Usui Reiki Lineage: Why I Show You My Teacher's Name

A Reiki lineage is the chain of teachers from Mikao Usui, who founded the practice in Japan in the 1920s, to the person whose hands are on you. Usui taught Chujiro Hayashi; Hayashi taught Hawayo Takata; Takata brought Reiki to the West and taught the twenty-two Masters from whom nearly every Western practitioner descends. From there the line branches, and each practitioner's lineage is the specific branch that reaches them.

Mine runs from Usui through Hayashi and Takata, forward through a line of Ukrainian and European teachers, to Olena Yushko, who attuned me at Levels 1 and 2. Her name is on my diplomas and the diplomas are on my homepage. I show this because it's the one thing about a Reiki practitioner you can actually verify, and because a practitioner who won't show it is asking you to take more on faith than I think is fair.

Why lineage matters

In most traditions that pass something by hand — music, craft, martial arts — you can ask who taught your teacher and trace the line. Reiki is the same. The attunement — the short transmission at each degree — is what makes someone a practitioner rather than someone who's read a book, and it can only be received from someone who received it. No line, no attunement. No attunement, no practice.

This doesn't mean a longer lineage is better, or that one branch outranks another. It means the line exists and is documented. That's the check.

What a real lineage looks like

Names. Dates. A teacher you can find. Mine, as written on the diploma:

Usui → Hayashi → Takata → (through Furumoto, and a line of European and Ukrainian Masters) → Olena Yushko → me.

Yushko is a Reiki Master-Teacher in Ukraine who has trained practitioners for many years in the Usui system. My Level 1 was December 2025, Level 2 February 2026. That's recent, and I'd rather say so than imply otherwise — what I bring alongside it is a family line of healers, ten years of sitting with people in corporate rooms, and a practice I do daily.

What a lineage doesn't tell you

Whether the practitioner is any good. Whether they'll be on time. Whether they'll tell you to see a doctor when you should. Lineage is the floor, not the ceiling. It tells you the practice is real; it doesn't tell you the person is right for you. That, you find out in a session.

Why this matters more abroad

If you're choosing a practitioner in your own country, in your own language, you have context — reviews you can read, friends who know someone. On the Riviera, in English, you mostly have the practitioner's word. Lineage is the piece of their word you can check. Ask for it. Ask everyone for it. The ones who show it without being asked are usually the ones to trust.

The Ukrainian branch

People sometimes ask why a practitioner in Cannes trained through Ukraine. Because that's where I'm from, where my grandfather practised long before the word Reiki reached him, and where I found a teacher I trusted. The Usui system is the same everywhere; the branch is where the teacher happens to be. Reiki spread through the Soviet space in the 1990s through exactly the same Takata line as everywhere else.

Reiki is complementary — alongside medical care, never instead. That's true in every lineage, and any practitioner in any line who tells you otherwise has stepped outside it.

What I'd ask of any lineage claim

Three things. Is the teacher named — a real person you could find? Is the line back to Usui written down, not just implied? And does the practitioner say, without being pushed, what they don't have — a Master level, decades of practice, a French qualification? The ones who volunteer their limits are usually the ones whose claims are true. Lineage is a chain of people telling the truth about who taught them. It only works if the last link does too.

FAQ

What is a Reiki lineage? The chain of teachers from Mikao Usui to your practitioner — Usui, Hayashi, Takata, and the branch from there. It documents that the attunements were received, which is what makes the practice real.

How do I check a Reiki practitioner's lineage? Ask for the teacher's name and the line back to Usui. Diplomas should show it. Mine are on my homepage with Olena Yushko named as teacher.

Does a longer lineage mean a better practitioner? No. Lineage confirms the practice is genuine. Skill comes from years of hands on bodies, and that you find out in a session.

If you'd like to see it

Both diplomas, with the lineage, are on the homepage. Message me on WhatsApp if you want to know more about the line — I'll tell you what I know and what I don't.