Editor’s Note: We know many who embrace Reiki, but not everyone is familiar with this practice. Reiki is a system that encourages natural healing and well being, developed in the 1920s by a Japanese student of theology named Mikao Usui. He drew inspiration from Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions. The focus of Reiki is building a connection with what he described as a “universal life force” energy, with the goal of promoting peace, harmony, and well being.
Sitting outside Water Lily Cafe in Pine Tree Circle, minding other people’s business and wondering who I would write about next, I watched a fellow customer embrace a passing woman and say, “I need to come and see you for some energy work.”
The lady who needed the energy work session had lost her Topanga home in the Palisades Fire and two days previously had arrived to collect her daughter from summer camp at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas to witness the immediate aftermath when a tree had fallen, killed a child (not hers) and seriously injured others.
She said to me, “Niki’s amazing.” I took Niki Schmid’s card and am about to share with you the Forgiveness Mentor, Reiki Master and Communication Guide’s story.
Firstly, a reminder that I am a British transplant to Topanga with an inbuilt cynicism to most things woo-woo, but know enough people who swear by Reiki that I approached this interview with an open heart and mind.
I asked Niki to tell me about her work as a healer and forgiveness coach. “I have a hard time with the word healer,” she said. “I think we are all healers. I am a conduit and maybe just a few steps ahead than most. I help people pull away the cobwebs, take off the blinders that are holding them back, and I ask curious questions.”
Forgiveness is grief work, says Niki. “For anyone to be whole, there’s someone who needs forgiving. And that begins with yourself. It’s the self in the sense of how we knowingly or unknowingly have lived our lives and treated others, mostly in judgment. Forgiveness is where our soul path meets the goal path.”
Niki says there’s a distinction between grief work and grievance—the story we have made around our grief. “We need to decipher the grief rather than the grievance story. For me, forgiveness work and Reiki is the closest I have come to bringing the fragmented pieces of my life together to complete the puzzle.”
Originally from Austria, Niki Schmid moved to the US in 1995 with her then husband, Robert, and their two sons, Sebastian and Benjamin.
They lived first in Boulder Creek in the Cruz Mountains until her husband’s job brought them to Los Angeles. The family found their dream home on Sandstone Ranch, Saddle Peak, which Niki lived in happily for 17 years until her house and most of the other structures on Sandstone Ranch burned down in the fire. It was a rental, but no less of a beloved home, filled with memories and joy.
Niki was trained in Reiki by her mother, a master teacher in Austria 30 years ago. “At the time, I thought I learned Reiki for my mother so she could fill her course. My husband wasn’t into spirituality and energy work, so I pushed Reiki to the side. I used it here and there with my boys, putting my hand on their tummy if they were unwell, as all mothers do. Then, a few years ago, I gave a sick friend Reiki and she said I should keep it up. I re-trained with my mother and this time it sparked something in me.”
Following the Mikao Usui lineage of Reiki teaching, Niki lightly touches the body she is working on. “Touch that is not sexual.” Some teachers float their hands over the body without actually touching, but both ways claim success in bringing wholeness, restoring energy and balance, and connecting mind and spirit with the soul.
Can Reiki help with physical ailments? “I believe 99 percent of physical problems come back to the emotional body. We have stored something somewhere.”
What’s the goal? “For me, the goal is to learn as much as I can about our humanness. I always say the more human I get, the more spiritual I feel.”
We need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, says Niki. “Create our own safety within ourselves and don’t ever mistake vulnerability for weakness. Recently I have been using this metaphor that we are all radios. We all transmit out and in. Some radios have a bigger transmitter. We all have power to heal. The more you train, the more powerful your transmitter. The same with forgiveness.”
Niki’s lifelong passion around emotional intelligence was honed during her eight years with the Human Awareness Institute giving workshops on love, intimacy and sexuality. That led to Eileen Barker, a leading forgiveness coach who taught Niki to integrate emotional healing and forgiveness in conflict resolution.
What are people usually looking for who come to her? “People who are seeking forgiveness or to help with trauma. People who are willing and eager, people who know there is something more to be had from life. People who want to thrive, not just survive.”
Niki and Robert divorced in 2014. Niki remained at Sandstone Ranch with her sons. Niki has always trusted her intuition. She had asked the land if she should stay in Topanga. She heard: “Don’t leave until you have to.” That day came on January 7.
When they heard the fire was coming up Tuna Canyon, Niki and her partner, Chuck, started packing up his tools, some memorabilia and essentials. “Driving up Saddle Peak, I could see how close the fire was, how windy it was, and I knew we weren’t coming back.”
The couple evacuated to a friend’s house in Granada Hills for two weeks and have been staying back in Topanga ever since. What is Niki’s intuition telling her about Topanga now? Is it safe?
“I am not a fortune teller. I am still living here. There are so many gifts and magical moments in Topanga. It’s such a special community. A tree I thought was dead is sprouting unbelievably. The land told me to keep on listening. Get still. Listen to Mother Nature.”
Niki, a much loved and respected member of the Topanga community, has given free Reiki sessions to people who saved our town.
I accepted Niki’s offer of a treatment to see and feel what it’s like. She is a gentle, delightful, warm and friendly human who has the warmest hands that definitely feel like they have healing powers. With no aches or pains, I was able to enjoy the session as a relaxation tool. And boy did I feel relaxed during and after.
Niki presented a box of small cards, each with a different word. The one I randomly took said “adventure.” The ideas of travel and adventure have been uppermost in my mind lately, funnily enough. A phrase that also came to Niki during my session was: “You don’t always have to know everything.” This resonated with me.
The healing and spiritual worlds are filled with fakers and charlatans, but I reckon Niki Schmid is the real deal. For people who have never received Reiki or want a “boost”, Niki gives four sessions for $280. Those four sessions need to be within a week. Everyone who has done it understands why, she says. Follow-up sessions are between $120 and $150. Niki follows a model that says: “This is my baseline, if you feel you received more at the end of the session and your budget allows, then I am open to receive more.”
Niki Schmid T: 408 805 5440 E: iamlove1968@gmail.com
