When Joyce Appel, a nurse at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, was first introduced to an ancient method of healing in 2003, she was determined to bring the therapy to her work.

“Reiki? What is Reiki and how do I explain it?” Appel asked when she first learned of the method.

Appel, a certified registered nurse, has no problem describing it today and is responsible for bringing Reiki to Crouse, in use there since 2008.

“It is a form of energy therapy that helps people with pain, stress, and emotional issues,” Appel said. “It is amazing the affects it can have for anyone.”

Reiki, pronounced ray-key, is a Japanese technique of healing. The belief is that spiritual energy channeled from the practitioner to the patient, will trigger the patient’s own energy and allow the body’s natural healing ability to work, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

“The person will feel heat coming out of the practitioner’s hands,” Appel said. “That is just energy. Energy we are all made of.”

The “rei” in Reiki means universal, and “ki” means life energy. Reiki practitioners lay their hands on a patient’s body on seven main energy centers, known as chakras, Appel said.

Chakras are the parts of the body a practitioner will touch to redirect energy to help strengthen the patient’s body flow of energy to ease pain, emotions, stress and relax muscles, Appel said.

A Reiki session can last for about an hour, as the hands are held in place for two to five minutes in the various chakra points, Appel said. Patients are fully clothed during the sessions.

There is no scientific evidence to prove Reiki is a credible treatment for disease or illness, as recently shown by a study released in 2009 from the NCCAM. That study showed there was insufficient evidence that Reiki worked as an effective treatment for Fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes muscle pain and fatigue. Overall the study concluded: “Reiki should be rigorously studied before being recommended to patients with chronic pain.”

Dr. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist who oversees the website, quackwatch.com said there is no place for Reiki in hospitals.

“The practitioner of Reiki have never demonstrated that they can create a force,” Barrett said. “I think allowing them into practice is a showing of poor judgment in managing the hospital.”

Barrett added that the clinical studies being done on Reiki would never show any healing results because there is nothing to show.

“The vast majority of doctors probably do not know what Reiki is,” Barrett said. “And, the majority of those who know it would think it is silly. But only a tiny minority would think it is important enough to get into any kind of dispute about it.”

Carol Spears, a retired National Park Service manager with a master’s degree in zoology turned to Reiki when her sister in 1996 was diagnosed with a terminal liver illness. When Spears found out about her sister using Reiki, she said she was extremely skeptical and thought somebody was taking advantage of her sister. Spears’ sister was given one year to live if she did not receive a transplant.

“She asked me to have a treatment to see what it was like,” Spears said. “As a scientist I was still skeptical, but I wasn’t hostile because I didn’t believe anything would happen.

“Experiencing it. I felt the energy. There is no doubt about it that this was something outside of my past experiences,” Spears said.

During one of her regular visits to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Spears’ sister’s blood work came back normal. Her liver had regenerated, Spears said.

“ ’Cause her liver regenerated the doctors had no explanation,” she said. “They said maybe we miss diagnosed you and for 10 years prior to that she had been in and out of the hospital countless times.

“It was sad that they couldn’t share what our family felt that Reiki did this for her.”

Spears is now a Reiki master and practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic.

The Cleveland Clinic is currently conducting two Reiki research studies on stress and prostate cancer.  

Appel’s goal of introducing Reiki to patients at Crouse is supported by the positive experiences of people like Maureen Limburg, of Baldwinsville. Limburg underwent a hysterectomy in 1998 and said her recovery was accelerated by Reiki treatments she received from a nurse.

“It’s wonderful,” Limburg said of the therapy. “It works better than meds for me. It helped reduce my pain.”

Appel recommends patients use Reiki in addition to traditional healing methods when dealing with a medical condition. Other Reiki masters in the Syracuse area are glad to see the integration of Reiki with traditional medicine practices, said Barbara Peklo, a Reiki practitioner who operates her own private practice, Energy Therapy.

“It’s very hard to find out about Reiki and healing touch in this city,” Peklo said. “In Syracuse there seems to always be a resistance to this kind of work, particularly because of older doctors.”

As a nurse and a Reiki master, Appel has the ability to teach and train others about Reiki, Peklo said.

“A lot of it is through the word of mouth,” Peklo said. “There are people who are interested in searching for alternative ways of dealing with discomfort, pain and disease. And, to also find ways to stay healthy so they don’t get sick.”

At the end of the day, Appel said she just feels that everyone in the world should know how to do Reiki or have access to it.

“I’m not saying it is a cure for anything,” Appel said. “If you can help someone make it through their day with just a few minutes of your time, it is worth it.”