What is Usui Shiki Ryoho, and how is it different?
Answered by Vanessa Chugani · Updated August 2026
Usui Shiki Ryoho is the lineage of Reiki passed from Mikao Usui to Chujiro Hayashi to Hawayo Takata, the form she brought west. It differs from other versions you might meet: no crystals, no claimed mechanism, and the chakra system is taught as a useful twentieth-century framework rather than an ancient one.
Usui Shiki Ryoho is the name of the lineage Vanessa teaches, not a brand name for Reiki generally. It is the form that came from Mikao Usui in Tokyo in the 1920s, passed to Chujiro Hayashi, and carried west by Hawayo Takata. Takata to Hayashi to Usui is the whole of the line Vanessa claims, and it is the only one she teaches.
Why the name matters
Reiki has splintered into many branches since the 1980s, some closer to the original teaching, some reshaped by whoever picked it up along the way. "Usui Shiki Ryoho" names a specific line rather than the word "Reiki" on its own, which anyone can attach to anything. When you see the full name on this site, it tells you exactly which lineage the training or session comes from: Takata, Hayashi, Usui, and nobody else.
Where it differs from what you might have read elsewhere
A lot of Reiki writing reaches for language this site will not use. There is no claimed mechanism here: no quantum physics, no frequencies, no "energy field" presented as measured fact. The chakra system taught alongside Reiki is a twentieth-century synthesis attached to the practice in the 1980s, and Vanessa teaches it as a useful way to talk about the body, not as an ancient teaching. Crystals are not part of Usui Shiki Ryoho and she does not use them in training. If a session or a course promises something these paragraphs would not defend, it is worth asking which lineage it actually comes from.
How Vanessa teaches it
Training runs Level 1 through Master Teacher, always live, in Canggu or live online, and never as a recording or an automated attunement. Groups stay small, six people at most, and often it is one to one. There is no fixed calendar: dates are arranged around each student, and the course includes the manual, the attunement itself, and support afterwards. Vanessa trained as a Reiki practitioner in 2006 in Aachen, Germany, and completed her Reiki Master Teacher training in 2019 with the Asian Healing Arts Center in Chiang Mai and with Vonny Stella in Ubud. Read more about her training on the about page.
What this means if you are choosing between options
If you are comparing where to train or where to receive a session, the lineage is one honest thing to ask about, alongside how the teacher was trained and what they will and will not claim it does. Usui Shiki Ryoho does not promise a cure or a diagnosis, and it is not a substitute for medical care. What people report after a session is wider than most expect: sleep that comes more easily, a jaw that finally unclenches, a mind that stops circling at 2am. That comes from a lineage of three teachers before her: Usui, Hayashi, Takata.
Related questions
Does Vanessa teach any other Reiki lineage?
No. She teaches only Usui Shiki Ryoho, the line she trained in as a Reiki Master Teacher in 2019 with the Asian Healing Arts Center in Chiang Mai and with Vonny Stella in Ubud. She claims no other lineage and does not blend systems.
Are crystals part of a Usui Shiki Ryoho session or training?
No. Crystals are not part of Usui Shiki Ryoho and Vanessa does not use them in training or in sessions. If you have read about crystal grids or crystal-charged attunements elsewhere, that comes from a different branch of Reiki, not this one.
Is the chakra system part of Usui Shiki Ryoho?
It is taught alongside it, as a useful way to talk about the body, not as part of the original lineage. The chakra system attached to Western Reiki in the 1980s and is a twentieth-century synthesis, not an ancient teaching.