I'm Angelscandle, and a Reiki Master for 13 years.  Reiki can be defined as spiritually guided life force energy.  In a Reiki session, the practitioner/giver is merely a channel/connection/facilitator between the person/client/receiver and this energy.  The person receiving the healing/energy is the one who is in control of the healing they receive.  Through their own Higher Selves, they will take as much or as little of this energy as they are guided.  Reiki heals by flowing through the affected parts of the energy field and charging them with positive energy at the cellular level. It raises the vibratory level of the energy field in and around the physical body where the negative thoughts and feelings are attached.  Even though we feel the receiver may need more than the energy they accept, it is always the receiver that decides when enough is enough, they are always in charge of their own healing.   The receiver doesn't always understand why they choose to stop a session.  They react to the physical sensation sometimes, other times because they "feel they are done" as many of my clients put it. In either case, when the practitioner feels that the receiver has closed off or is told to stop, the RECEIVER has ended the connection.  Reiki is an invitation  accepted the receiver, their inner wisdom must be respected at all times.

 

     It is a common misinterpretation for a person to believe they can "send" or "do" Reiki.  The practitioner has no power to "send" anything.  Reiki is a conscious and willing participation.  Reiki is the wisdom that comes from God or the Higher Self. This is the God-consciousness which is all knowing. It understands each person completely. It knows the cause of all problems and difficulties and knows what to do to heal them: [Rei], with the connection to  the vital life force or the universal life force [Ki].  Their Higher Self/God Consiousnes  Usually, the healing takes place on all levels.  Reiki guiding itself with its own wisdom, and being unresponsive to the direction of the practitioner.

 

Any practitioner that feels that "they can heal", or can "send" Reiki to what they consider to be the problem, are practitioners to be avoided.  These are "practitioners" who use their own energies to CAUSE something to happen for another person.  They manipulate energies through their own direct involvement.  Reiki by it's very nature, is the direct uninvolvement of the practitioner in the receiver's own healing by facililtating a connection between Rei and Ki. Healing occurs without the practitioner ever entering or manipulating the client's energy. 

 

Distance healings are done with the client fully aware and in full participant in their own healing.  Energy knows no time and space, and through a conscious (energetic) connection between the giver and receiver a Reiki session can be held whether the person is in the same room or miles away.  The key here is "conscious connection". 

 

Sleep is defined as a "natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored." During sleep, the individual is not aware of what is happening.  They leave themselves open to any type of manipulation.  Reiki is an integral energetic healing modality, and no credible practitioner would ever take advantage of someone who is not aware.  The client decides when they've had enough.  They alone know how much they can take and how their increased vibration is being tolerated.  They choose when the connection will be ended.  During sleep this choice does not exist.  A practitioner can actually 'overload' the receiver and cause harm.

 

Reiki is not a power a practitioner receives during attunements.  Reiki Attunements gradually opens the student's/practitioner's inner wisdom which enhances their ability to act as a conduit for the universal life force following guided instruction by their Reiki Master, the learning and mastery of the Empowerment Symbols taught at each level and the self-growth and spiritual connection and opening of awareness by the student.  A Reiki Master or Teacher will not Attune to the next level until they 'know' the student is ready. 

 

I hope this has helped, and it is something that you should ask your Teacher about.  Reiki is about inegrity at all times.