How to Add Crystal Therapy to Reiki or Massage Sessions

Are you ready to take your healing practice to another level? If you're a crystal enthusiast but haven't taken the plunge in adding crystal healing techniques to your massage or Reiki practice because you think you need special training, you can start adding these simple methods now.

I'm not a trained crystal therapist. I share with you experimental techniques I used based on study and intuition I used during my ten years as a massage therapist and energy worker.

One of the easiest ways to incorporate crystal therapy into a bodywork session is by placing stones on the chakra energy centers. If you're already far enough along in your practice to be considering crystal therapy, I'm going to assume you have a basic understanding of the chakra system, but here is a quick rundown of crystal and chakra correspondences.

• Root or first chakra: This center relates to grounding and survival and located at the base of the spine. Red, black and gray stones are used here.
• Sacral or second chakra: This is the sexual and creative center located in the region of the sexual organs. Orange stones used here.
• Solar plexus or third chakra: This is the emotion, power and self-esteem center located at the navel. Yellow stones used here.
• Heart or fourth chakra: Related to all matters of the heart. Pink, white and green stones are commonly used here. Learn more with my article Crystals for the Heart Chakra.
• Throat or fifth chakra: This chakra governs communication matters and blue stones are used.
• Third-eye or sixth chakra: Located in the middle of the forehead, the third-eye chakras deals with the mind, intuition, astral travel and psychic ability. Blue and purple stones used.
• Crown or seventh chakra: Located at the crown of the head and deals with spirituality. White and purple stones used here.

Each of the chakras also govern the respective physical functions of each area they're located at. Please keep in mind that this is a complex system and I've only listed the bare basics. You may wish to become more acquainted with the chakra system if you haven't already with further study. There also aren't hard and fast rules for what stones to use. The color associations are given as guidelines to begin with.

For Reiki sessions, you may want to start with laying out stones on each or near each chakra and do your session as usual. You may do this front and back. I knew one massage therapist who sometimes placed crystals under the massage table that corresponded to the chakras and then used extra stones on the client as she felt were necessary. Another practitioner I worked with believed that the front dealt with current issues and the back dealt with childhood and past-life issues and chose stones for this accordingly.

For massage, you could place stones on the chakra areas that aren't being worked on and remove them as necessary. Sometimes I would place single terminated clear quartz crystals around the room to draw out negativity and promote clarity. I also would have clients hold a specific crystal in each hand for their most pressing problem. While they were lying face up, I would place a third eye stone on their forehead and take it off when I went to work on the face.

You may end the healing session as you usually do. You also might want to leave time to share your impressions with your clients at the end of the session. They may or may not want to share theirs with you. Just be supportive of their decision either way.

Your clients may have stones of their own they wish to use during the session. This should be fine. It's up to you and your client if you want to clear them before the session. Smudging would be good for this. But your client may have the stone programmed with intent before she brings it to you to work with. Some practitioners like to work with their own stones or just play it by ear.

These are all experimental techniques. Before the session, you and your client will probably discuss what issues to deal with or he may want a general chakra balancing technique. Trust your intuition and knowledge regarding what stones to use. Crystals will act as your allies to guide you.

This is experimental information and not meant to replace the advice of your health professional.

I'm also not a legal professional, so you should also be familiar with the legality of doing energy and crystal work in your area. Depending on the setting you work in, you will need to be careful in how you share any impressions you receive during a session and be clear to your clients that you aren't trying to replace their medical professional.