Bill Stevens

• New Rochelle, New York

• Specializes in reiki for animals and end-of-life care 

• Recently retired owner, Evolutionary Reiki; evolutionaryreiki.com

Massage & Bodywork: What drew you to bodywork? 

Bill Stevens: After my formation training and completing my studies at Iona University, I taught for 24 years before making a life-changing decision to take a nine-month Clinical Pastoral Education training to become a hospital chaplain. In the ’80s, people who were diagnosed with AIDS began to come into the hospital to die, which led me to another major transition in my life—I created a nonprofit organization named Chrysalis Ministry to reach out to this community.

M&B: How would you describe your work as a reiki practitioner  and massage therapist? 

BS: I wanted to offer the AIDS community modalities to make a difference in their lives. In 1990, I did a year of massage studies in Princeton, New Jersey, Penny Gnesin, at the Health Choices Clinic. The year after, I found a Reiki Master in New Jersey and completed a Level 1 Reiki weekend. I began to incorporate this practice into my ministry.

I worked with the AIDS community for 12 years, offering massage and reiki wherever the patient was—at home, in a hospital, in clinics waiting for an appointment, and during retreat programs. After open-heart surgery and a year sabbatical, I spent a year training with the Zen Hospice Project in their End-of-Life Counselor Program in San Francisco, and then began work with the Visiting Nurse Association’s hospice program in New Jersey, where I was a chaplain and reiki practitioner for the next 10 years.

M&B: You’ve studied with many teachers throughout your career. Tell us about those who influenced you most.

BS: I was privileged to have wonderful teachers show up in my life and help me on my spiritual path. Kunzang Dechen Chodron was a Buddhist nun with whom I studied for 300 hours and who taught me reiki and a deep meditation practice. Twenty years later, I studied with Frans Stiene whenever he was in the US, and my reiki practice was transformed. I learned that reiki was not some magical thing you did; its benefits originated from your commitment to both your meditation practice and the five precepts to hold a healing space for another. Then, Kathleen Prasad, one of the leading animal reiki teachers in the US, taught me about offering reiki to animals, especially those in shelters.

M&B: Tell us about your work with animals. 

BS:Prasad’s simple instruction was, “Let the animal lead.” I taught reiki to volunteers at the Monmouth County SPCA in New Jersey, who would use this modality for the animals in their care. One of the wonderful things about reiki for animals is that you don’t need physical contact or touch. So, when we talk about animals who are sick, have been traumatized or abused, or have issues they need healing from, reiki can address them from a gentle, noninvasive space. Although I’ve recently retired at 91 years old and moved from New Jersey to New York into a retirement community, I still run a monthly reiki healing circle on Zoom and have recently connected with an SPCA animal shelter to offer reiki to the animals.