I first learnt Reiki in 1995 in the traditional Usui system.  In 1996 I learnt Reiki 1 & 2 in Tanaki Reiki, and in 1997 I took my Masters in Tanaki Reiki, and began teaching in this lineage.  In December 2000, a friend gave me an attunement in Usui Reiki II, and in 2001, I was attuned to Usui Masters, and began teaching Usui Reiki.  In July 2002 I was attuned to the William Lee Rand lineage of Usui Reiki by Kerry Harrison, and revised my teaching methods to include some of the original teachings of Dr. Usui, that had been re-discovered since I first learnt Reiki.  

When I was first guided to learn Reiki its seemed that suddenly all the signposts were pointing in the same direction. I had been aware for some time that there were people who did healing work, and that one day I would look into this area, not as a healer, but to satisfy my curiosity as to how it worked, but I never seemed to get around to doing it.  I had an interest in Spiritual matters, and "interesting" things had happened to me since childhood, and I was beginning to think more and more about these things, but hadn't linked them as all being related.

I reached a stage where I had begun feeling a need to do something more meaningful on a personal level.  I had begun searching for "something".  In a bookshop one day, I picked up a free copy of a New Age newspaper, and on looking through it, an ad for Reiki Classes caught my eye.  I somehow knew that this was a form of healing, and I wanted to learn it.  After this, the word "Reiki" seemed to crop up everywhere, and I felt an irresistible urge to learn.

I received my Reiki I attunement in Usui Reiki with great excitement, and my life began to change as a tremendous self healing took place. I found I could hug people and receive hugs, a big step for me, as previously I had avoided "touching".  I became more accepting of people I had difficulties with, and felt a lot more freedom to be myself.  I began offering "Reiki", tentatively at first, my first "patients" being animals, and then progressing to people.   I saw my guide for the first time during my first serious healing session, and a few months later when I had a guide drawing done, he was exactly as I had seen him.

I began to want to do healing on everyone and everything.  I had a friend who lived some distance away, and I desperately wanted to send healing. This was the call to learn Reiki II.  The classes however cost $400.00, and at the time it was difficult to justify spending this amount of money. Most of the Teachers around at that time were charging the same amount.  I eventually heard of a Teacher who asked much less, and who also lived quite close, in fact much closer than my Reiki I Teacher.  I found out that the style of Reiki he taught was called Tanaki Reiki, which I had not heard of before, but I contacted him, and made a time to visit and talk.  I booked in for his class, as I kept thinking of my friend, and the need to send healing. It was a wonderful class, and the energy was so uplifting. I felt so much at home here, and it was much less formal than my Reiki I class. My Teacher told me that he thought I would one day take Master training, but at the time I had no intention of doing this.

My direction in life began to change. I began to question what I really wanted in life, and what was important to me.   I left the job I had been in for the past 12 years.  I began a massage course, and started doing voluntary work, while taking on part time bookkeeping work, while I found my way.  

One day, out of the blue, I felt that now, I wanted to do my Reiki Master level.  My Teacher had suggested several times that I was ready, but each time I had declined, thinking that this was not the direction I wanted to take.  Once I had decided to do it, I wanted to do it immediately.  I began sitting in on his classes, and receiving training, and eventually received my Master attunement.  I found Tanaki to be a simple, intuitive system of Reiki, and have learned a lot along the way. 

I started hosting Reiki circles at home as a way of providing a place for new Reiki channels to practice and share experiences.  I made these circles open to anyone with an interest in healing.  Many of the people who joined in were trained in Usui Reiki, and some in other methods of healing. 

As I searched for answers on different issues which arose, I found that most of the books and information on the web were based on Usui reiki, which was the original Reiki, and although there were a few differences, the basic principles were the same with both methods.  My teacher had moved to a remote area, so my learning had become a mixture of reading and inward searching, sharing with others and personal experiences.  My research had shown that there were some new directions being opened up in the Usui system, based on research carried out in Japan by William Lee Rand and Frank Arjava Petter. 

The new research had uncovered information which showed that the original Reiki as taught by Dr. Usui in Japan was more intuitive, and based on self development.  It seemed to incorporate all the philosophies which first excited me about Tanaki Reiki, and somehow brought the two styles much closer together.

I received a Reiki II attunement for Usui Reiki, and later a Masters attunement, and began to incorporate Usui attunements and teachings into my classes.  The reason for this was that my training in Tanaki only enabled me to take my students up to Reiki 11, and if they wanted to go further, I had lost touch with anyone who could take them to Master level.  Also, if my Reiki I students decided to take further training with another teacher, who would most likely be Usui trained, then they would not have to take the Reiki I class again with that teacher, adding to the cost of training. 

I now teach the two methods separately, and my classes are now almost all Usui Reiki.  I keep to the principles of simplicity and intuition, which to me was the basis of Tanaki Reiki which I most resonated with, and also the basis of the re-discovered Reiki as presented in the book "The Spirit of Reiki"   by Walter Lubeck, Frank Arjava Petter, and William Lee Rand. 

Ultimately any system is connected to the same energy source, and I believe that what is important is our intention to heal ourselves and to help others in their own healing.  In doing this work I have met some wonderfully loving souls, and my life has been greatly enriched.