Meet our Reiki Therapist and Reflexologist

Having to endure rounds and rounds of chemotherapy can be extremely tough, especially if you are a child. Raina and Clare, our resident Reiki Therapist and Reflexologist, try to help ease the stresses and the pain that comes with cancer treatment for both patients and their families as well as staff caring for them.

What is Reiki?

The word Reiki means universal energy. Eastern medicine systems work with this energy, which they believe flows through all living things and is vital to well-being.

A Reiki practitioner like Raina aims to change and balance the ‘energy fields’ in and around your body to help on a physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual level by putting their hands lightly on or near your body.

What is Reflexology?

Reflexology is a type of ‘pressure massage’ which works on the hands and feet to restore physical and emotional wellbeing. This gentle therapy encourages the body to naturally re-establish its own healthy balance.

How can it help children with cancer?

Stress. Anxiety. Pain. Nausea. Worry. All of these things can affect you when you have cancer and its impact is both physical and mental. While modern medicine can help target cancer, complementary therapies such as Reiki and Reflexology can help to reduce the side effects. Both therapies are deeply relaxing and relieve tension throughout the body.

With this in mind and with the help of our fundraising family, you can find Raina at Bristol Children’s Hospital supporting brave patients battling cancer as well as at the Teenage and Young Adult Unit at the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre. Clare, also based at the Teenage and Young Adult Unit sees patients diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 16 and 24.

And it’s not just for the patients! Raina and Clare regularly treat parents, helping them to deal with an unimaginably stressful time and the expert staff caring for them.