Small-group or large-group Reiki training: what changes when the room gets bigger?
By Vanessa Chugani · Updated August 2026
Small-group training (six or fewer, often one to one) gives you more individual attention, a pace set around you, and dates arranged to suit your life. Large-group training gives you more practice partners and a date already fixed on a calendar. Choose small if you want focus, large if you want company and a set schedule.
The size of the group changes more about a Reiki training than most people expect. It changes how many questions you get to ask, how closely the pace matches where you are, and who else is in the room when you practice. Vanessa teaches Levels 1 through Master Teacher in groups of six or fewer, often one to one, with dates arranged around each student rather than a fixed calendar. Large-group training swaps some of that individual attention for a bigger room: more classmates, more hands to practice with, and usually a date that is set and published well ahead of time. Neither is wrong. The right one depends on what you are actually there to get.
| Small-group training | Large-group training | |
|---|---|---|
| Group size | No more than six students, and often just one to one. | A bigger cohort, sometimes a dozen or more students learning together. |
| Attention | Your questions get real time before the class moves on. | Time is shared across the room, so some questions wait or go unasked. |
| Pace | Set around you, so nobody moves on before you are ready. | Set for the group, so it keeps moving even if you need longer. |
| Dates | Arranged around your schedule, no fixed calendar or advertised date. | Usually set well in advance, so you can plan travel around a known date. |
| Practice partners | Fewer people in the room, so you practice with the same one or two students throughout. | More people in the room, so you give and receive with a wider range of partners. |
| What's included | The manual, the attunement, and support after, taught live, never a recording. | Varies by provider, but typically covers the same core material in a group format. |
Which one suits you
Small-group training suits someone who wants to ask everything they are wondering, who wants the pace to bend around them rather than the other way round, and who would rather pick a date that fits their life than build their life around someone else's calendar. That is most of who trains with Vanessa: groups of six or fewer, often one to one, in Canggu or live online. Large-group training suits someone differently. If you are moving to Bali for a few months and want to walk into a room full of new people to practice on, or you like learning as part of a cohort with a date already fixed so you can book flights around it, a bigger class is the better choice, and there is nothing wrong with choosing it. What stays true either way is what the training itself gives you: the manual, the attunement, and support afterwards, taught live.
Related questions
Is small-group training more expensive than large-group training?
Training here is EUR 488 per level, whether in person or live online, and that price does not change with group size. Other schools set their own prices for larger classes, which is worth asking about directly since it varies by provider.
Can I still get individual attention in a large group?
Some, but less than in a small class. In a room of six or fewer, often one to one, there is time for your specific questions during the training itself. In a bigger room that attention is divided among more people, which suits some students fine and others less well.
Does group size change what I learn, or just how I learn it?
Just how. Every level covers the same manual and the same attunement, whether you train with Vanessa in a small group or somewhere else in a larger one. What changes is the pace, the attention you get, and who else happens to be in the room with you that day.