Welp.

Here we are.

It’s with a very heavy heart that I have decided to conduct my work 100% remotely until May of 2021. This means that all in-person classes are also cancelled.

This isn’t a sign-off — I’m still working! My available services are listed and I am still scheduling healing sessions for clients. I’m also continuing to teach some classes online. Below are my reasons behind this hard but necessary decision:

1. I am blessed to work in a field where I am able to offer remote healing. There are plenty of modalities which cannot be offered virtually (i.e. massage, reflexology, acupuncture). Since I’m able to offer remote healing, I want to take full advantage of that benefit of my modality.

2. I want to offer consistency to my clients. Even if I went back to working in person in a few months, I would still almost certainly need to shut down operations during the upcoming winter flu season to ensure the safety of my clients. This bouncing back-and-forth between in person and remote work would be frustrating for all involved.

3. Reiki is healing, but it is not a medical procedure. It is time-consuming, intimate and requires clients to feel as comfortable as possible while being vulnerable. To ensure mutual safety in my small, poorly-ventilated and windowless room, I would need to wear head-to-toe PPE, which would add uncomfortable barriers between client and practitioner both literally and figuratively. I also feel strongly that PPE stocks, especially gowns and masks, should be reserved for medical professionals — not me, when I have the option of working from home.

4. I have clients who are immunocompromised or live with someone who is, and no matter how many times I wipe down the room I will still have trouble feeling confident that I’ve done all I can to keep them safe. That added stress will detract from my ability to be mentally present, comfortable, and to do a good job.

5. I’m not willing to risk my clients’ safety, full stop. I love them too much to be willing to offer any of us up as lab rats to an experiment or elaborate game of chicken to see how long we can make it work before someone gets sick and spreads it to vulnerable people.

Making this decision was goddamn heartbreaking. I am grieving the loss of so many beautiful aspects of my work, as well as the loss of many of my clients. I’m grieving the students who were supposed to start training with me in the fall. To those people, I am deeply sorry.

I have also already been scolded for ‘letting fear drive my business decisions’. If you would like to add your voice to that scolding, please don’t. I’m well aware that making this decision can be viewed as living in fear of the virus, but it’s not the virus I fear. My fear lies in playing Russian roulette with my clients’ health and safety as a way of succumbing to my people-pleasing nature, when I could just as easily continue seeing clients remotely.

Bottom line, I love you. I care about you and I want to work for you, and with you. I can still do that — yay, phones! Yay, Internet! Yay, quantum mechanics! So feel free to still contact me and book your remote healing session today. I’m available. (so. very. available.)

To your good health,

Jessica xo