From Pain Relief to Peace of Mind: How Distant Reiki Helped Adult Dogs - and Why Anxiety Is Our Next Frontier

Impact of Distant Reiki on Guardian Assessment of Health and Wellbeing of Adult Dogs: A Blinded, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Trial - that’s the title of my recent article published in the Journal of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (Summer 2025). Sounds pretty technical, right? But at its heart, it is a story about adult dogs, their humans, and how a gentle, hands-off healing technique might help them feel better.

Reiki is a Japanese practice that works with what is often called “life energy.” It can be done in person, but it can also be sent from a distance, since no physical touch is needed. People have been using it for relaxation, stress relief, and even pain management for years, and many hospitals around the world now offer it to human patients. But for animals? Scientific studies are still rare, especially for distant Reiki. That’s what made me curious enough to design this research.

We invited older dogs - eight years and up - who had health or behavior problems, ranging from chronic pain to anxiety to digestive issues. Fifty-four dogs joined, and half of them were randomly chosen to receive distant Reiki once a week for six weeks from experienced Reiki Masters. The other half formed the control group and did not receive Reiki, although their guardians thought they might be. Nobody knew which dog was in which group until the study was over, which is a way to keep things fair and objective.

Guardians answered detailed questionnaires before we started, after three weeks, and again at the end. We looked at 11 common issues: pain, itching (pruritus), vomiting, diarrhea, mood, anxiety, fear, aggression, activity level, social interaction, and overall wellbeing.

The most striking result was in pain relief. After only three sessions, the Reiki dogs were already showing significantly less pain than the control dogs. By the end, every single Reiki dog improved. Most had moderate to excellent pain relief, and even the rest had at least some improvement.

For the other issues, the numbers did not reach the strict “statistical significance” mark, but there were interesting patterns. Take itching (pruritus), for example: in the Reiki group, only one out of six dogs still had the same level of itching after six sessions, while in the control group, two out of five dogs saw no change. It was not enough dogs to prove the effect scientifically, but it’s a trend worth paying attention to.

Anxiety was one of the variables we were especially curious about, given Reiki’s reputation for calming the mind. While some dogs in the Reiki group did seem more relaxed, the difference compared to the control group was not large enough to count as significant in scientific terms. One possible reason? In studies with animals, results depend not just on the animal’s actual experience but also on how their guardians perceive and interpret it. Guardians who expect improvement may interact differently with their dogs or notice certain changes more, which can make it harder to separate Reiki’s effects from the influence of human expectation.

That is exactly why our next study will focus specifically on anxiety in both dogs and their guardians to see how distant Reiki might support them individually and as a pair and how they can influence each other.

For now, what this first trial tells us is that distant Reiki can clearly ease pain in older dogs and may hold promise for other issues as well. It is gentle, non-invasive, and can be done anywhere, making it especially valuable for seniors who may not be able to leave home easily. These results are just the beginning, but they represent a hopeful step toward offering our dogs more comfort and helping the humans who love them, too. In addition, of course, to expanding the use of Reiki in veterinary medicine, introducing it as a complementary therapy in veterinary clinics and hospitals.

Reference:

BARBIERI, C. R. Impact of Distant Reiki on Guardian Assessment of Health and Wellbeing of Adult Dogs: A Blinded, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Trial. Vol. 78; July 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.56641/WAGB9632

#reiki #reikiresearch #scientificarticle #painrelief #reikiinhospitals #veterinarymedicine