\u201cEr, I\u2019m not sure,\u201d I reply, a little guilty that I\u2019m unable to give her more. After confessing to being out for the count for most of it, Trinder tells me not to worry. \u201cThe mind doesn\u2019t need to \u2018know\u2019 the story in order\u00a0for the healing to take place,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
![\"Sama](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/99da07d4-eb98-4098-ad33-3cba4ca9eff3.jpg\")
Sama Trinder with a client \u00a9 Flow Visual Studio<\/p>\n
Trinder says she had spent the session hovering her hands above my body and allowing herself to be guided to various chakras<\/a>, or \u201cenergy centres\u201d. She was drawn to my heart and throat chakras in particular. \u201cIt\u2019s not really me doing the healing, but energy coming through me,\u201d says Trinder, who describes herself as a \u201cconduit\u201d more than anything else. \u201cYou can feel energy and it\u2019s like a magnetic force\u2026 I stay in a position until that force begins to soften, then move on to another area. It\u2019s very intuitive and quite difficult to explain.\u201d<\/p>\n Reiki, which was developed in early-20th-century Japan \u2013 the name is a combination of the Japanese words rei, meaning \u201cuniversal\u201d, and ki, meaning \u201cvital energy\u201d or \u201clife force\u201d \u2013 is just one practice in the broader and rather amorphous field of energy healing<\/a>, which aims to bring both emotional and physical relief to the body and soul.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m a healer but my lens is really guiding people how to master the energy they hold<\/p>\n Nieve Tierney, energy coach<\/p>\n Some studies \u2013 such as one published earlier this year in\u00a0the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management \u2013 have suggested reiki might be effective in areas like the relief of\u00a0chemotherapy symptoms. Participants in that study said\u00a0they \u201cexperienced relaxation, symptom\u00a0reduction\u2026 gratitude, and wanted another reiki session\u201d. While encouraging, the evidence is mixed, and researchers say more robust, placebo-controlled studies are still needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trinder, who mixes her reiki with sound healing<\/a>, likes to think she brings the client closer to something like God. Or at least to love or joy \u2013 hence \u201cjoyraiser\u201d, in contrast with the \u201chellraiser\u201d she was in her 20s. At times during our session she had made contact with my skin, and she held my feet for a couple of minutes at the end to \u201cground\u201d me. I had also been vaguely aware of her playing, at various points, a couple of instruments \u2013 a shamanic drum<\/a> and a crystal bowl, which she explains help to bring balance and healing to my body and make me \u201creceive the reiki energy more effectively\u201d.<\/p>\n I come away from both sessions feeling relaxed, calm and somewhat emotionally unburdened. I\u2019m not sure that I feel a major energetic shift \u2013 at least\u00a0not\u00a0one that feels\u00a0meaningfully different from a good\u00a0massage \u2013 but I\u00a0certainly feel very nicely looked after.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nieve Tierney<\/a> is another reiki master, who spent the\u00a0first 15 years of her career as an art director and graphic designer in the fashion industry, working with brands such as Max Mara and Anya Hindmarch. These days she describes herself as a\u00a0\u201cmodern-day energy coach\u201d who wants to give you a \u201cvibe check that changes your\u00a0frequency\u201d. She recently had a sold-out reiki\u00a0residency at Soho House and her high-profile clients include Olympic athletes, Hollywood actors and international musicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a kind of \u2018energy cafeti\u00e8re\u2019 I am to imagine myself plunging any negative energy from my body<\/p>\n I am feeling pretty sceptical ahead of our first session, not least because it is to take place over Zoom, a platform that I feel might create a technological barrier for my vital life force. But apparently quantum theory suggests energy can transcend space and time, so I\u2019ve decided to give it a go. Furthermore, she recently had a Zoom client on the other side of the world who, having not menstruated for 17 years, not only had a period but six months later, following another reiki session, became\u00a0pregnant with her first child. \u201cShe calls it her reiki\u00a0baby,\u201d Tierney tells me.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tierney\u2019s approach is different to Trinder\u2019s \u2013 not only is\u00a0it largely Zoom-based, but it is also more DIY. \u201cI\u2019m an energy healer but my lens is really guiding people how to\u00a0look after and master the energy that they hold,\u201d says Tierney, whose floaty soft voice\u00a0matches her floaty soft cotton blouse. She works from a\u00a0stylish, softly lit north-east London home office.\u00a0<\/p>\n During our session she does get me to lie down and close my\u00a0eyes, but most of the time is spent talking about the ways in which I am both allowing other people\u2019s negative energy to\u00a0affect my own and the ways in\u00a0which I am blocking the flow\u00a0of energy from my heart. My energy hygiene, it seems, needs some cleaning up.\u00a0<\/p>\n The virtual energy healing, like the IRL version, doesn\u2019t feel like it is doing a huge amount, but Tierney says this work is subtle, cumulative and slow. She says she can feel that my energy is already shifting, which makes me feel good even if I\u2019m not sure I really feel it for myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also gives me some visualisation techniques that I\u00a0find genuinely helpful. One is that before I leave the house \u2013 particularly when I am going to be around draining or negative people \u2013 I imagine myself stepping into a giant disco ball. The idea is that, while I can still be open and available to others, their energy cannot overpower mine; it\u00a0just bounces right back. It helps me to \u201ccreate space\u201d (excuse the clich\u00e9) for other people to air negative emotions without feeling like I need to be dragged down by them myself, which feels positive for all of us.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n![\"With](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/0d98f643-1f54-4558-bb89-762b4c7c5d16.jpg\")
With a Book on My Own, 2025, by Martyn Cross \u00a9 Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen<\/p>\n![\"Energy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/38b49e49-901b-4946-bbf4-8e0e27aada02.jpg\")
Energy guide and coach Nieve Tierney <\/p>\n
![\"Jemima](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fe5c2cb.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n