With the festive season behind us, the minds of the house-proud men and women of Shanghai turn to the ominous prospect of ‘spring cleaning’. But why stop at a thorough de-cluttering of your house? Surely your body is entitled to a little bit of TLC as well. That’s where the mystic arts of reiki, and other energy medicines come into play. Welcome to the often misinterpreted world of holistic therapies.

When people talk about holistic therapies, they are generally referring to healing practices that are based on the belief that disease is a result of physical, emotional, spiritual, social and environmental imbalance, and should be treated as such, rather than simply treating symptoms present as a result.

Reiki is an alternative therapy said to transfer healing energy from practitioners to clients. Originally from Japan, it’s primarily a technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. Reiki is based on the idea that an unseen ‘life force energy’ flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If your life force energy is low, then you are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, you are more capable of being happy and healthy. The practice has received a lot of attention in the West since being featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Dr Erin Olivo is director of the Columbia Integrative Medicine Program. She says that although reiki hasn’t been well researched, “there is some casual evidence to suggest it could be helpful in a wide variety of illnesses, such as stress-related symptoms, pain, high blood pressure and other heart conditions.”

For many the issue with reiki and other holistic therapies is that by saying they can cure diseases, practitioners may be abusing the trust put in them by vulnerable and often desperate people. But one of the top reiki therapists at Shanghai’s FranknSense Urban Retreat, Yoshiko Okada, is keen to clear up this misconception. “We don’t say that we can cure,” she says. “But we can make you feel better emotionally and physically.”

Another member of staff at the retreat, which is known for its range of holistic therapies, Chikako Suzuki, elaborated by saying, “If you have a broken bone reiki isn’t an option. But when you catch a cold and you are busy, busy, busy, and tired – that is where I would use reiki.”

Therapist Patrizia Cotti agrees. “I haven’t been to the doctor for a long time,” she says. “Since I began practicing reiki I have found myself getting ill less often. I am more aware of what’s going on within me. I don’t fall down any more. It’s about prevention and knowing my limitations.”

Cotti says the symptoms commonly presented in their holistic therapy sessions are many and varied. They include “mental confusion, stress, insomnia, depression, physical pain” and many more. “There is a big range,” Cotti says. “But with reiki and other energy therapies you don’t work on the symptoms. You work on the cause of the symptoms.”

Lucy Swan, an expat living in Shanghai, has used holistic therapies both in China and abroad. “We take so many pills in our day to day lives. Even the smallest cough and we go to the doctor,” she says. “I always prefer looking for a solution that doesn’t involve drugs and reiki is just one of my options. I always feel good after a session and that is what matters to me.”

Regardless of what the converts say, there will always be those who find the whole thing a little ridiculous. And with terms like ‘power stones’ and ‘energy crystals’ floating around, it’s easy to understand the cynicism.

FranknSense charges anywhere between RMB 350 and RMB 650 for 45 minutes of dedicated energy channelling, performed by an experienced practitioner.

FranknSense, 1F & 3F, 24 Xinhua Lu, near Huaihai Xi Lu.

Tel: 6280 6075. Web: www.franknsense.cn