Reiki
Reiki for Pets: Does It Help Animals?
Practitioners offer Reiki to animals. The difficulty in judging it is that a pet cannot report how it feels, so someone else has to judge, and veterinary research shows that owners’ judgments can be strongly influenced by expectation. In one analysis, owners rated arthritic cats on a placebo as improved far more often than objective activity measures did. Whatever you decide about Reiki, it should never delay a visit to the vet.
What do practitioners say?
The International Center for Reiki Training answers yes to the question of whether animals can be treated, and it offers classes in animal Reiki.
Why is it hard to tell whether it works?
Because the person deciding whether the animal improved is not the animal. One argument made for animal Reiki is that pets cannot be fooled by belief, so any benefit must be real. The research points to a different problem: the owner’s belief.
A 2017 study by Gruen and colleagues pooled five placebo-controlled trials of pain medicines in 96 cats with arthritis. Judged by their owners’ ratings, 50 to 70 percent of the cats given a placebo counted as successes. Judged by objectively measured activity, only 10 to 50 percent did. The authors called this caregiver placebo effect “remarkably high,” high enough to make it hard to show that a real medicine works better than a dummy one.
That study was about pain medicines, not Reiki. But it shows why owner impressions alone cannot settle whether any treatment, Reiki included, helps an animal.
Is it safe for animals?
Reiki involves only light touch or none, and an animal that dislikes being handled should not be held still for it. The clearest risk is the same as with people: using it in place of veterinary care when an animal is ill or in pain.
How can you judge it fairly?
- Keep your vet involved, especially for pain, illness or behavior changes.
- Track something measurable rather than an overall impression: how far your dog walks, how much your cat eats, how often it uses a high perch or the stairs.
- Look for a change you would have predicted in advance, not one you notice after the fact.
Keep a one-week record
For a week before trying Reiki and a week after, write down one or two measurable things each day, such as minutes of play or meals finished. Compare the two weeks side by side, and share the record with your vet.
This article is general information, not medical or psychological advice; talk with a licensed clinician about your own situation.