Is Reiki training and practice really only for women, or do men do this too?
Answered by Vanessa Chugani · Updated September 2026
No. Reiki training and sessions are open to anyone; men take up both. There's no rule in Usui Shiki Ryoho limiting it to women, and the lineage itself passed through men and women. In Canggu more women tend to walk through the door, but that's about who tends to seek this out, not who's welcome.
No, and the question comes up often enough that it is worth answering directly. Reiki training and Reiki sessions are open to men and women alike. There is no rule inside Usui Shiki Ryoho that limits either the practice or the training to one gender, and nothing about the method requires a particular kind of body or a particular kind of person to work.
Who tends to show up in Canggu
Most of the people who come to see Vanessa, for a session or for training, are women somewhere between their forties and sixties, often at a turning point: after a career, after raising children, after a divorce or a loss. That pattern says something about who tends to seek this kind of support at that stage of life. It says nothing about who Reiki is for. Men come too, for sessions and for training, and they are just as welcome through the door.
What the lineage says
The line Vanessa teaches runs from Mikao Usui to Chujiro Hayashi to Hawayo Takata, who brought Usui Shiki Ryoho west. That is a man, a man and a woman, in direct succession, and it is the whole of the lineage she claims. Nowhere in that line is there a rule that closes the door to men, as students or as practitioners.
What it actually works with
The reasons people come are not really about gender. They are about a nervous system that has been running hot for a long time: stress that will not switch off, a jaw that stays clenched, sleep that will not come, a mind that is still going at 2am. Men carry all of that too, often with less permission to say so out loud. A session works with the same nervous system whoever is lying on the table, and training hands over the same craft whoever is learning it.
This suits anyone who wants a hand with that kind of tension, man or woman, whether what's wanted is a single session or training toward a second career as a practitioner.
Training and practising it yourself
Training does not stop at receiving. Once you have gone through the levels, you can practise on yourself, on family, or move toward seeing clients of your own, and none of that depends on being a man or a woman. The attunement and the manual are the same for everyone who takes the course, and the levels build the same way for everyone, from Level 1 through to Master Teacher.
If you want to feel what a session is like first, private Reiki sessions in Canggu or by distance are the place to start. If training is already on your mind, Vanessa runs Reiki training from Level 1 to Master Teacher in small groups or one to one, in Canggu or live online, at your own pace rather than on a fixed calendar. Either way, gender was never the gate.
Related questions
Do men actually come for Reiki sessions or training, or is it mostly women?
Men come for both, though most of Vanessa's clients in Canggu are women in midlife, often after a career, a divorce or a loss. That reflects who tends to seek this kind of support, not a rule about who Reiki is for. Sessions and training are open to anyone who wants them.
Is the Reiki lineage itself connected to any particular gender?
No. The line Vanessa teaches, Usui Shiki Ryoho, runs from Mikao Usui to Chujiro Hayashi to Hawayo Takata, who brought it west. That's a man, a man and a woman carrying the same practice forward. Nothing in that history ties Reiki to one gender, and nothing in her training does either.
Can a man train to become a Reiki Master Teacher through this practice?
Yes. Training runs the same way for everyone, from Level 1 through to Master Teacher, in groups of no more than six or one to one, in Canggu or live online. The manual, the attunement and the support afterwards are identical whoever is learning.