By the age of 4, Jake’s life was pretty stressful. His parents had broken up when he was 18 months old and he was spending half the week with his father and half with his mother, Kerry Geldart. He had never slept well, but now he was waking three or four times every night, calling anxiously for his mum.

“He was very nervy, but at times overly boisterous. He had a lot of insecurities due to a lack of a structured routine in terms of shared parenting,” says Geldart, 37, who at the time was a part-time finance manager living in Brighton.

They seemed stuck in a rut. But, when Jake broke his wrist after falling off a climbing frame at the park, Geldart’s friend Rifa Bhunnoo, a practitioner of reiki, which claims to direct healing energy via the hands, offered to treat him. “I had my doubts,” Geldart recalls. “Jake was asleep when Rifa arrived. She didn’t disturb him, but spent about 40 minutes placing her hands on his head, body and wrist cast. “When he awoke he was in the sunniest of moods. It was stunning.”

From that point on, she says, Jake no longer needed painkillers. Geldart had also noticed how calm and relaxed he had seemed after the session and it spurred her on to learn reiki so she could treat Jake at home.

“Reiki works by intention, through the desire of one person to ease the burdens of another, which is why a parent performing reiki on a child works so well,” claims Geldart. “As well as improving my own wellbeing by using it on myself to destress, relax and think clearly, I soon saw the positive effects it was having on Jake. I started using reiki at bedtime by placing a hand on his forehead,” she says. “He would tell me that he loved the warm feeling it gave him. More importantly, he began to sleep through the night, which was a huge relief and meant that we were both more energised. He also had an increased attention span and was much less boisterous.”

It aims to heal mind, spirit, body and soul

Reiki is an ancient holistic therapy that was redeveloped by Mikao Usui, a Japanese doctor, in the late 19th century into the form used today. It involves placing the hands on or near different parts of the anatomy, with the aim of healing the mind, spirit, body and soul.

Bhunnoo, 34, who is based in Brighton, claims that those receiving reiki often feel a warmth from the hands, even when they are not touching the body, or a coolness, a mild tingling, or sometimes nothing at all. Most people feel deeply relaxed after a session and the effects normally last for a few days. She says that children are much more open to the therapy than adults because they have no prejudices or preconceptions. She insists that it is perfectly safe, as the body takes as much reiki as it needs.

Bhunnoo explains that anyone can learn reiki and can use it to help others; it’s just a matter of learning how to do it. She says that by channelling the energy around them, people can even do it on themselves.

Emma Saunders, a reiki master based in The Wirral, who has treated young adults with hyperactive tendencies, says: “Reiki is like learning to drive; you have to get into the driver’s seat to learn.” Reiki, she says, is the name of the energy that is within all living things. “What we in the West call our ‘personal space’ is referred to as our ‘aura’ in the East. This energy or aura surrounding us picks up negative energy from people we don’t like, from difficult relationships or from illness. That energy can then find its way inside us, causing blockages,” Saunders says.

She says that reiki works well on hyperactive teenagers because it is deeply relaxing.

Robert Jefford, the chairman of the Reiki Federation, says that reiki should never replace conventional medicine. “As a healing therapy it works extremely well alongside conventional medicine. Reiki therapists cannot diagnose; in fact, it is illegal.”

For Geldart, reiki has not only helped her son to resolve his emotional issues, it has also helped her to come to terms with being a single mum. “I feel so much more confident now that I use reiki in my life. I feel that we bond when I give Jake reiki and I use it on myself to relax and destress,” she says.

Happy for mum to use “the Force”

She says that reiki gave her the self-belief to move to Warwickshire, near her family, when she was offered her dream job as development manager for a not-for-profit environmental organisation. She says that Jake, now 6, is much more settled and is a happy, sociable little boy. “I really think the positive changes in our life are down to reiki. Jake is a Star Warsfan and he refers to reiki as ‘the Force’. Whenever he wants some reiki, he says: ‘Use the Force, Mummy.’ How can you argue with that?” she laughs.

To contact Rifa Bhunnoo, call 0796 8982136; www.brightonreiki.co.uk; Emma Saunders, www.emmasaunders.co.uk; www.reiki-institute.com

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