Accredited Reiki Courses in the UK
This article is to help those looking for Reiki courses in the UK find the right courses. The fact you are reading an article with the title of Accredited Reiki Courses in the UK suggests are looking for quality Reiki training Courses and believe looking for those that are accredited is a good idea, makes sense, right?
A common question people ask is: Are Reiki courses Accredited in the UK? Overall they are not, however, a small percentage of Reiki course providers/teachers have gone through a process to create additional course content, training, and mentoring to achieve an Accredited Reiki Course title.
These courses are Verified courses, so think of the words Accredited and Verified as the same thing here. being a CNHC-verified course is what matters.
The term accredited is more the endpoint of such a course after a verification process where the candidate can gain acceptance onto the Complimentary and Natural Health Care Council (CNHC) accredited register as a practitioner. So if the course provider is not a CNHC-verified course, it’s not that helpful, as that would be the main reason for most for doing such a course, to get accepted onto the register, under the discipline of Reiki (the CNHC register covers other complementary therapies as well).
Becoming a Verified Practitioner is as relevant if not more for those delivering Reiki in voluntary settings, as they are for professional Reiki Practitioners. As they tend to be in more medical-based settings more often than professional practitioners, such as hospices, or hospitals. Which is the main focus of these courses- professionalism in such settings. Many of the Verified Courses have titles like ‘Professional’ in the title, the JRUKA one included, usually as the focus is on professionalism in Reiki practise, but be aware they are for voluntary settings as well.
Technically accreditation is through Skills for Health, the course meets the National Occupational Standards for you to gain acceptance onto the CNHC register, the course provider is not doing the accreditation, or awarding accredited status as such, more they are taking you through an approved course process that ensures you meet certain experience and competence levels to meet the requirements to get onto the CNHC register after the course requirements are met, commonly referring to their role as a teacher/assessor. The final part is called verification which is done through a CNHC-approved Verification organisation., they issue the Reiki Council written assignment and oversee a final observation assessment (you performing a consultation and treatment session with someone), and they then award the Verified Practitioner certificate. with this, you can get onto the CNHC register. So really such courses get you to a Verified Practitioner status, rather than an accredited Practitioner, but that is terminology that you see course providers using for marketing, just think of both words taking about the same outcome, or level, or being the same thing as far as you need to think about accredited or Verified Reiki courses.
I can help you achieve the Reiki Council Verified Practitioner Award & meet the Complimentary and Natural Health Care Council (CNHC) accredited register requirements through The Jikiden Reiki UK Association’s (JRUKA)- Verified Practitioner Programme, however rather than just promote the merits of the course that I offer I want to deepen your understanding of this topic to help you the right Reiki training course for you.
To start with when it comes to all Accredited Reiki Courses/ Verified Reiki Courses, you need to be aware of a couple of points:
You do not need to have completed an Accredited/Verified Reiki course to become a professional Reiki practitioner in the UK. In the UK you need to have completed Shoden and Okuden level Reiki training (termed level 1 and 2 in Western approaches to Reiki). As that is what you need to get insured to do Reiki treatments with the public. In reality, only a small percentage of Reiki professionals are accredited. It can be a good thing to do, but it is not a requirement. It is however likely to be more advantageous, or even in some settings preferred/required if you want to work in some hospitals, hospices, or health care settings.
Accreditation/Verification has little to do with the accuracy of the Reiki training you will receive. Its focus is on best practices in how you interact with clients, deliver Reiki treatment sessions, and conform to the relevant regulations in place in the UK.
Verification is about the course provider fulfilling national occupational standards and having a process to take a candidate/student through a course that fulfils requirements of training hours, recording experience delivering Reiki treatments, accumulating hours of self-treatment, being observed delivering consultations and Reiki treatments, case studies, as well as a written exam at the end. So is focused on understanding professional boundaries and regulations relating to delivering Reiki to the public from a professional standards, best practice view in both a professional and voluntary capacity.
The actual Reiki training bit is not the focus. Nuts right? It took me a bit to get my head around this. With regards to Reiki, it is mainly a case of doing what your Reiki training taught you. As long as a few basic requirements are met from your Reiki training course provider it ticks that box.
Think of Verification as being about professionalism in Reiki. The idea is to ensure a standard of professionalism, minimum therapy experience, and competence in the therapy you deliver to the public. The endpoint is acceptance to the CNHC register as a Reiki Practitioner.
Verification could be thought of as providing a standard in public or organizational confidence that you are capable of delivering your Reiki sessions in environments like hospitals, and hospices, with the public in a professional manner, ensuring your awareness of key regulations and professional boundaries of Reiki treatments with the public.
This is not a bad thing at all, as it supports the public perception of Reiki in a professional light. Possibly providing more opportunities in more healthcare settings. Mostly voluntary, but some professional.
A problem I see is people looking towards Accredited/Verified Reiki courses, as an indication that the Reiki Training Course (the most important bit) is accurate and complete. This is not the case.
As I said before the accreditation process for a Reiki course would not be able to determine authentic Reiki training over approaches to Reiki that had misunderstandings and missing parts, it’s just not what it is looking at.
My view is to find the Reiki course that best fits what you are looking for. Accreditation/Verification second. I would however say it's safe to say teachers who offer accredited/Verified courses value professionalism, and work to best practice, or they would not bother going through the process of getting their course accredited, so they do tend to offer a good quality in what they deliver. My question is always about what teachers are teaching in their Reiki courses to begin with. Have a look at my article Finding the Right Reiki Course and Teacher for help.
Pretty much all Accredited/Verified Reiki course providers would be delivering Western Reiki, so first determine if you are looking for more authentic Japanese teachings or approaches to Reiki that have moved away from the original. See my article Jikiden Reiki and Western Reiki, What’s the Difference? Luckily now through the JRUKA Professional Practitioner Programme, I can offer the best of both worlds of authentic Reiki training and achieving Verified Practitioner status.
You commonly see Reiki teachers who teach Accredited/Verified Reiki courses sign students up to the complete process, which is at least 9 months in duration. So, you start with 3-4 days of Reiki training, then you move into what I class as the Verified course phase, where you study likely a manual on regulations and best practices, start building records of Reiki treatment hours, attend an in-person 1-day workshop on topics of professional best practice, then start the observations where a professional observes you delivering consultation and delivering a Reiki treatment against a standard criterion and collect case-studies. This continues until all elements have successfully been completed over months. I would suggest viewing Verified practitioner courses as a 2-step process. In the common approach above you move through both parts of the process from the start.
There is however another way you can complete a Verified Practitioner course, which is the way we have set it up in the Jikiden Reiki UK Association (JRUKA). You can take the Jikiden Reiki training Courses, and then at a future time, you can join the Verified Practitioner Programme, where you then take the verified course elements. The beauty of the way we set this up is that we can accept your Jikiden Reiki training, with any authorized Jikiden Reiki teacher as ‘part 1’ of your verified practitioner (as all Jikiden Reiki teachers teach the same content). So, you for example can take Jikiden Reiki training then become a member of the Jikiden Reiki UK Association (JRUKA) and join the Professional Practitioner Programme at a later date. At this time there are a couple of us, soon to be 3 of us in the UK that can support you through the 2nd part, the Verified Practitioner bit. However, any Jikiden Reiki teacher can take you through the 1st bit, the Jikiden Reiki training bit.
So, How long is a Verified Reiki Course? The minimum duration to complete an accredited course is 9 months from when you took the Reiki training course training. This is more about having a minimum duration of experience as a trained Reiki practitioner. However many do take longer, it depends on how long it takes you to move through the requirements and accumulate the required treatment experience hours.
How Much Does an Accredited/Verified Reiki Course Cost? This depends, as it has 2 parts, the Reiki training part, the Reiki training courses Shoden and Okuden (or level 1 and 2) vary quite widely as what teachers teach is very different as a broad idea expect £500. The Cost of the Accreditation process (part 2) is usually around the same, maybe a bit less all in at most, So if you are taking an Accredited course that has the Reiki course built in you are looking at around the £900-£1000 mark as a total investment. In the Reiki training and Accreditation together. Some might be a bit cheaper, but the quality of the Reiki course is the most important element, so cheap is not always the best. Either way can get you to the point of having completed an Accredited/Verified Reiki course. The initial ‘Reiki training part’ is likely to be a larger investment at the start. The second part, the Verified course element could allow spreading out of the investment, dependent on the time frame you want to work to. The JRUKA Verified course does it this way with smaller paced-out payments at each stage of the process.
Where to Look for Accredited/Verified Bodies. One thing to consider is if a course is claiming it is accredited. Check who with. With any complementary therapy in the UK, the one that matters is the Complimentary and Natural Health Care Council (CNHC). At the time of writing this article, there are just under 50 Reiki teachers in the UK who can support you through an Accredited/Verified Reiki course that they recognize. This tends to be the organization that medical professionals would look towards anyway.
Once you have completed a CNHC-approved Verified Reiki Course, you can apply to become a registrant of the CNHC Accredited Register, which is kind of the aim of all this. Another important point to consider is if a Reiki course is an online course (the Reiki training) I would rule it out immediately, as the Reiki training would be compromised. To understand why see my article: Are Online Reiki Courses a Good Idea? You will likely find online courses not accepted towards becoming a Verified Practitioner.
Which Reiki Courses are Accredited? You can look into the CNHC for more info. Be aware its focus is professional best practice for the protection of the public and not that well placed to help practitioners succeed, just be aware of that. Registration will also cost you around £70 every year (optional if you want to join that register). For more information on the Verified Reiki course I deliver see my Verified Practitioner Course page.
List of Accredited Reiki Courses in the UK. If you want to look at a wider selection in the UK this link takes you to the list of CNHC Verified Course providers Another useful place to look is the Reiki Council website list for course providers delivering verified courses Reiki Council Verified Course Providers.
It is also worth questioning the weight we give to accreditation/Verification itself, you may also come across the term Certified Reiki Courses. For example, I teach Jikiden Reiki, so if you take Jikiden Reiki training courses with me (or any other authorized Jikiden Reiki teacher) your training is certified with the Jikiden Reiki Institute in Japan. I might suggest that would be a more important, or a higher indicator of the quality and authenticity of your Reiki training than achieving a level of compliance to regulatory or other standards. So, if you come across the term certified, consider- who with? Maybe think of certified as who the Reiki training is recognized with and accredited, or Verified as the recognition of both the Reiki training and additional vocational best practice training for UK regulations has met a National Occupation Standard.
Having gone through the process of creating a Verified Reiki Course, as the lead on the creation of the Jikiden Reiki UK Association Verified Practitioner Programme, I do think it is a very useful thing to complete and become a Verified Practitioner, as it does cover all those other best practice topics you would want to know as a practitioner working with the public, looking at topics such as advertising standards, and what you can and can’t claim you can help with Reiki, how to deliver pre-appointment consultations, key documents and treatment records as well as key regulations you need to know etc. You also get guidance from a teacher/assessor as well, all helpful things.
Most tend to look towards Accredited/Verified Reiki courses if they are looking to become a professional Reiki practitioner or want the highest quality or standards of Reiki training. Be aware Accredited/Verified Course content deals with working professionally, or voluntarily with the public professionally. It will not offer that much in terms of helping you build a successful Reiki business, as it is not designed for that purpose. I have however created a Reiki business course that is designed for that specific purpose. If you want help with the business side of being a Reiki practitioner, take a look at my Reiki Business courses, my comprehensive home study Reiki business course, and a Reiki Marketing Course, along with other resources to help you succeed.
I find with most, the business side needs as much if not more attention and focus than practitioner skills, so tend to suggest looking at the business course first then to Verified Practitioner courses.
In all this Remember:
The key requirement of your Reiki course selection should be the accuracy of the Reiki training itself, independent of the fact it is or is not an Accredited/Verified course (you can become a Verified Practitioner at a later date).
I would suggest the following order of things if you are looking to become a Reiki professional
1. Get the right Reiki Training in the first place! Jikiden Reiki Training Courses. (part 1 of the process). Also, if you want to be a Reiki professional then get my home-study Reiki business & marketing courses for UK Reiki Practitioners.
2. Join the JRUKA and sign up for the Professional Practitioner Programme (part 2 of the process- the Verified Reiki Course).
For more details on the process of the JRUKA Verified Practitioner Programme, see my Verified Reiki Course page.
I am mainly known nowadays for my work with Reiki, as a specialist in authentic Japanese Reiki. I am an experienced, Reiki teacher and practitioner with a proven track record of results. I offer Jikiden Reiki training courses, promoting authentic Japanese Reiki teachings. I am based in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, in the UK. I have a background in coaching and training in the areas of exercise coaching, holistic lifestyle, fitness, and performance coaching. I also have a BSc.(Hons) degree in Sport and Exercise Science, for more information visit: www.shaunmckeown.com
The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article. Shaun Mckeown, disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article.