Gina's Reiki Journey
In the beginning...
My name is Gina Tatsumi.
The Reiki Room is my shop, and we are truly blessed to serve you…
We became a brick and mortar in 2010.
The beautiful space we were in – I built with my own two hands working over the course of one year. Covid-19 changed how we operate and in 2020, I closed our physical brick & mortar shop.
I am now working to service all of your Reiki & Healing needs virtually, as well as through in-person appointments.
I have been practicing Reiki since 2001.
Thank you for taking the time to hear my Reiki story.
Please understand I sincerely offer this story without ego.
I believe we ALL have the ability to tap into our gifts.
Reiki is a modality that can be received as well as learned…
~Namaste
My Reiki Story...began in the year 2000.
After many years of struggling as a single parent with two children and working three jobs, I married a wonderful man. For the first time in many years, I had a chance to catch my breath. One day while walking my dog, I began to pray and meditated as I often do in nature. I asked God to show me my path. I asked that I be shown my purpose.
Looking back...
As a small child, I now realize that I have always been figted. I was able to see and feel and comprehend things from a very young age. I always had thought that everyone saw and felt things the same way I did. This of course made it difficult to understand, as not everyone did.
I was able to “see” energy and had an ability of “knowing” when something was going to happen. Usually through dreams…but at times full blown apparitions would make their presence known to me. After realizing I was different, I suppose I buried my gifts.
I was ready... or so I thought
That is when God took my world and shook it upside down. Just known my friend, that when things seem like they are falling part, sometimes they are truly falling into place…
My elderly parents were living in Rome, Ohio at the time, which had been about 100 miles from where I lvied. My mother at that time fo her life had received two hip replacements. In May of that years, her hip replacement had given out, causing her to fall onto the concrete floor, and shatter femur. Not good.
She was blessed by a fabulous surgeon, whom after a long intensive surgery, was able to repair her femur, however, she was told she wouldn’t be able to walk again. I was for the most part living with them at the time to help with her care and recovery. Needless to say, this was a a bit of a strain on my new marriage, and was a rather stressful situation.
After a long hospital stay, my mother was able to come home. I continued to stay and be the caregiver for both of my parents. For the most part she was bedridden. This was not easy for a woman who had been very active her entire life. On the second day of her being home, as my Dad and I were in his “man cave/garage” watching an Indians game, I began to hear a powerful voice speaking to me…
"Great"... I thought..."Now I'm so stressed out I'm hearing voices".
This got my attention, and I now realize it was coming from the Spirit. “Go pray on your mother” I heard again…and again. I told my dad, “Dad, I am hearing a voice and I am being told tog o and pray on Mom!”.
“We were not a religious family by the way. As an infant, I was baptized Catholic, then as a young girl, I chose to be re-baptized in the Baptist faith, then again returned to the Catholic faith as an adult…only to come to realize I am more a Gnostic, blending Christianity with pagan beliefs…but I digress).
My Dad with conviction told me ” I think you better go do it…”
So I did. It felt strange at first, almost awkward, but my mother when I was finished, asked me if my hands were bright red, because she could feel so much heat coming from my hands. I had felt it also, but my hands appeared normal. You can just imagine our surprise when after praying on my mother’s leg, two weeks later when we went for a follow-up visit and x-rays to check the progress of her healing that the surgeon said “I cannot explain how, but one section of your leg has healed like a sixteen year old girl”…WOW.
Apparently, I still wasn't listening...
hard enough to know that this was going to change my world. That is when I herniated my disc in my back. I had experienced some back issues in the past, but this was the worst to date. I couldn’t sit, stand, lay, walk or breathe without pain. It was AWFUL, not to mention depressing. Traditional medicine threw pills at me along exercises. THAT wasn’t helping…I wasn’t a candidate for surgery…Had to let it heal “on its’ own”. Then is when I healed myself…
A very good friend convinced me to take a Reiki I Class being taught by a mutual friend of ours. My first thought was “How far can we open our minds till all our brains fall out?” But, I was willing to try anything at this point, and drugged myself up and shuffled to the car with my friend to go to take the class.
As we were being instructed in the Reiki Level I Class, which is primarily for self-healing, I began to notice that I could “see” the energy coming from the bodies of those we were practicing hand positions on. I could also sense and feel the areas of blocked energy in the recipients body. I began to open mind to the possibility of actually believing in “this energy stuff”. Little did I realize, this crack would burst and my world would open and help to take my gifts to a whole new reawakened level!
So as I also teach my students,
tradition says that we are to work on ourselves for 30 minutes per day for 30 days after receiving a Reiki I Attunement. I did this and started to “unravel” the pain in my lower back. I had experienced quite a rocky life up to this point. There had been many forms of abuse, both physical, as well as emotion. There were many hardships I had overcome, and I really had thought I had dealt with them.
With the help of Reiki, I began to realize the healing that was needed to help my back was truly an emotion one. This required me to release a lot of things that had been buried in my emotional body, which in turn had been creating my physical pain. I was truly freed from many things at this time, and began to take my power back. I was also really truly allowing my gifts to surface.
“Physician heal thyself.”
And I did.
The timing of this start of my journey is around July/August 2001.
I realize this seems like a long story, but please bear with me.
It was a very hot summer day and I was working in my garden when I received a call from my best friend at the time, Carol Patch. If that name rings a bell for you, it could be because Carol earned her true “Angel” wings on August 12, 2001 by saving the life of a 10 year old little girl by the name of Michelle Trommeter.
There was a part on the lake in Euclid/Willoughby area, and Carol was there to celebrate her birthday. One of the attendees had a boat, and was taking people on the lake to water ski. He was also hammered..”off hits tits” as the Brits say. Not being of sound mind, he wasn’t looking at the shoreline, and it was sunset, as he dropped off a water skier to be able to ski onto the beach.
Carol was standing in waist hight water and managed to pick up the little girl standing next to her in the water (up to her chest) and throw her onto the beach. Carol didn’t have time to get out of the way of the oncoming boat.
Around 11:00 that night when the news reported that a 51 year old woman was killed on Lake Erie by a drunken boater, I felt Carol’s spirit rush through me like a burst of cold air saying “GINA! THAT WAS ME! YOU AREN’T LISTENING! THAT WAS ME!” And it was. That was August 12 of 2001.
It was a nightmare. Truly. Then more visions, and dreams, and even a nightmare came.
Sleeping in the middle of the night on September 9, 2001, I had one of the most horrific nightmares I have ever hard. It was very clear and very scary, and the worst part was I had no idea what to do with the information I received. At first, I thought I was confusing the information in my dream to have apart of Carol’s death due to people at the time reporting from the apartments on the lake that an accident had happened…they could see the lake filling with blood. Yikes!
In my dream, I witnessed a very tall gray building. Suddenly, the building breathed in and out like an accordion. I didn’t see smoke. I didn’t see any flames. What I did see was papers flying, desks flying, chairs flying, and a man free falling with his tie flowing upward in the air. Imagine my horror when drinking coffee two days later, and I am watching my nightmare unfold before me as the planes crash into the World Trade Center. I was terrified. This is what I saw in my dream. Planes were flying very low over my house. I lived close to Norwalk, and when the plane turned around in Norwalk, it headed toward Pennsylvania. I swear to you I could hear the people screaming and crying for help. I hit the ground on my knees and began to pray.
I didn’t now what else to do…none of us did, I suppose.
Everything was upside down at this point in my life.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one feeling unsettled and a little uncertain.
This is when it became very clear to me that the world needed helpt. IT was time for me to get busy. I took the second degree class of Reiki and began to work on others. It was still a little frightening to me to see the things I was seeing and feeling. I was witnessing true miracles, but was afraid of my gift. When I saw the spirit of one of my loved ones leave her body upon her taking her last breath. I knew that energy was real.
It was also that same loved one who passed with nothing to her name, and no family outside of me, who miraculously willed me $495.00.
I needed $500 for my Reiki Master class. What a BLESSING!
Now we are getting to the "good" stuff:
I was still questioning God though, asking “Who am I that I should be a healer? How do I know that this truly coming from God?”
I guess speaking to a Catholic nun about Reiki and my gifts was what really terrified me…HA! Needless to say, the Church frowns upon these types of things…But, as luck would have it, my daughter was attending a Bible college at the time. She was home for a visit and I was speaking to her about some of the things I was witnessing and trying to decide if being a Reiki Master was truly what I was meant to do.
In her wisdom, my daughter said, “Mom! Why don’t you just pray about it?” that is when I realized that is what got me into this “mess” to begin with. She and I were heading out to go to the store in her car one day, and she had forgotten her wallet. When she ran back into the house, I looked down between the eats of the car and saw a Bible tucked there. That is when I decided to pick up the Bible and play “Bible Roulette”.
I held the Bible in my hands and said to God, VERY DIRECTLY….
"Ok, God. You want me to be a healer. SHOW ME A SIGN..."
I closed my eyes, opened the Bible and pointed to a passage. It was highlighted in yellow and said:
“Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak unknown languages.: (1 Corinthians 12:28).
I swear to you, I was speechless. I put the Bible back between the seats.
God answered my prayer, alright! and away we go! That was 2004. I have never regretted becoming a Reiki Master. I have been sharing my gift since 2001, and I have witnessed many miracles. Clients with ulcerative colitis and pulmonary fibrosis have been given a complete clean bill of health..as it DISAPPEARED.
I have witnessed Reiki help countless women with fertility issues. It has helped with pain management. It is is beneficial when we are under stress. It can benefit those going through cancer treatment. It has helped with Lupus, Shingles, and Arthritis. It has helped with grieving, depression and even transition when loved ones have been ready to cross over. I have offered Reiki to dogs, cats, cows, birds, turtles and horses.
One beautiful Golden Retriever who had liver cancer
was given a week to live and was in pain, restless and not eating or drinking. I sat with him about an hour, and placed my hands on him with Reiki for about 30 minutes, after which he went directly to his water bowl, lapped up a bunch of water, ate a bunch of food, and tehn proceeded to pay with his brother. With amazement, he lived 6 months before crossing the Rainbow Bridge. (That was one of my favorite clients!)
So, needless to say as Reiki Masters, Teachers, and Practicioners, we cannot promise a healing will take place, but I can say that I absolutely known the recipient will benefit on either a mind, body or spiritual level.
I encourage you to at least try Reiki. It is like a soothing warm massage with love offered to your mind, body and spirit.
I have oodles of more stories and things I could share, but perhaps will put them in a book, perhaps, one day.
In the meantime, thank you for listening to my store. I hope I have helped you in some way to either embrace the need for your own healing or inspired you to also to step onto the healing path for yourself as a practitioner.
With Love,
G.