Reiki Master and Founder of the NYC Reiki Center
Brian Brunius is a Reiki Master Instructor and founder of the NYC Reiki Center, one of New York City’s most established centers for traditional Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki. For more than 32 years, he has devoted his life to the practice, teaching, preservation, and transmission of traditional Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki.
Through thousands of treatments, decades of daily practice, and the training of more than 4,500 students, Brian has become a respected teacher within the worldwide Reiki community. In recent years, his work has expanded to include historical research, translation, and the preservation of early Reiki teachings, helping deepen our understanding of the tradition while faithfully carrying forward the lineage he inherited.
Early Journey into Reiki
Brian’s journey into Reiki began in 1993 during a period of personal exploration and spiritual awakening. Drawn to the practice for its simplicity, depth, and directness, he began studying with John Harvey Gray, one of the original Reiki Masters trained by Hawayo Takata.
By 1995, Brian had completed his First and Second Degree training. In 1997, he established his first Reiki practice, Loving Heart Reiki, and for nearly a decade offered treatments as a Second Degree practitioner while continuing his professional career in educational media. During this period, he produced educational programming for WNET, New York’s PBS station, and earned an MBA from Villanova University in 2005. Although these pursuits appeared unrelated, they later proved invaluable in helping him communicate, teach, and preserve Reiki for future generations.
Master Apprenticeship and Teaching
In 2005, after more than ten years of Reiki practice, John Harvey Gray invited Brian to begin Master training. Because John was living in New Hampshire and Brian in New York City, he encouraged Brian to apprentice with Elaine Abrams, often saying that she taught exactly as he did.
Over the next three and a half years, Brian completed approximately 2,000 hours of apprenticeship, assisting in classes, practicing treatments, and learning the art of teaching through direct experience. During John’s final year, Alzheimer’s disease prevented him from completing Brian’s training, and on April 6, 2010, Elaine completed Brian’s Master training by initiating him as a Reiki Master.
Brian has always regarded his apprenticeship with John and his initiation by Elaine as one continuous transmission, carrying forward the lineage they both inherited from Hawayo Takata.
Establishing NYC Reiki Center.
Concurrent with his Master training, Brian founded the NYC Reiki Center in 2007, leaving a successful career in educational media to devote himself to Reiki full-time. Since then, the Center has become one of the largest and most established schools for traditional Usui Shiki Ryoho in the United States.
Over the years, Brian has trained more than 4,500 students and initiated ten Reiki Masters. His teaching emphasizes faithful lineage transmission, daily practice, hands-on experience, and the development of compassionate, confident practitioners. Through classes, treatments, and apprenticeship, he continues to cultivate a vibrant Reiki community in New York City and beyond.
Contributions and Ongoing Work
Brian has long been active in service to the wider Reiki community. A member of The Reiki Alliance for more than fifteen years, he has served in a variety of leadership roles, including Northeast USA Local Representative, Finance Administrator, and member of the Board of Directors.
In 2013, he founded Reiki Centers of America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the early teachings and historical record of Reiki. Through this work, Brian has collaborated with historians, translators, and practitioners around the world to make important early Reiki sources more widely available.
In 2022, Brian led the 40th-anniversary reissue of Reiki: The Grey Book, working in partnership with the Office of the Grandmaster and the Estate of Phyllis Lei Furumoto. This unprecedented collaboration helped preserve one of the most important historical documents in Western Reiki and made its contents accessible to a worldwide audience through translation into multiple languages.
Brian has also collaborated with historian Dr. Justin B. Stein on the translation and publication of Kaiji Tomita’s 1933 Reiki to Jinjutsu. Tomita was a direct student of Mikao Usui, and his book is one of the earliest surviving accounts of Reiki written by someone who learned from the founder himself. The English edition introduced this important historical source to a new generation of practitioners and is now being translated into seven additional languages, extending its reach to the worldwide Reiki community.
In 2026, Brian published The Usui Reiki Handbook: A Practical Guide to the Founder’s Teaching, the first complete English translation of Mikao Usui’s surviving instructional writings, accompanied by historical notes and practical commentary. By making the founder’s own words directly accessible to modern practitioners, the book has become an important resource for the study and practice of traditional Reiki.
Today, Brian continues to translate, publish, and comment on early Japanese Reiki sources while teaching full-time through the NYC Reiki Center, mentoring students, writing, and leading pilgrimages to Japan. His work is guided by a simple conviction: that Reiki is best preserved through living practice, faithful apprenticeship, careful stewardship of its history, and respectful relationship among the many lineages that continue to carry it forward.