Can You Sense Space? Working with Ma (間) in Reiki Practice
December 2, 2025
Reiki Research: Effect of Reiki Healing on Breast Cancer Patients
Systematic Review of Therapeutic Effects
Significant Improvements Across All Measures
Reiki therapy produced measurable benefits in multiple quality of life domains with zero adverse effects
Key Findings
🌟 Reduced Fatigue
Significant reduction in cancer-related fatigue, one of the most debilitating symptoms of chemotherapy treatment
💪 Decreased Pain
Measurable decreases in pain intensity and pain interference with daily activities
🧘 Lower Anxiety
Reduced anxiety and emotional distress levels throughout treatment period
✨ Improved Quality of Life
Enhanced overall quality of life scores across physical, emotional, and functional domains
Patient-Reported Outcomes: Percentage Improvement After Reiki
Data represents pooled improvements from systematic review studies. Higher percentages indicate greater improvement.
Clinical Significance
The systematic review demonstrated consistent positive outcomes across multiple independent studies. Breast cancer patients receiving Reiki treatments experienced improvements in multiple quality of life domains simultaneously, suggesting a holistic therapeutic benefit. The effect sizes ranged from small to moderate, with greatest improvements seen in fatigue and anxiety measures.
Study Details
- Type: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Methodology: Comprehensive literature search across multiple databases
- Focus: Evaluating the therapeutic effects of Reiki on breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy
- Outcome Measures: Standardized assessments for fatigue, pain, anxiety, and quality of life
- Analysis: Pooled data analysis from multiple studies to determine overall treatment effects
- Breast cancer patients at various stages of treatment
- All participants receiving chemotherapy
- Experiencing cancer-related symptoms including fatigue, pain, and anxiety
- Studies included diverse age ranges and cancer stages
- Multiple research sites included in systematic review
- Practitioners: Qualified, certified Reiki practitioners
- Session Duration: Typically 20-60 minutes
- Number of Sessions: Multiple sessions per participant (ranging 3-8 sessions across studies)
- Technique: Hands placed on or above body following traditional Reiki hand positions
- Setting: Quiet, comfortable environments separate from chemotherapy infusion
- Safety: No adverse effects reported across any reviewed studies
- Provides systematic evidence synthesis supporting Reiki’s efficacy in oncology settings
- Demonstrates that Reiki treatments produce measurable improvements in multiple patient-reported outcomes
- Confirms excellent safety profile with zero adverse effects reported
- Shows feasibility of integrating Reiki treatments into conventional cancer care programs
- Contributes higher-level evidence through meta-analytic approach
- Supports patient-centered, integrative approaches to cancer care
- Validates Reiki treatments as a complementary therapy worthy of consideration by oncology teams
Reiki therapy can be used as a nursing intervention to increase quality of life and reduce fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
The evidence supports incorporating Reiki into comprehensive cancer care programs as a safe, non-invasive complementary therapy. Healthcare providers can confidently offer Reiki to breast cancer patients seeking symptom management and quality of life improvements alongside conventional treatments.
- Large-scale randomized controlled trials with adequate statistical power
- Dose-response studies investigating optimal session frequency and duration
- Long-term follow-up to assess durability of benefits beyond active treatment phase
- Cost-effectiveness analysis for healthcare system integration
- Mechanistic studies exploring biological pathways (biomarkers, neurophysiology)
- Predictive modeling to identify which patient characteristics predict best response
- Comparative effectiveness research comparing Reiki to other complementary therapies
Read the complete research:
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY: Study on Effect of Reiki Healing on Breast Cancer Patients
Available at: Academia.edu and open access repositories
This systematic review evaluated whether Reiki treatments had an impact on patients undergoing chemotherapy, with possible improvement of the following outcomes: fatigue, pain, anxiety and quality of life. The review was conducted at a tertiary care center using established systematic review methodology and meta-analysis.
