A practitioner once described the difference in a single sentence: “Reiki works with the energy that flows through you. Healing Touch works with the field that surrounds you.” Both are hands-on healing systems. Both emerged in the twentieth century. They are not the same practice, and confusing them leads to real mistakes in the treatment room.
Reiki is a Japanese energy healing practice developed by Mikao Usui in 1922, while Healing Touch is an American biofield therapy formalized by Janet Mentgen in 1989. The two share a vocabulary of energy, chakras, and intention, but they diverge in origin, structure, and technique. One is a spiritual discipline with a lineage of masters. The other is a standardized nursing protocol with a certification board.
What Exactly Is Reiki?
Reiki (pronounced RAY-kee) comes from the Japanese rei (universal) and ki (life energy). The practice involves a practitioner placing their hands on or near the recipient’s body in a series of positions, channeling what practitioners call ki to promote balance and healing.
Mikao Usui, a Japanese Buddhist scholar, developed the system in 1922 after a 21-day meditation retreat on Mount Kurama near Kyoto. He claimed to receive the ability to heal through a spiritual experience on that mountain. Usui founded the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai in Tokyo the same year, and the practice spread through Japan before reaching the West via Hawaii in the 1930s.
The defining feature of Reiki is attunement (called reiju in Japanese). A Reiki master performs a ceremony that opens the student’s energy channels, granting them the ability to channel ki. This is not a skill you learn through practice alone. It is a transmission, passed from master to student in an unbroken lineage that Reiki practitioners trace back to Usui himself.
What Is Healing Touch Therapy?
Healing Touch is a biofield therapy developed by Janet Mentgen, an American registered nurse, in the late 1980s. Mentgen drew on her nursing background and her training in Therapeutic Touch, a similar practice developed in the 1970s by Dolores Krieger, a professor at New York University, and Dora Kunz, a Theosophist.
Mentgen founded the Healing Touch program in 1989 in Lakewood, Colorado, and the practice became a formal curriculum in 1990. It is now taught through the Healing Beyond Borders organization, which certifies practitioners through a structured five-level program. Unlike Reiki, Healing Touch has no spiritual lineage. It is taught as a healthcare modality, grounded in nursing theory and Western anatomy.
Healing Touch practitioners use their hands to assess and clear the energy field around the body, then rebalance it through specific techniques. The practice is heavily used in hospital settings. Research on Healing Touch has been conducted at institutions including the University of Colorado Hospital and the Mayo Clinic, where it has been offered as a complementary therapy since 2004.
Where Do the Two Practices Come From?
The history of Reiki is a story of transmission and secrecy. Usui taught a small group of students in Tokyo, and the practice remained largely confined to Japan until Chujiro Hayashi, a naval officer and Usui’s student, established a clinic in Tokyo in the 1930s. Hawayo Takata, a Japanese-American woman from Hawaii, traveled to Tokyo in 1935 seeking treatment for a chronic illness. She received healing from Hayashi, trained with him, and brought Reiki to the West in 1937.
Takata standardized Reiki into the three-degree system (Reiki I, II, and Master) that most Western practitioners use today. She charged $10,000 for master training, a sum that created controversy but also established Reiki as a serious profession. Her granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, continued the lineage after Takata’s death in 1980.
Healing Touch has a different origin story. It emerged from the American nursing profession, not from a spiritual revelation. Krieger and Kunz developed Therapeutic Touch in 1972 at New York University, based on Kunz’s Theosophical ideas about the human energy field. Mentgen studied with Krieger, then created Healing Touch as a more structured, evidence-oriented version of the same principles.
The two histories explain a key difference: Reiki is a spiritual practice that happens to have health benefits. Healing Touch is a healthcare practice that happens to use spiritual concepts.
How Do the Techniques Differ in Practice?
The most visible difference is in hand placement and movement. A Reiki practitioner places their hands on the recipient’s body in a fixed sequence of positions, holding each position for several minutes. The hands are still. The practitioner acts as a conduit, allowing ki to flow through them into the recipient.
A Healing Touch practitioner rarely touches the body directly. They work in the energy field, holding their hands a few inches above the body and using sweeping motions to clear congestion, then specific techniques to rebalance the field. The hands are almost always moving. The practitioner is not a conduit but a technician, assessing and correcting.
The session structure differs as well. A Reiki session follows a standard sequence: head, throat, chest, abdomen, legs, feet. The practitioner may use symbols, taught at Reiki II level, to enhance the treatment. Healing Touch sessions are individualized. The practitioner begins with an assessment of the energy field, then selects techniques based on what they find.
There is also a difference in training. Reiki requires attunement from a master, and the practice is often taught in weekend workshops. Healing Touch requires a minimum of 100 hours of instruction, including supervised clinical practice, and certification is overseen by a formal board.
What Does Each Practice Actually Mean Symbolically?
Reiki is built on the idea of ki, the same life force that appears in Chinese medicine as qi and in Indian tradition as prana. The practitioner does not generate this energy. They channel it. The symbols used in Reiki II, such as Cho Ku Rei (the power symbol) and Sei He Ki (the mental-emotional symbol), are treated as keys that focus and direct the flow of ki.
Healing Touch draws on the concept of the biofield, a term coined by Beverly Rubik in the 1990s to describe the electromagnetic and subtle energy field surrounding living organisms. The practice also uses the chakra system, but in a more clinical way. Chakras are treated as energy centers to be assessed and balanced, not as spiritual gateways.
The symbolic difference is one of agency. In Reiki, the energy does the work. The practitioner is a vessel. In Healing Touch, the practitioner does the work. They assess, they clear, they rebalance. This is why Reiki is often described as more meditative, while Healing Touch is described as more clinical.
Which One Should You Choose?
The choice depends on what you are seeking. Reiki is better suited to those looking for a spiritual practice as much as a healing modality. It offers a lineage, a community, and a meditative discipline. Healing Touch is better suited to those seeking a structured, healthcare-oriented approach, particularly if you plan to work in a hospital or clinical setting.
Both practices are considered safe for most people. Neither requires the recipient to believe in anything for the session to be effective. The research base is modest for both, though Healing Touch has more published studies in nursing and medical journals.
There is no rule against practicing both. Many practitioners train in Reiki for the spiritual dimension and add Healing Touch certification for professional credibility. The two systems complement each other, and the skills transfer.
What Do People Get Wrong About These Practices?
The most common misconception is that Reiki and Healing Touch are the same thing. They are not. Reiki is a Japanese spiritual practice with a specific lineage. Healing Touch is an American nursing protocol. The difference matters in practice, training, and intent.
Another misconception is that both are forms of massage. Neither involves manipulation of muscles or tissues. Reiki uses light touch or no touch. Healing Touch works entirely in the energy field.
Some people assume that Reiki is a religion. It is not, though it has Buddhist roots and is practiced by people of many faiths. Usui himself was not a monk, and the practice does not require any particular belief system.
Finally, there is the claim that these practices are scientifically proven to heal disease. The evidence is mixed. Both have shown benefits for relaxation, pain management, and anxiety reduction, but neither is a substitute for medical treatment. Practitioners who claim otherwise are overstepping the evidence.
FAQ
Can Reiki and Healing Touch be performed at the same time? Yes, some practitioners combine both in a single session, though it requires training in both systems.
Is one more effective than the other? There is no reliable evidence that one is more effective. The choice is more about personal preference and context.
Do I need to believe in energy to benefit? No. Studies show relaxation responses can occur regardless of belief, though skeptics may experience less benefit.
Can I learn either practice online? Reiki can be taught online, including attunement, though many practitioners prefer in-person training. Healing Touch requires in-person clinical hours for certification.
Reiki and Healing Touch are two maps of the same territory: the human energy body. One was drawn in a Japanese mountain retreat, the other in an American nursing classroom. Both lead to the same destination, but the paths are different, and the traveler should choose the route that suits their purpose. For a deeper look at how energy healing fits into the broader esoteric tradition, explore our guide to Reiki energy work and the symbols used in energy healing. If you are considering training, our comparison of energy healing modalities will help you weigh the options.