Our first Reiki meet-up in 2007

RERI originally began as a Charlotte Reiki meet-up group started by two Reiki Master/Teachers, William Coryer and Mei Yin Hung, who are passionate about Reiki and have a desire to share Reiki with others of similar interest in Charlotte, North Carolina in January of 2007. At that time, Reiki shares and social events were held monthly in different parts of the Greater Charlotte areas to provide opportunity for the group members and Reiki newbies to share and experience Reiki. Since then, the Charlotte Reiki Meet-up group has grown over 500 members today. Between 2008-09, a mission to raise public awareness of Reiki was slowly developing. Bill and Mei Yin spent most of their time in organizing and hosting community events and Reiki orientation programs to promote the health benefits of Reiki in various locations including health food stores, churches, hospitals, health fairs and hotels as well as using many other venues.

Our First Fundraising Christmas Party in 2008

       In 2008, Bill and Mei Yin began developing a website, the organizational structure and filing for 501©(3) not for profit status in October 2009. The 501(c)(3) non profit status was approved and the effective date for exemption dated April 10, 2008. Other volunteers (Reiki Practitioners) including Zulma Bianchi, Stephen Buck, Barbara Butler, and Jeff Lutz have also given time and effort to assist in the development and raising funds for the initial setup. Our first volunteer program was established in 2008, we provided sample Reiki healing sessions to the visitors at drumSTRONG, a national fundraising event for cancer research in Charlotte, NC. In early 2009, the implementation of the Reiki Wellness program at the CaroMont Cancer Canter brought RERI to another level of growth. Along with this, many other opportunities have opened up and were developing. RERI became recognized in the local health care community and received its first grant from Gaston Memorial Hospital (Now called CaroMont Health) in Gastonia, North Carolina. This became a milestone of the organization’s success.

Our current facility in Myers Park, Charlotte

         In 2009, Reiki Education, Inc. changed it’s name to Reiki Education and Research Institute to better reflect the mission and purpose  of the organization, which is to raise public awareness of the health benefits of Reiki through providing quality education and conducting Reiki research. Up until 2010 we sublet space or borrowed rooms from various organizations and businesses in the surrounding area. In 2010 with the help of some benefactors, we were able to open our own office in Gastonia, NC and a little over a year later we moved to our current location in Myers Park, Charlotte where we continue to hold educational programs and provide healing services.

Reiki Class held in our facility

        During this time we also have continued to provide programs on location in many venues including those mentioned previously. We  continue to fine-tune our programs to ensure quality on all levels. Our most recent addition to the group of programs is our Teacher Training segment that gives students a well-structured and method to provide Reiki training for others. This program is intended to help us expand our reach into the community and to other communities throughout the country. We have also begun a student clinic to provide students the opportunity to utilize their skills under the supervision of a trained Reiki Master Teacher while providing those with chronic illness access to Reiki healing services.

The 4th RERI Annual Reiki Retreat in 2013

         In the past couple of years we have expanded our reach to a worldwide audience through the development of our website and have students who have participated in our programs through live video from all over the world. Some international students have travelled to Charlotte to participate directly in our programs. Over the past 10 years, RERI has evolved from a small group of like-minded people into an charitable organization with students, alumni, volunteers and supporters worldwide. Since then, the organization has held over 400 events, including Reiki orientation and outreach programs, Reiki clinics, Reiki educational programs of all levels (Internship format) and conducting Reiki research. The organization is built on 95% volunteer effort lead by Bill and Mei Yin and since 2007 and 95% of our fundings come from educational programs and events.

RERI is located in Myers Park, Charlotte

Education Program:

Reiki Program

• Reiki Natural Healing and Personal Empowerment Program – Fundamental Level
• Reiki Natural Healing and Spiritual Development Program – Advanced Level, Master Level
• Reiki Education and Research Institute (RERI) Licensed Teacher Level
• Reiki Education and Research Institute (RERI) Licensed Professional Teacher and Practitioner Level

Family Program

• Sunny Side Up Family Program

Reiki Clinic:

• Monthly Community Clinic –  2nd Thursday 6pm-8pm
• Student Clinic – by appointments (Monday – Saturday)
• Professional Clinic – by appointment (Monday – Saturday)

Research Study:

• We conduct on-going research study on Reiki in our student clinic

Community Outreach Events

Monthly Outreach events:

• Aveda store in South Park – 3rd Saturday 1pm-4pm
• Healthy Home Market on Central Ave. – 3rd Saturday 1pm-4pm

Other Outreach events:

• We offer open house two times a year
• We provide free orientation class and demonstration on Reiki to local groups and organizations.
• We participate in health fairs and events organized by our program partners including retail business, hospitals, doctor offices, non profit organizations and corporations etc.

RERI Students and Alumni Community Events

• Monthly Reiki healing practice and social circle
• Quarterly community events celebrate the Solstices and Equinoxs
• Annual Reiki retreat

RERI is guided by the following values:

Spiritual stability:

• Continue self-healing and growth
• Love (Unconditional love) and compassion
• Non-ego based
• Strive to become a healing influence for others

Personal and service excellence:

• Competence
• Accountability
• Reliability
• Honesty
• Responsive
• Respect
• Caring and understanding
• Positive attitude

Innovative:

• Open to new ideas
• Share new ideas
• Constructive suggestions

Shared vision and team work:

• Share RERI vision with your peers, students and others who are interested in RERI’s mission
• Strive to engage with people as partners in the process, whether as students, clients, peers or associates, striving to strengthen relationships in all levels of society in a positive manner for the highest good of all

Leadership with ethics and integrity:  

• Demonstrate ethics and integrity to:
• your teachers/clinic supervisors/event or program organizers
• your peers and associates
• your students/clients
• in a practice setting

General Guidelines and Standards: 

RERI Board members, staff, associates, volunteers share same values and are governed by following guidelines:

• Always live up to the Reiki Principles
• Always afford clients and students the utmost respect and consideration.
• Maintain total confidentiality with respect to clients/students records and personal information.
• Respect all Reiki modalities and schools of thought.
• Always keep the highest good of the clients or students foremost in our intentions and thoughts.
• Always teach respect for genital areas and breasts on women; teach the principle of hands off healing for those areas.
• Always demonstrate and promote respect for treatment by licensed healthcare professionals. Refer students or clients to them if appropriate and never diagnose or prescribe treatment or suggest alteration of a treatment plan from a licensed healthcare professional.
• In classes, always promote the principle of referring individuals to licensed healthcare professionals, when appropriate.
• Promote respect and cooperation between colleagues, managing staff and peers within RERI and Reiki Professionals in general.
• Make sincere effort to empower students to do self healing.
• Provide students with ongoing support after classes to insure their success in developing their personal growth with Reiki.

Our Philosophy

Holistic approach to health

Reiki Education and Research Institute believes and promote the Holistic approach to life. The Holistic health approach to healing and personal growth takes into account the whole person – the physical being, mental/ emotional being and the spiritual being. Healing, therefore, is addressed to all levels and not just the physical symptomatology being experienced. Balance of all areas of ones being are critical to the overall health and wellbeing. We encourage our students to look beyond the physical and examine all aspects of ones life as a whole when addressing illness or other challenges.

Use of Reiki

Reiki is an energy healing method as well as a self-help tool that addresses ones being and existence on all of these levels. It is a subtle yet powerful approach to improving the overall quality of life for everyone as well as effectively supporting the healing process of physical illnesses and emotional distress. It is an effective complementary healing method to traditional western medical practices and helps create a positive healing environment and mind-body connection.

Education approach 

We believe that everyone should have at the very least Fundamental Reiki training. Not only is it effective for the support of the healing process but is a valuable personal/spiritual development tool. We provide in-depth Reiki training of all levels and opportunities for students to experience self-healing during the educational process. Our program is designed to provide students sufficient time to understand the concepts of healing the body, mind and spirit and to allow it to be absorbed in the subconscious mind, making Reiki truly an integrated part of one’s approach to life.

Real-life application 

• Students are required to begin their Reiki training at the Fundamental Level.  Each level of training includes in-depth and extensive course work emphasizing on self-healing, personal and spiritual development using Reiki. Our comprehensive training process help students develop the knowledge and skill sets in this healing art.
• Students are encouraged to participate in our student clinic where Reiki sessions are offered to the general public at a reduced rate. The clinical training experiences provide our students both theoretical and applied experience in Reiki.

Spiritual Development

• Spiritual development is an important aspect of developing professional teachers and practitioners. Many spiritual topics and practices are being incorporated in our Reiki training.
• In addition, private one on one spiritual mentoring sessions are available to support students on their own learning and healing journey and spiritual development.

Community Development

RERI community is supported by students, alumni and supporters those believe our mission and values. RERI organizes regular community events including monthly Reiki group practice, quarterly spiritual gathering, metaphysical workshops, annual Reiki retreat to nurture and support the growth of our Reiki community. 

Social Responsibility

We have the tool to transform the world and making it a better place for everyone by utilizing Reiki. Reiki can change our energy and raise our vibrational level.  As more people getting involved in learning and practicing Reiki, our world will become more peaceful and harmonious as the awakening populations will be emitting more loving and positive energy in our environment.  RERI strives to create a non-ego based and energy-conscious culture to help raise vibration of human kinds.  We offer opportunities for people to request for healing and also we have monthly healing event where participants send Reiki to their family, communities and the world.

Our training facility is located in Myers Park area, only a few minutes away from Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina with easy access to major highways I-77, I-277 and I-74. Our facility includes classrooms, private rooms for Reiki or spiritual mentoring session, a lounche area and a small library for our students and alumni.