk about their pets for the first time. The staff have been amazed by the difference Cadbury, and so many of the other Canine Concern dogs, make for their patients as well as themselves. The dogs seem to know who needs some doggie love and often pull towards the most needy people. I have never seen my dogs get it wrong; they always get a, “thank you, that was just what I needed”.
We are often called into care homes by family or staff to sit with people as they pass. I used to do this myself before I became a Canine Concern volunteer, but I have found the addition of my dogs in this process to be invaluable. This is such an honour. We cannot stop it when it is their time to leave, but we can make the transition easier.
In the schools we have witnessed students gain confidence to read and even non-verbal children begin to talk and communicate. Even this week, I had one girl stroke Savannah, my golden retriever. When I asked what she felt, expecting her to say softness as I had just spent all morning washing and brushing Savannah, she said, “calm”. I have also received a letter written by some local junior children asking me to visit their school. Their teacher had asked them to research why they wanted a school pet. In the letter they said, “We think that a therapy dog will calm us down when angry and relax us when we’re anxious.” This has made me evaluate what our dogs really do. They certainly share unconditional love and calmness with anyone who wants to join in. Is this a kind of sharing reiki?
We also visited several businesses and universities before working from home started in 2020. We would join up with a few other dogs and owners from Canine Concern to spend time with stressed staff and students. When people came into our room, they would comment on the relaxed happy atmosphere, saying they wished we were there every day. Companies are realising that the mental health of their staff is so important and looking after them will see fewer days off sick and better productivity.
In my years of managing health clubs and social clubs, I have been told that just my presence has changed the atmosphere, the staff seem happier and therefore the members were happier. I put this down to the magic of reiki; we do not need to physically be ‘treating’ someone in our treatment rooms, the unconditional love and gratitude exudes from us in all our activities. I have had friends say they feel much happier just spending time with me. Isn’t reiki amazing?
I have the responsibility of assessing new members and their dogs for this work. It is not for everyone, and a stressed dog can become emotionally or physically poorly, which could result in unpredictable behaviour where they could hurt themselves or the people they are visiting. People are often stressed about the thought of a ‘test’, so I offer distance reiki beforehand so they are calm and able to demonstrate their abilities rather than be tense and unresponsive. I am often told my assessments feel lovely and are not stressful at all. Thank you, reiki.
At the end of the day, I always offer reiki to anyone who asks, or anyone whom I pick up on needing it. At around 10pm every evening, I go to my special safe, calm and healing treatment room and, after giving myself reiki, I send it to everyone who needs it. I include in this all the Canine Concern members, humans and dogs, of the charity as well as my family, friends and clients. I feel that our volunteers share so much, they need some reiki in return.
I believe reiki is not just giving and receiving reiki in a treatment room for financial exchange, but it is sharing unconditional love with anyone and any animal who wants to share, whether they are physically present or as a distant healing. To me there is nothing better than sharing a cuddle with my dogs. Throughout the day they share with me and others unconditional love, then I share with them my gratitude and my unconditional love through reiki, at the end of a happy day.