Journal · Reiki · What it is
Reiki Hand Positions: The Standard Sequence, With Timing
Reiki hand positions in a table: the 12-position sequence with timing, our manual's 18-position protocol, hands-on versus hands-off, and a seated adaptation.
Valérie Fabre, Founder & Director, Harmonika Institute · September 13, 2026 · 9 min read
Key takeaways
- The standard sequence has 12 positions. Four on the head, four on the front of the torso, four on the back, each held 3 to 5 minutes, for a session of 45 to 60 minutes.
- Our manual's general protocol expands it to 18. Ten with the client face up, eight face down, ending with the hands flat under the feet.
- Self-practice comes first. The manual asks students to hold each self-position “between 3 and 5 minutes”, morning and evening, before they ever work on someone else.
- Hands on or hands off, both are Reiki. The manual allows direct contact or hands “a few centimetres” above the body; sensitive areas are always asked about first.
- A position is a resting hand. No pressure, no rubbing, no joint movement, no points. Anything that manipulates tissue is massage, and licensed.
A Reiki session, seen from the doorway, is a person lying clothed on a table while someone rests their hands on their head for four minutes, then moves them a few inches and does it again. That is the whole choreography, and the hand positions are its script. Around 390 people a month search “reiki hand positions” and as many search “how to do reiki”; both want the same thing, the sequence with the timing. Here it is, in a table, with the fuller version our Reiki manual teaches and the two adaptations practitioners use most.
This is the craft article. If you want the levels, the cost and what practice looks like as a whole, read our Reiki certification guide; for the client's-eye view of a session, what actually happens in a Reiki session.
What are the standard Reiki hand positions?
Twelve resting positions that cover the body from head to pelvis, front and back, in a fixed order. The sequence descends from Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata and is taught, with small variations, by almost every Western lineage. Each position is a pair of hands laid flat, fingers together, held still. The table gives the sequence most schools teach at Level 1, with the timing our manual uses.
| # | Position | Where the hands rest | Hold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eyes | Palms over the eyes, fingers on the cheekbones, not pressing | 3-5 min |
| 2 | Temples | Palms cupping the sides of the head, fingers towards the crown | 3-5 min |
| 3 | Back of the head | Hands under the occiput, cradling the skull | 3-5 min |
| 4 | Throat and jaw | Hands resting lightly either side of the throat, or hovering | 3-5 min |
| 5 | Upper chest | Hands on the breastbone below the collarbones | 3-5 min |
| 6 | Solar plexus | Hands on the lower ribs, fingers meeting at the centre | 3-5 min |
| 7 | Navel | One hand above the navel, one below | 3-5 min |
| 8 | Lower abdomen | Hands in a triangle, fingertips towards the pubic bone | 3-5 min |
| 9 | Shoulders and upper back | Client face down; hands on the trapezius | 3-5 min |
| 10 | Mid back | Hands on the shoulder blades, then below them | 3-5 min |
| 11 | Lower back | Hands over the kidneys and the lumbar spine | 3-5 min |
| 12 | Sacrum and feet | Hands in a T over the sacrum, then flat under the soles to close | 3-5 min |
Our manual's general protocol stretches the same route to 18 positions: ten with the client face up, including a separate hand placement under the right ribs “at the level of the liver and gallbladder” and under the left ribs “at the level of the stomach, spleen and pancreas”, then eight face down, from the trapezius through the shoulder blades, kidneys, lower back, a T and then a V at the coccyx, the backs of the knees, and finally the hands “flat under the feet”. The 18 are the 12 with the torso and legs divided more finely; a Level 1 practitioner who knows the 12 can learn the 18 in an afternoon.
How long do you hold each position?
Three to five minutes, and the clock matters less than the stillness. Our manual's instruction for self-practice is to “lay the hands between 3 and 5 minutes for each position”, and the same range governs client sessions. Twelve positions at four minutes is 48 minutes; add the opening and closing sweeps and a full session runs 45 to 60 minutes, or 60 to 75 with the 18-position protocol. Beginners move too fast. The habit we correct most in the first practice sessions in class is a hand that lifts at ninety seconds because nothing seems to be happening. Nothing seeming to happen is normal; the position is held anyway.
Two moves frame the positions in our manual. Before the first position, the practitioner sweeps the hands above the body from head to feet, “repeating the movement all around the person”, which the manual calls harmonising the aura and which, whatever you make of the term, settles both people. After the last, the same sweep, then the hands under the feet “to anchor the session and the person”, then a slow pass from the feet back up the midline. Only then does the practitioner touch the shoulders and say, quietly, that the session is over.
What is the daily self-practice routine?
The same positions, on yourself, twice a day. Our manual is direct about the order of things: “before you can help others, you need to offer yourself what you are ready to give to others”, and it describes a morning ritual and an evening ritual, each a sequence of hand placements held 3 to 5 minutes. Its full self-regulation sequence runs to 15 positions, from the eyes to the soles of the feet, and includes pairs the manual uses for balancing: one hand on the lower abdomen and one on the forehead, for instance, “to bring the energy back down towards the lower body when thoughts are intense”. Students do the short version daily and the 15-position version when they have half an hour.
- 1
Morning, 10 to 15 minutes
Seated or lying down: eyes, temples, back of the head, throat, chest, solar plexus, lower abdomen. Three minutes each. The manual pairs this with the recitation of the five principles.
- 2
Evening, 10 to 15 minutes
The same run, or the manual's chakra-balancing pairs: hands on the first and sixth centres, then the second and fifth, then the third and fourth, then a stretch “toes to the floor, arms raised” to finish.
- 3
One long session a week
The 15-position sequence at 3 to 5 minutes each, 45 minutes or more. This is where the positions become automatic, so that in a client session the hands know where to go without the head counting.
- 4
The first 21 days after an attunement
Daily without exception. The manual notes that the body's centres take “21 days” to settle after a change, and the tradition treats those three weeks as the foundation. Students who skip them tend to arrive at Level 2 with hands that still hesitate.
Hands on or hands off: which is correct?
Both, and the choice is the client's. Our manual states that the practitioner may opt “either for laying on of hands (direct contact) or for holding the hands a few centimetres away”. In our cohorts we teach students to ask before the first contact, to name the areas they will hover over rather than touch, and to check again for sensitive areas; the manual's own instruction is to “ask beforehand whether there are sensitive areas (chest, feet)”, and its psycho-emotional protocol specifies that the hands go on the upper chest “with the person's permission” or are held above it. A client who prefers no touch at all receives a full session with every position held two inches above the body. The positions are identical; only the contact changes.
Three practical rules follow from the manual. The client lies down, always: it says a session “cannot be carried out standing, at the risk of possible dizziness, hot and cold sensations”. The client stays clothed and removes their watch. And the practitioner never leaves the client to get up alone at the end, “always with your presence, to avoid any accident”.
How do you adapt the sequence for a seated client?
Drop the back-of-table positions and shorten the rest. A wheelchair user, a client in a hospital chair, a colleague at a desk, an older client who cannot lie flat: all receive a seated session of 20 to 30 minutes. The practitioner stands behind for the head positions (temples, back of the head, shoulders), moves to the side for the upper chest and solar plexus with one hand in front and one on the back, then kneels for the knees and, if shoes come off, the feet. The sacral and mid-back positions are taken from behind with the client leaning slightly forward. Our manual's warning about standing sessions does not apply to sitting, but the practitioner keeps a hand on the shoulder at the end and waits before the client stands.
What are the hand positions not?
Not pressure, not points, not manipulation. A Reiki hand rests; it does not press, rub, knead, tap, stretch or move a joint. The positions are not acupressure points and follow no meridian; the placement is by region, not by point, and being an inch off changes nothing. They are not massage, and this is the line that matters legally: in most states, working soft tissue for compensation requires a massage licence, and a Reiki practitioner who starts kneading a shoulder has crossed into licensed territory. The positions are also not a treatment. The manual's ethics chapter is explicit that the practitioner “does not heal” and “promises nothing”; what the hands do is provide 45 minutes of still, attentive contact, which clients reliably find calming.
Scope of practice
Resting hands on a clothed body is Reiki; anything more is bodywork. Keep the pressure at zero, keep the hands still, keep clothing on, and ask before touching. Never work on a client who is standing, never leave one to get up alone, and never suggest a position “treats” anything. Massage and touch rules vary by state; if you are unsure whether your hands-on practice needs a licence where you live, read our note on massage licences and energy bodywork and ask your state board.
What the evidence shows
Trials of Reiki, summarised by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (nccih.nih.gov), find relaxation and lower self-rated anxiety after a session, and find that sham Reiki by untrained people generally produces the same. No trial has compared one hand sequence with another. The positions are a way of structuring an hour of calm attention; the evidence supports the calm, not the map.
How do you learn the sequence properly?
By doing it on twenty different bodies with someone watching your hands. The positions look trivial on paper and are not trivial in the room: hands drift, pressure creeps in, the practitioner's shoulders rise, the timing collapses. In our in-person Reiki program the 12 and then the 18 positions are taught in Module 1 and practised on classmates with an instructor watching the hands, over 5 classroom days (35 teaching hours) for $1,500, plus about 32 hours of personal study between sessions. The hand that rests without pressing for four minutes is a learned skill, and it is learned by being corrected.
From the training floor
The correction we give most often has nothing to do with where the hands are. It is the practitioner's breathing. A student who holds their breath while holding a position transmits tension through their palms, and the client's shoulders tell us before the student notices. We teach the positions with a slow exhale attached to each placement, and the sequence changes character from the first afternoon.
Questions on this topic.
How many hand positions are there in Reiki?+
Twelve in the standard Western sequence: four on the head, four on the front of the torso and four on the back, held three to five minutes each. Lineages expand or compress it; our course manual's general protocol uses 18 positions, ten with the client face up and eight face down, ending with the hands under the feet. The count matters less than the coverage: head to pelvis, front and back, held still, in a fixed order.
Can you do Reiki on yourself?+
Yes, and it is where training begins. Our manual asks students to offer themselves what they intend to give others, with a morning and an evening sequence of self-positions held three to five minutes each, from the eyes to the soles of the feet. Ten to fifteen minutes twice a day is the usual rhythm, with a longer 15-position session weekly. No attunement is needed to rest your hands on yourself calmly, though the tradition holds that the attunement changes what the practice is.
Does Reiki have to be hands-on?+
No. Both direct contact and hands held a few centimetres above the body are recognised forms, and our manual allows either. Practitioners ask before touching, name the areas they will hover over, and check for sensitive areas such as the chest and feet. A client who prefers no touch receives the complete sequence with every position held above the body. The positions are the same either way; only the contact differs, and the choice belongs to the client.
How long should a Reiki session last?+
Forty-five to sixty minutes for the standard 12 positions at three to five minutes each, with the opening and closing sweeps our manual describes; sixty to seventy-five for the 18-position protocol. Seated sessions for clients who cannot lie down run 20 to 30 minutes. Shorter is possible and longer brings nothing; the length is set by the number of positions held, not by anything the practitioner detects.
Which hand position is used for anxiety or headaches?+
The tradition assigns the head positions, eyes, temples and back of the head, to a calmer mind, and our manual's self-practice notes list them for calming thoughts and easing tension. No trial supports a specific effect of any position on any condition, and a practitioner should not suggest one. What a session offers someone anxious or in pain is 45 minutes of still, attentive contact, which most people find calming, alongside whatever care they receive for the condition itself.
Do you press or move your hands during Reiki?+
No. A Reiki hand rests flat, fingers together, and stays still for the length of the position; there is no pressure, rubbing, tapping, stretching or joint movement. That distinguishes Reiki from massage, which in most states requires a licence for soft-tissue work, and from acupressure, which uses points on meridians. If a practitioner starts kneading, the session has become bodywork. Stillness is the technique, and it is harder to keep than it sounds.
Can Reiki be done sitting up?+
Yes, with an adapted sequence. Seated sessions serve wheelchair users, clients in hospital chairs, people at a desk and anyone who cannot lie flat. The practitioner works from behind for the head and shoulders, from the side for the chest and solar plexus with one hand in front and one on the back, and kneels for the knees and feet. Sessions run 20 to 30 minutes. Standing sessions are avoided; our manual warns of dizziness and hot or cold sensations.
What do you do at the end of a Reiki session?+
A closing sweep above the body from head to feet, hands rested under the soles, then a slow pass back up the midline; then a hand on the client's shoulders and a quiet word that the session is over. The client is helped to sit and stand, never left alone on the table, and offered water. The debrief is brief and positive; our manual advises against detailing what the practitioner felt, so the client is not left focused on it.
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ReikiWhat it is
About the author
Valérie Fabre · Founder & Director, Harmonika Institute
Valérie Fabre founded Harmonika Institute in 2025, after a decade seeing clients in private kinesiology practice and, before that, thirteen years in international trade. A French-born polyglot who now splits her time between Dallas and Miami, she sets the school's curriculum and editorial standards and champions ethical, in-person training.
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