The effect of reiki, a Japanese relaxation technique, on stress in middle schoolers

Reiki is a form of complementary therapy that has been proven to reduce stress in various studies. We wanted to see if reiki could be a helpful relaxation technique for middle schoolers. We hypothesized that stress would be reduced in middle schoolers after a reiki session. To test our hypothesis, 30 middle schoolers participated in a distance healing reiki session via Zoom. In the Zoom meeting, the participants rated their stress levels on a scale of 1 (no stress) to 5 (extreme stress) on a pre-session survey. Experimental subjects (selected randomly) received 20 minutes of the reiki distance healing session, while control subjects did not. After the 20-minute Zoom session, participants answered the post-session survey on their updated stress level. When comparing stress level averages, both groups had similar stress levels before, but the experimental group had a lower stress level after the reiki treatment. The ANOVA results of p<0.05 for stress reduction overall showed the results were not due to chance. Nearly three-fourths of the experimental group had stress reduction, in comparison to less than half of the control group participants. These results suggest that other middle schoolers could consider complementary therapy, like reiki, to de-stress and focus on mental health and well-being.