Once I found my calling to serve and heal others through Reiki, I felt a new connection to my Japanese birth name and how it relates to my practice. Nori (“no-di”) is the name my great grandmother, Niiyama Bachan, gave me. Because of the way she wrote the kanji (Japanese characters), the translation for my name means “start of a new era”. Another kanji of Nori translates to “love”. Reiki IS love. And healing through restoring your natural energy flow is a journey to a new era. It certainly was for me. Nothing has been the same since I found Reiki.

Growing up in a lively household, I was surrounded by love but also experienced constant anxiety and chronic depression, which I accepted as a norm I’d have to manage for the rest of my life. Highly sensitive to others' energies, I could not distinguish what was mine, leading to ongoing distress. This sensitivity spurred my interest in Biological Psychology, exploring mind-body connections.

At 24, I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Chronic Anxiety, feelings I had managed since childhood but had not fully understood. Despite years of therapy, self-help efforts and classes, even becoming a Yoga/Spin instructor, I struggled silently with monthly, debilitating depressive episodes.

In my early 30s, amidst work travel, a divorce, and insomnia, I faced a low point. Seeking help, I realized I needed a substantial lifestyle change, not pharmaceuticals, to find relief and healing.

Guided by a doctor double board certified Family Medicine and Functional Medicine, I began meditating regularly and eventually opened up to his energy healing work. Although unfamiliar, I embraced it and experienced transformative benefits. Over 16 months, my improvement surpassed 15 years of therapy, leading to freedom from depression.

A remarkable shift in my experience with energy healing occurred after 9 months of marathon training and my severe leg pain persisting after the race. In a remote session with another energy healer, without mentioning this pain, she identified and cleared a blockage at the base of my spine. Miraculously, my pain disappeared overnight, reinforcing the power of energy healing on physical pain.

While results can vary, my journey over nearly a decade with various practitioners, along with daily self-Reiki and meditation, has been crucial for sustained breakthroughs in my emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. In 2025, I haven’t had a MDD depressive episode in almost 10 years.

The incredible results I got in such a short span of time (compared to the decades of suffering with depression) led me to want to pay it forward. Everyone holds the capacity to perform Reiki (on yourself or for others). I teach this through my Reiki For Everyday Health class and SF community lecture series to those wanting the benefits of energy healing in their homes, everyday.

I want as many people as possible to have access to this incredibly powerful yet gentle and loving holistic healing modality. The best part is Reiki is complimentary to all other types of western medicine, holistic healing modalities, medicinal treatments and surgery and has been show in clinical trials to be an excellent adjunctive therapy.

nori reiki, San Francisco, CA