Helping People With Long-Term HIV Through Reiki Healing and NLP

When Rob Comer was to receive his first Reiki healing session, he was — in his own words — “sceptical, to say the least”. At the time, Rob was an IT manager and chief technical architect based in the south suburbs of Greater Manchester. He had held positions as a headteacher of a primary school, a self-employed tutor, and a gardener. As someone open to new experiences and horizon-broadening learning, Rob went ahead with the Reiki healing despite his apprehensions.

He told Centre of Excellence, “That session was so powerful I simply had to know more about how Reiki works.”

Reiki is a universal, graceful and compassionate healing that can work through relaxing, balancing and calming your energy system. It is a holistic mind, body and soul technique that promotes stress reduction through intuitive work with the chakras and energy. Anyone can be attuned to utilising Reiki energy as it is based on the idea that an unseen life force energy flows through all of us. This energy can be used for Reiki healing by laying hands in specific positions that promote energy flow on certain areas of the body.

Reiki is thought to be an ancient healing modality but it was rediscovered and given its name — ‘rei’ meaning universal wisdom and ‘ki’ meaning life force energy — by Dr Mikao Usui in the 20th century.

After being converted by the healing power of Reiki, Rob received his attunement with a locally renowned master and enrolled on the Centre of Excellence Reiki Master Teacher Diploma Course to deepen his understanding of the practice. He had also trained to become an experienced Master Practitioner of NLP, including hypnosis, and is now able to use Reiki healing, and these other therapies, to help people living long term with HIV on retreats hosted by HiVitality.

There is no cure for HIV infection, as stated by the World Health Organisation. However, with increasing access to effective prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, including for opportunistic infections, HIV has become a manageable chronic health condition. With effective treatment, people living with HIV can lead long and healthy lives.

Rob’s clients choose to take a holistic approach to their management of HIV to cope with the other stressors, including stigma and ostracisation from a misinformed society. Rob gives Reiki healing at HiVitality’s Living Proof retreats, which allow attendees to explore the challenges they and others face living with HIV. The retreats encourage positive living, promote peer support, challenge isolation and build support networks.

Speaking to Centre of Excellence, Rob said, “The feedback from these Reiki sessions has been massively supportive of the therapy, including from the trustees who also attend the retreats.”

Robs says the feedback during and after treatment includes testimonials stating the Reiki healing has resulted in “beneficial mental, emotional and physical changes.” He added, “It’s wonderful when someone with HIV tells you that their stress has been simply flowing out of them, or that you’ve pinpointed and helped relieve an area of physical damage.”

Rob is pleased to be able to offer a holistic and total wellness approach for his clients, also offering other therapies such as talking therapy, which he says “is an amazing adjunct to Reiki treatment as it is vital to be able to communicate with clients effectively”. Rob is proud that the feedback for his hypnotherapy and NLP services is also very good. He recalls times “when a massive block has been released, or a wonderful parts integration happens before your eyes as the client heals themself”.

“The results show powerfully on their faces and in their body language,” Robs says. Thanks to these powerful results, according to Rob, “Every session brings its own rewards to me, as well.” For Rob, the NLP, hypnotherapy and Reiki healing complement each other as there are similarities in the processes and results. Indeed, he came to study Reiki healing with Centre of Excellence after completing the Hypnotherapy Practitioner Course, which he found “to be exacting and very detailed in its requirements.”

“It was a wonderful experience and because of the sheer quality of the hypnotherapy course, I wanted to do the Reiki Master course, which has proven to be absolutely spot-on in its information and ethics.” Rob was particularly impressed with how the course is careful in allowing students to properly progress through the levels of Reiki.

Rob, alongside his partner, has just launched a new health business called StepBack Therapies, which offers these modalities as well as personal training and naturopathic nutrition. Rob says, “The business is completely new in that all the modalities are included in a therapeutic and holistic programme for complete wellness.”

As the founder of his own business, Rob is also able to prioritise his own wellbeing and tells CoE that when he is not seeing clients, he loves to go on long walks with his partner, play frisbee, run 5ks, lift weights, paint and draw, and most importantly, study.

He concluded, “I will never stop studying as my personal growth comes from physical, mental and emotional health. The CoE courses have given me a new lease of life and the energy to get out there and use these health modalities in a business model.”