February 19, 2011

Free reiki sessions are available to the patients and their caregivers of Maimonides Cancer Center located at 6300 Eighth Ave. (at 64th St.) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Cancer treatment can be very stressful, and the Cancer Center is designed to treat each patient as a whole person and integrate healing of body, mind and spirit.

Classified as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by the National Institutes of Health, reiki is a gentle form of energy work that is known for its ability to relax the body. Since May 2008, the Cancer Center has been providing reiki as a relaxation therapy.

Reiki sessions are offered at the Cancer Center on Mondays and Thursdays from 11:00am to 2:00pm in the second-floor Tranquility Room. A typical treatment will last approximately 15 minutes. Sessions are performed using gentle hand placements on the body, but can also be requested without touch. Chemotherapy patients may even choose to receive reiki while being administered their infusion.

“Patients and caregivers from all walks take part in the reiki program,” says Cancer Center Reiki Master, Margaret DeAngelis, “and certain patients will schedule their infusion sessions on days when reiki is available.”

As part of the Cancer Center’s holistic approach, patients and their caregivers also have access to free yoga and nutrition classes. For more information call (718)765-2562 or visit the Maimonides Medical Center website at www.maimonidesmed.org.


Dave Gorczynski is president of SPARK, a non-profit organization that has provided free energy work sessions and workshops across New York City since 2002. He writes a regular column about energy work and meditation for the Compact News in New York City's Chinatown. E-mail him at dave@sparkenergy.org.