Raising Self-Regulating Children with Kid Reiki with Cami Coté

Blaire Stanislao and International Center for Reiki Training Licensed Master Teacher, Cami Coté, unveil the intricacies of a new Master Teacher Training  for Kid Reiki. We touch on the history of Reiki teaching, from its oral roots with Ms. Takata to William Rand's ICRT methodologies. The new Kid Reiki training for Master teachers insures a consistent and top notch learning experience for both instructors and children. 

Lastly, we journey to the heart of Reiki training and healing and discuss the evolution of this living, breathing and evolving energy we call Reiki. The true essence of this practice is revealed not just in theory, but through stories of healing that surpasses your typical expectations of an educational program. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or simply Reiki-curious, this episode reminds us all of the beauty, complexity and simplicity of learning Holy Fire® Reiki. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello, this is Blair Stanislao with the Happy Lion Center. Welcome to our podcast Mystical and Infamous, where we have playful and easy conversations about anything mystical, getting to the heart of all things, strange and weird. Join us in a bit of magical tomfoolery, spreading the alchemy of love and light. And now we invite you to enjoy the show.

Speaker 2: 0:25

I'm a Reiki master teacher and a licensed Reiki master teacher with International Center for Reiki Training, and so about three years ago, I started talking with a friend of mine and we started, you know, thinking about ways that we could potentially bring some new energy to the world. Essentially, and all of us, or both of us rather, had worked with kids and had taught Reiki to children before, and we were trying to figure out how we could bring Reiki for kids into the ICRT. Bringing Reiki for kids into the ICRT. The problem with that is is that if you've heard of GDPR, which is general data protection regulation, that was like something that happened in Europe is you can't keep any kids' personal information like stored on a website, for example. And so, you know, we kind of started brainstorming different ideas of how we could bring a kid Reiki program into the world without having to register kids and have their data, and so what we ended up learning and figuring out was that we would want to do a master program. So we were going to do a how to on how to teach kids. So a whole mass, a most master program, started to be developed and we initially thought it was going to be like maybe a one day sort of supplemental type of class. And you know, here's a little handbook and you know, here's how you teach kids. And what ended up happening is a whole program developed. We've written over 222 pages of a master manual and we've written three additional little booklets that go along with the kids' classes. So we've essentially developed four programs in one, if you will. So you get for the masters that would be coming to take the master training. It's a three-day training and they take the three-day master course and then they're qualified to be able to teach children and also, naturally, the master course to adults in the future. So we have been innovative in our process of creating this program and we have a Kid Reiki One program, which has been standard.

Speaker 2: 3:01

A lot of people have already been out there teaching Reiki to children at level one. But what I found, and what other friends of mine found, was that kids wanted to go further than that and that they could go further than that. Just for whatever reason, it had always been kind of stuck and stagnant. So we decided, well, let's do this, let's let's put Reiki two out there for kids. So we we did create a level two program for kids and then we've created a teen program as well. So within the teen program it is a Reiki one and two and a master combined, or, excuse me, reiki Reiki one and two combined into the weekend not master, excuse my yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:47

So anyway, it's been a lot of work. We brought a new frequency, a new energy in to the world. Essentially and still under you know, it's kind of been done in the Holy Fire tradition, but we were guided that you didn't have to have Holy Fire in order to take the course, so it's open to all lineages, which is really nice. And, yeah, it's a really cool program. We've started test piloting classes in December and we've had really great feedback and we're in the process of finishing our manual right now, so just doing editing and formatting and that kind of stuff. And yeah, as we mentioned, I just came back from New York where we taught in person and then we presented about it as well. So it was.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Okay, and where did you present? Like, who were you presenting? So?

Speaker 2: 4:46

we were at the Northeast Reiki retreat and uh, that's organized by John and Heidi. Uh, if I, if I'm hoping, hoping I'm saying their last name right, koala check. And uh, they organized the Northeast Reiki retreat. It's at Silver Bay, new York, um, silver Bay YMCA in New York, and we were presenting to the people that had signed up for that retreat essentially. So there were close to 100 people there, so it wasn't, you know, huge, but it wasn't small either and we had a great presentation. And then we also taught while we were there. So we taught a kid Reiki course the days leading up to the retreat, and then we we did the presentation, so you taught children thing.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Yeah, that's what I understood, yeah this is where things get kind of confusing, because there's like, um, you know, there's the adult master program, and that's what we're primarily rolling out right now, and then those uh teachers that take that course can then take teach the reiki to kids, and so okay, so yeah, um this, this uh podcast has had a lot of conversations about Reiki which, of course, that's what I want to like really get into.

Speaker 1: 6:09

but I want to talk about the logistics because you're, like you're my go-to expert for that. So can you briefly describe I have my own way of describing, but could you please briefly describe the benefit of learning through the ICRT Sure yes.

Speaker 2: 6:28

So if you take training through the ICRT, essentially, you know that the teachers that have studied and become like I am, for example, a licensed teacher. This is a dedication, a path that we've chosen, and this is really what we're doing professionally. And so I specifically felt the calling to to do the licensed teacher training program. I was accepted into it in 2018. I finished in 2020.

Speaker 2: 7:00

And so I was already a Reiki master and I was teaching and had a pretty successful business, and then I decided to do that essentially to have, if you will, the backing of the ICRT. They're kind of like a pillar and a community support, if you will and so, with getting accepted into the program, I then did an additional thousand hours of study for Reiki and co-teaching with my teacher and all kinds of there's lots of requirements involved with becoming a licensed teacher with them, and then, after I became fully licensed, any students that take training with me can become professional members, which means that they've had, if you will, the highest level of training that is available essentially. And it's not to say that people that aren't licensed teachers aren't great teachers. There's many, many amazing teachers in the world. It's just that some of us have chosen to take this licensed teacher path.

Speaker 1: 8:10

Yeah, I'll just confirm because I have been a student of yours and I am not an ICRT licensed teacher, but I am a teacher of Reiki and, frankly, I also have a master's in education and I taught in public school systems. I'm just going to say it from this perspective that, yeah, I was really impressed with what the ICRT training program was, was, and, and on top of that, in honesty, the ICRT training for me just receiving it, you know, just being a normal, not the ICRT licensed ones I could see that the structure that William downloaded right like he channeled how to do these courses, and I am continually impressed and feel like the, the framework that is laid out when you teach through that method is just really solid. Right, there's certainly more than you can cover in the time, but the structure of the class is actually set up so that you learn thoroughly, you learn really well, you know like the structure of the experiences are really set up to facilitate exactly what you need and it does it every single time. It's really amazing.

Speaker 2: 9:19

Yeah, the great thing about what William has done and it's been, you know, fairly innovative in the Reiki world is that, you know, initially there was a lot of perpetuation of this idea that Reiki was an oral tradition, and that was kind of brought through with Mrs Takada and with more uncovering of the history of Reiki, they found that Usui Sensei had a handbook and that Dr Hayashi had a handbook, and that then there was this man named Mataji Kawakami who had had developed Reiki Ryoho in 1918, and had written a book about it. And so you know, for whatever reason we don't know all of her you know ideas of why she decided to change so much about Reiki. You know Mrs Takada said oh no, it's only an oral tradition, so there was never any writings about it. The masters couldn't keep their symbols and things like that. So William actually had, once he became a master and started teaching, he was having students retake classes with him a lot and finally he, as he puts it, he says he got the courage to ask why why do you keep taking these classes?

Speaker 2: 10:36

I mean, not that I don't like you, but why do you keep retaking the classes? And the woman said well, I can't remember everything, so I come back to take the classes. So at that point he says, well, aha, like I need to write a handbook. Basically says, well, aha, like I need to write a handbook basically. So what started off, as I believe he said, like maybe a 20, a 20 page little handbook, has now ended up becoming close to two like 190 page Reiki one and two book, which is the healing touch book that was published in 1991 and is kind of one of the now standards for teaching Reiki, and so that's pretty cool to have that. And so then, as he continued to develop that, he developed outlines and you know all of those things.

Speaker 1: 11:28

So for a Reiki teacher to kind of step into the role of a teacher, it's done and you don't have to reinvent the wheel, which is really that's what I, that's what I love about it, and it's not even as a you know, having taught in the public school system, every day, every class, you have to have all this stuff prepared, you have to have the standards there. You have to, you know, write the statements. However, whatever the statements are for the time period, you know, every year it almost changes. I got to say it this way. All of that is handled Like it's. And not only is it handled I mean, we've all had teachers, some are better than others Not only is it handled, but it's, it's good, it's really, really good. Like you can't mess it up unless you don't do what's in there.

Speaker 2: 12:10

Yeah, the only thing that can happen is you get off off topic and off time. Basically, those are the two most biggest challenges. Is is staying on time and staying on topic. But even at that I especially over the years of being a teacher now I'm able to relax and when things go off topic it's like, okay, it's not the end of the world. We can have a conversation about singing bowls or you know whatever it is that's coming up. You know that type of thing and everything's okay.

Speaker 2: 12:42

One of the things I took from William he said is the most important things that a student wants out of Reiki training is to know what Reiki is, know how it works, to receive the initiation. You know how you get Reiki and they want to practice, and so when you break it down to that point, all of that other information is, of course, wonderful, and we do want to ideally give our students the best education that we can. But then we also have to get back to that, knowing that people can't remember everything, just like you know. That student finally said to him I can't remember everything, and so in a weekend training there's only so much that someone can fully absorb.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Well, it's also, you know, because it is so experiential. You have to go through that process of doing it Like it's, you know, other other contents that you're trying to learn. It's more of it's, more of this. We're very familiar with going to school and memorizing information or even working with things to understand something which is more similar to this Reiki training, but there's the Reiki stuff takes it to a different level in in the sense that it's very similar to meditation, where you ask somebody what does it mean to meditate? What does it feel like, what do you get from it? You know you can talk about it all day long if you want, but it's not until you get in there and you do it that you really start to understand. And so so that's what, uh, I don't know, and I think it just is a testimony to actually what Reiki is that it always works every time, no matter what.

Speaker 2: 14:21

That's the most incredible part. It's like that's you know. Getting back to you know, like, for whatever reason now I'm talking about history a little bit, you know, getting back to what Mrs Takata kind of extracted from everything was like you treat the body and you treat the whole body and it's going to work and you don't have to know everything, like as far as like the different clear senses that we might have our gifts and that sort of thing. Like you don't have to have any gifts, though. Really, all of my students that come to classes have gifts and you know you can put your hands on or near someone and give them Reiki and it's going to work and they'll receive what they need. So that's cool.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Yeah, okay, so I do want to touch now. I I know that Kathy and I've talked a lot about Reiki, but on the podcast itself, but I do would like you to touch just very briefly. I got exposed to Reiki when I was about I don't know 21 or something like that. I had chemical burns on my hand. There's a blog on the website about this. I didn't have any plans, I had no intention. I just happened to have chemical burns on my hand, went to class and this woman did it on my hands.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Um, and as a young person, I had this, uh, knowing that I had just woke up. And I just woke up and realized, oh, my hands are messed up, like it took me a little while to realize what that was. Then I go to class. She does her stuff I didn't have any any opinion about it where she was a very lovely person, um, I didn't want to interrupt class, I just let her do it. Of course, she was a very lovely person. I didn't want to interrupt class, I just let her do it. I didn't have any judgment. Okay, like we ended it with a smile and that was it.

Speaker 1: 16:00

Then I thought that my hands were going to continue having to finish doing what they were doing, burning Right, and and then I was going to have to heal because I could tell it was kind of bad Right. I woke up the next morning and of course it was, like we say the word, miraculous, but it was really a lot better and it was not corresponding with what I thought the day before. So that was my initial exposure to it. And, yeah, and I didn't even think about that word for like 15 years, and I had to like actually I remember thinking, oh, she said it was Reiki, what's Reiki? And I like typed in something on the internet which of course, I did not spell right. So I had to like figure out what it was.

Speaker 1: 16:40

And at that point in my life I wasn't where I could actually, you know, go into it. So it was years later that I wound up going into it, taking the courses. So it was years later that I wound up going into it, taking the courses, and what I had heard in that time frame was, you know, you had to be attuned, you had to have somebody who knew what they were doing and they could attune you, and there were all these rules about going to do it. Well, then we have holy fire. So can you explain that big difference between having to be attuned and now? Essentially what we're doing is we're calling in that energy ourselves and it's kind of attuning for us in a way.

Speaker 2: 17:12

If we want to use, yeah, so I guess some of the vocabulary that has shifted with with Holy Fire, for example, was the the original Usui method and the Usui Tibetan method there was an attunement process that happened and that was a ritual type of situation where the master would stand behind the student and they would, you know, do this little ritual thing for them. And when holy fire started to come through, william was shown that the energy could be even more powerful if it was received directly from the Reiki source as opposed to through the master, through through anything that you know we as masters can channel for, through our own selves. Now, the interesting thing about this is that the master still needs to be present. So you know, we are the ones that we open the energy and we do hold that space. But then, once we have walked our way, or talked our way through a what would be similar to a guided, guided meditation, the energy then works on each student individually and gives them what they need to be able to heal and to become a channel for the Reiki energy. So a lot of people, when they first hear about this, they think, oh my gosh, like how could that possibly work? And I know that I remember for my own self.

Speaker 2: 18:43

When I took Holy Fire in 2016,. I honestly had similar thoughts, you know, like how is this going to work? But I just had that real calling to go receive it. And then you have the experiences that you have and you're like there's just no denying that this has worked.

Speaker 2: 19:01

And for my own self, I had been a Usui Tibetan Reiki master and teaching that, and the very first time I taught a Holy Fire class you know it kind of in the back of my mind I thought, well, you know, if they say that they didn't really feel anything, I can always go back in and do the regular hands on attunement. But that very first class I taught, the students in the class were just like amazed and 100% had the energy. One of the things that I love to do when I teach is I try to receive from the students if I can. So sometimes it doesn't always work out, but a lot of times it does. And you know I was receiving Reiki from those students and there was no doubt about the fact that they had their Reiki energy on in my Reiki from those students and there was no doubt about the fact that they had their Reiki energy on in my, in my perception anyway, so, yeah, so I actually just want to piggyback on that.

Speaker 1: 19:54

And so I actually didn't even come into this until after Holy Fire had started. I'm not real good about the names and all that, but I know it was after Holy Fire had started and it wasn't even the first one. And then, of course, in 2020, I took the online training which he downloaded the information for because of the pandemic right which I found really I don't know. Like, we talk about Ms Takata and you were saying you really don't know why she decided that it was more of an oral tradition, but we have to keep in mind the context of history in that time, you know, and she was running away, right, so I think the same thing could be said for all of this. So, like you know, given William's age and what the world, the condition of the world at that time, you know, it took hey, it was a pandemic, and then, all of a sudden, we get the information, we can download it. I do want to share with you that I have. I have since taken another.

Speaker 1: 20:53

It was another energy healing course and this woman has done Reiki for 20 years and she so she did it way back yeah, I don't know, probably 25 years now and so she, of course, she did it in person with somebody and she got the attunements and I just took this course. She decided to teach it the way she does and she did not use the ICRT, but it was still very well done. And one of these sessions she actually had us call in our own symbol, okay, and now when I did this, I didn't have an opinion, I was just doing it. I was just like, whatever we'll see what happens, and, um, again, just like the Reiki always works, so we do this session. It was in a group session and she was so she's, uh, got many Claire's and she was getting information for some people, so she would share for some of the people. And then she said she was actually told well, some people are going to get their own symbol, so you don't have to worry about everybody, right? And so she's talking to the class and giving them their information and people are giving feedback.

Speaker 1: 21:55

I had come out of it, I was kind of listening to it, but I had realized that I had seen a symbol, okay, and I I didn't, to be honest with you, I really didn't understand exactly what we're doing. I was just doing whatever we were doing and I was like, oh, this is really weird. Here she's saying some people got the symbol and I was like you know what I did, and so I have a computer and I do graphics and stuff. So I just whipped this little symbol out real fast and it was really amazing to kind of have that experience happen.

Speaker 1: 22:20

I know she set the intention. Of course a part of me set that intention, but I wasn't doing it fully consciously, but to kind of have that come. And then since, since taking the Holy Fire, I've taken the Karuna, which is a another level of it, and I have to tell you that I personally identify closer with the Karuna symbols than I did with the other symbols. But it's, I think it's a real testimony to how Reiki is very much the essence of what we consider energy. It's never still, it's always moving.

Speaker 2: 22:56

I was going to say alive, but that's not really, I think that's a good, accurate, you know description is alive, and I think that, yeah, and I think that, yeah, one thing that kind of always comes back to mind was one of the stories that William had said, and he said that the very first time he received Reiki, he received Reiki one and two. He went out and was walking around the grounds of the property that he was at and he said that he was really told in that moment that Reiki had already evolved and would continue to evolve and could be developed even further. And so, you know, there's been, with Usui Reiki especially, there's been all of these little side shoots of it, if you will like, all of these different programs that have been developed and they all are wonderful and, um, you know, I think that whatever brings a person to Reiki and however they learn is valid and that's what is important for them, you know, for each person. Yeah, so that's cool.

Speaker 1: 24:04

Yeah, okay. So now back to the kid Reiki. Um, so I guess I'm not clear. I'm not really understanding for you. I understand that you're developing a program for adults because you can't manage having children's data. So my question is the way you were speaking and given your experience with the icrt, so are you saying that this program that you're developing is through the icrt, the three of us that saying that this program that you're developing is through the ICRT.

Speaker 2: 24:29

The three of us that are writing this program are all licensed teachers and we are intending that it will be presented to the ICRT and are really hopeful that it will be accepted as an ICRT program. At this point we don't know if it will be yet or not. I was actually just with William two weeks ago in New York and he seems really interested in the program. So I don't think that it's not going to get accepted. But we have to go through all the yeah loophole I mean human All the loopholes of all of it. So, yeah, that's our intention is that we will be submitting it to the ICRT, similar like if you've heard about animal Reiki, it'll kind of be a secondary program. Currently within the ICRT you can take Reiki 1 and 2, master and Corona Master, and then Colleen Benelli and three other ladies developed the ICRT Animal Reiki Program and so essentially myself and these other two licensed teachers have developed a kid Reiki program that we're hoping will also be accepted.

Speaker 1: 25:47

That's exciting. It'll certainly make it easier for because, as humans, a lot of times, especially Western humans, we really like the idea of licensure I mean that can be evidenced by the ICRT licensure but um, we really liked that idea of having qualifications or a certificate or something like that, that that we feel more confident. Um doesn't mean that the energy's not there anyways. I mean, we all know that we've met people who they do all kinds of stuff and they don't have any kind of license.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Yeah, yeah, Um. So what has been? Um, I think, just because we're talking about the kid Ricky, I'd like to just at least touch on what do you think? I mean, I don't want to gloss, so we've talked a little bit about Reiki. This podcast has talked a lot about Reiki and how it feels and how it works. I want to know, from your perspective, what do you feel like? Is the the? What are the benefits? What are the biggest benefits for children?

Speaker 2: 26:47

So I believe the biggest benefits for children learning Reiki is that they can get into a place of self regulation. One of the things that I personally and my other two colleagues, shelly and April, have all identified is we wished that we would have learned Reiki at a younger age, and we hear that very commonly throughout all of our classes. You know what would life have been like not to say that we wouldn't have potentially have had the challenges that we had, but what would life have been like if we had been able to have Reiki to help us with our emotions, to help us with our, you know, challenges, you know all of those types of things as we were growing up. And so that's really our main goal is like to hopefully be able to have kids have Reiki for their own personal healing, and you know, that being said, naturally they're going to want to work on their family members, probably, you know, and when I say work on, I mean give Reiki to their family members.

Speaker 2: 27:49

One of my really big important aspects with kid Reiki especially is that we're not suggesting that kids be put in service, that you know, this energy is really about them. It's not like we're going to say, oh, you can go heal your mama now, or you can go heal your grandma now, you know. I mean it's like, yes, you can give them energy and help them in that way, but it's not trying to put any kind of expectation on them or anything like that. It's more for self regulation, for, you know, their own personal enhancement and journey in life.

Speaker 1: 28:28

So and I'm going to describe this Well, it is the way that I learned it, because I learned Holy Fire. But when I talk to somebody who doesn't have a clue about any of this and they say, well, what is it? There's two things that I always say. Number one it's going to give you the language to be able to talk about this stuff, which is essentially talking about the spirit world or behind the veil, and I don't mean like aliens or any of that, it's just to talk about this unspoken understanding of energy period. So it gives you the vocabulary for that I'm going to put in there with that one. Also, it gives you a community within which you can talk about it.

Speaker 1: 29:09

Okay, the other thing that it does is the way I would describe it for a new person is just, it feels like meditation.

Speaker 1: 29:19

You're just going to meditate.

Speaker 1: 29:20

If I'm going to say in like two sentences, it feels like you're meditating all day long and then you stop and have conversations and eat, that's it, and that's really.

Speaker 1: 29:29

That's really what it feels like.

Speaker 1: 29:30

And so that part of it, if we look holistically at what meditation does I mean they've done all kinds of research on it, right, if we give kids the tools to get the benefits of Reiki, when they're already naturally going to be faster to go there, to be comfortable with it. You know, especially if we have the framework where we're creating an environment where it's safe and it's comfortable and they're loved and that kind of thing, and they can feel free to go there, like you said, what the sky's the limit as to what their lifetime can be, and they also know to go inward yeah, for their answers, instead of constantly going out to other people. I mean, you even kind of said just a minute ago you know, now, now you've got had this training to the child, now you can go heal somebody. I mean, technically, that's what our human adult, like world, thinks, but we don't need to give them permission per se, right, but really what we're doing is giving them an awareness of managing energy that they probably are and that's just it.

Speaker 2: 30:30

You know there's, there's generally very little. You know kids just don't have the same kind of barriers and blocks that we do as adults, not to say that like children haven't had any kind of traumatic experiences or have had. You know they're called, they're like as you look at our vocabulary, you know the culturally created self starts getting. You know like what's the word? You know we start identifying with our culturally created self early on in life and as soon as you really start to learn how to cry here you're developing that. So it happens at a young age. So if we can start to release all of that energy at an earlier age, we can step forward into our you know, later years in more of a clear and concise way.

Speaker 1: 31:21

Yeah, so faster to get on the dharmic path, faster to get off the karmic path, right.

Speaker 2: 31:25

And kids nowadays are walking into that. More we the karmic path right and kids nowadays are are walking into that, more we are being. You know, many kids right now are being born into more conscious families and being raised in in that type of energy. And that's even what really would make this possible is that when I first started teaching kids, it was my, my reiki students that started asking me if I would teach their kids. It's not necessarily like the kids off the street that are going to hear about kid Reiki right, it's like going to be already, you know, kind of built into the students that you're taking. I'm not saying that you wouldn't eventually maybe be able to find students outside of your circle, but you know it's oh, I hope that would be the goal.

Speaker 1: 32:10

I mean really, if we think about it, even just looking at meditation, because I think the meditation research will back up all of this right, you know there's there's different cultures and there's other places in the world where they actually do teach kids to meditate and they teach them what they're going to call self-regulation, western. You know language they want to use, right, but it's essentially the same thing and you know, once an adult has found that, why would they not want to share that, especially with little humans that they love?

Speaker 1: 32:39

yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really exciting we're we're just so excited to be able to bring this to the world. Helpful. Please comment like, share and download. Donations are appreciated and help us to produce more of similar content. Consider making a contribution at the links in the description box. Your support is greatly appreciated. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Happy Lion Center and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything. None of the content provided should be considered a substitute for legal, financial, medical, psychiatric advice or as care from a certified professional.