The Reiki School at PENN Medicine

Reiki/Massage at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse

Created, implemented, and currently hosting a Reiki/massage program for patients,staff, and caregiver's at Penn's Wissahickon Hospice at Rittenhouse. Program includes Reiki training for staff, massage/Reiki for staff, caregivers and patients, and creation of a Reiki volunteer program

Reiki/Massage at Penn Medicine at Radnor

Provide a massage/Reiki therapist for Penn Therapy and Fitness's Radnor site. Fee-based massage and Reiki are available for patients, staff and community members.

Reiki at The Abramson Cancer Center

Reiki School Director Kim Fleisher  helped co-create, and is the Team Leader for a thriving Volunteer Reiki Program at Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center.  The volunteer Reiki sessions are part of Penn's Integrative Medicine and Wellness Program, which includes but is not limited to Acupuncture, PT, Nutrition, Mindfullness Based Stress Reduction, Yoga, and Massage.

Several of our school's staff, some of our graduates, and other qualified Reiki practitioners volunteer weekly, providing free Reiki sessions, five days a week, to cancer patients in outpatient chemotherapy, outpatient radiation/proton beam therapy, and during their stay as inpatients.

In a little over two years our program has delivered over 3000 sessions, and the results have been very encouraging!  In May of 2011 we won a Team Building Award from Volunteer Services. The award reads,

"For exceptional oversight, coordination and recognition of the Reiki Volunteers. The staff of the Abramson Cancer Center supports and promotes the Reiki Program as volunteers provide service, their gentle touch, loving hearts, and as they listen with an empathetic ear."

The program also has a research arm and donor fund.

Here are some comments from patients:

• It had a very calming effect on me. I could actually feel my body relaxing. I was able to let go of a lot of my anxiety.

• Relaxing, I feel contained, safe, and positively redirected.

• Each time I come to the clinic my progress, health wise, keeps improving. I believe these Reiki sessions have a direct healing effect on my  body.

• It provided a general sense of peace and muscle relaxation over my entire body that I otherwise have not experience in a few years

• It was my own personal time to take a minute and deal with what was really happening

• It connected me to a place inside myself that I forgot all about

• Freedom is the word that comes to mind

• I had a wonderful feeling; my father passed away this time last year and I felt connected to him. I was able to release my emotions through crying

• It made me cry. Just having the time to let it out. I always feel like I need to be so strong for everyone.  It was liberating to let that weight get lifted

To learn more about the program or about volunteering, contact Kim (kimberly.fleisher@uphs.upenn.edu) .

To make a tax-deductible donation to the Integrative Medicine and Wellness Program at PENN, helping ensure that patients have access to Integrative therapies, use this link.