What does a day of Reiki Level 1 training actually look like, hour by hour?
Answered by Vanessa Chugani · Updated September 2026
A Level 1 day has no fixed clock: it moves through the history behind Usui Shiki Ryoho, the hand positions, your attunement, and time practising on each other, usually across a full day in Canggu or live online. Groups stay small, often one to one, and dates are set around you rather than a calendar.
A Level 1 day does not run to a fixed timetable. Training happens in Canggu or live online, in groups of six or fewer, often one to one, and dates are arranged around you rather than pulled from a calendar. What follows is the shape the day usually takes.
- The lineage behind what you are learning
- The hand positions, practised until they feel familiar
- An attunement, given live, never as a recording
- Time working on each other in pairs or as a small group
- A manual to take home and support afterwards
Where the day starts: history and hand positions
The day opens with the lineage itself: the line that runs from Mikao Usui to Chujiro Hayashi to Hawayo Takata, who brought it west. Vanessa teaches this honestly rather than romantically, including where the history is contested and where it is not. From there you move into the hand positions and the chakra system as it is used in Western Reiki, a twentieth-century synthesis, not an ancient one, taught as useful vocabulary rather than doctrine.
The attunement
Somewhere in the middle of the day comes the attunement itself, given live and in person or live online, never as a recording. Some people feel warmth or a shift in the room. Plenty feel nothing at all, and that is entirely normal. Vanessa would rather you leave with an accurate sense of what happened than a romantic one.
Practising on each other
The rest of the day is hands-on. In a group of six or fewer, or one to one, you practise the positions on each other and ask the questions that only come up once you are actually doing it: where to put your hands, how long to hold a position, what you are supposed to feel. This is the part that turns the manual into something you can actually use.
What you leave with
Level 1 costs EUR 488, the same whether you train in Canggu or live online, and that includes the manual, the attunement, and support afterwards. You can come back to Vanessa with questions once you have tried Reiki on friends, family, or yourself. There is no fixed intake and no advertised date, and she has practised Reiki since 2006 and taught since becoming a Reiki Master Teacher in 2019, in English or German depending on who is in the room.
This suits someone who wants to learn a craft properly, not spend an afternoon relaxing: people retraining after a career, after children, or after a change they did not choose, who want something they can actually do rather than an experience to have once.
Related questions
Is there a fixed schedule for a Level 1 day?
There is no fixed timetable. Vanessa arranges the day around you rather than a calendar, and it usually moves through the history behind Usui Shiki Ryoho, the hand positions, your attunement, and time practising on each other, all in one day, in Canggu or live online.
Is it normal to feel nothing during the attunement?
Yes. Some people feel warmth or a shift in the room, and plenty feel nothing at all. Vanessa would rather you leave with an accurate sense of what happened than a romantic one, and feeling nothing is common and nothing to worry about.
Can I do Level 1 online instead of in Canggu?
Yes. Level 1 costs the same, EUR 488, whether you train with Vanessa in Canggu or live online, and both are taught live: there is no recorded version and no automated attunement. Dates are set around you, not a fixed calendar.