About us

Found by Reiki

In 1995, walking through Manhattan’s Union Square Park, Brian met Reiki Master John Harvey Gray, who came often to NYC to teach Reiki classes. John had learned Reiki directly from Hawayo Takata, the Japanese-Hawaiian woman who brought Reiki out of Japan and was responsible for its spread around the world. John himself was the longest practicing Reiki Master in the Western world until his death in 2011, and together with his wife Lourdes Gray founded and ran The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing in Rindge, New Hampshire. Today, Lourdes survives John as his official Lineage Bearer and successor, and continues the work they did together for so long.

John, like Brian, had spent time with the Indian spiritual teacher Sathya Sai Baba. He encouraged Brian to take a weekend first degree class in Usui Shiki Ryoho – the Usui Method of Natural Healing. He promised that, working with Reiki, the practitioner never takes on the energetic problems of the client. In fact, they are themselves strengthened and energized by every treatment they deliver. The very next day a lifelong practice and study of Reiki was born. Fascinated with the simple method and dramatic results, Brian repeated the Reiki I class several times, before taking the second degree the following year. Soon after, he began to offer Reiki sessions on weekends and at night after his day job. He also traveled to Japan several times expanding his understanding of Reiki’s origins.

Brian felt an immediate call to mastery, but as he was young and inexperienced, John encouraged him to “just keep practicing, and let Reiki teach you.” After ten years of treating himself daily and seeing clients part-time, Brian finally entered a 3-year Master apprenticeship with a Master trained by John who lived in New York City and ran a professional Reiki practice and school in Union Square. He left a full-time corporate job and transitioned into full-time Reiki practice during those years, and in 2007 founded NYC Reiki Center.

Reiki Leads the Way

Brian Brunius with graduating students holding up their Reiki certificates after a level 1 class at the NYC Reiki Center in New York City.

Brian works full time at the NYC Reiki Center where he sees clients and teaches classes every week. He has trained more than 2,500 students from around the world in traditional Usui Shiki Ryoho, and he has initiated four Masters in his intensive multi-year Master training program. Each year, in conjunction with the San Francisco Reiki Center and Reiki Centers of America, he holds a 6-month, 200 hour, Certified Reiki Practitioner Training Program to train a select group of Reiki students as professional practitioners of Reiki, with the goal of opening their own Reiki centers and developing Reiki communities.

Over the past few years, Brian has seen a shift in his Reiki calling. Masters from other lineages and Reiki traditions have reached out for mentoring to strengthen their connections to the origins of Reiki, and many students of other teachers and lineages have been asking for help strengthening their connection to the source of Reiki and developing their spiritual practice of Reiki.

In 2020 Brian began hosting Reiki Meditation circles, Reiki Precepts classes, and the Reiki Spiritual Practice Group, each designed to help students develop and deepen their connections to the teachings and practice of Usui Sensei and to the light of Reiki that revealed itself to him at his moment of enlightenment atop Mount Kurama in 1922.

The Roots of Reiki

Photo of Reiki Master Brian Brunius of NYC Reiki Center with Usui Shiki Ryoho Grandmaster Phyllis Lei Furumoto in November 2018.

Brian is also the founder of Reiki Centers of America, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to empower Reiki practitioners and Reiki Masters to develop successful Reiki Centers and thriving Reiki communities across North America.

In November 2018, Reiki Centers of America hosted the late Grandmaster of Usui Shiki Ryoho, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, in New York City for 3 days in her last public appearance. The event included the first ever public gathering of students trained by John Harvey Gray, and also included days for Reiki Masters and students of all lineages.

It is also engaged in a major translation and publishing project from Japanese to English of Kaiji Tomita’s 1933 Reiki book, Reiki and the Compassionate Art of Healing. Also on offer are annual Reiki pilgrimage tours to Japan for Reiki students interested in deepening their connection to the roots of Reiki.

Reiki Centers of America has produced a video series called A Century of Reiki with Dr. Justin Stein. The groundbreaking five-episode series follows Reiki’s journey from Japanese therapy to global practice. Renowned Reiki scholar Justin Stein, PhD., covers the history of Reiki from Mikao Usui’s time in the early 1900s through Hawayo Takata’s teaching tours of the United States and Canada in the late 1970s. Dr. Stein also delves into ongoing research surrounding unanswered questions about Reiki.

Today, NYC Reiki Center is still located in Midtown Manhattan’s Union Square after 25 years. It continues to offer weekly classes, host monthly student circles, and daily in-person treatments of traditional Japanese Usui Shiki Ryoho.