A Reiki session is built around a sequence of hand placements, and the sequence is the easiest part of the practice to describe accurately. The practitioner rests their hands lightly on or just above the body, holds each spot for a few minutes, then moves to the next. A common Western set runs to roughly twelve positions, though the count varies by teacher and lineage.
The placements usually begin at the head. Hands cover the crown, the eyes, the temples, and the back of the skull. From there the sequence often moves down the front of the body: the throat, the chest over the heart, the upper abdomen, the lower abdomen. The practitioner then works the back, sometimes following the line of the spine, with extra time at the shoulders and the lower back where many people carry tension. Some sessions finish at the knees and feet. Each position is typically held for three to five minutes.
It helps to know where this map came from. The founder of the system, Mikao Usui, is generally described as having worked more intuitively, scanning the body and treating where he sensed it was needed, sometimes from a small handful of starting positions. The longer fixed sequence familiar in the West is usually traced to later teachers, with the twelve-position version associated with Hawayo Takata, who carried the practice from Japan to the United States. The standard set, then, is a teaching convention that grew over time, not a fixed anatomical prescription handed down unchanged.
The specific benefits attached to each position are the part that calls for care. In traditional Reiki belief, the heart placement opens the heart center and releases grief, the upper-abdomen position restores personal power, the placement below the navel supports creativity, and so on, with each spot tied to a particular organ, emotion, or energy center. These associations are part of the system’s framework. They are not demonstrated effects. There is no scientific evidence for the energy field the placements are said to address, and no good reason to expect that a hand held over the stomach treats confidence or that one over the chest releases stored grief in any literal sense.
What the positions reliably produce is something quieter and real. Lying still while warm hands rest on the body, in a calm room, for half an hour, tends to slow the breath and ease tension. That comfort is genuine. Many people find it soothing and meaningful. The honest way to hold the practice is to describe the ritual as it is, take the relaxation seriously, and let the organ-by-organ claims stand as tradition rather than as treatment, with serious health concerns kept in the hands of medical care.