My Story

Penny Beil

I started my reiki practice back in 1998 . After several life altering experiences, I felt the need to learn a technique to heal myself and possibly heal others in the process. I discovered reiki through my first master/teacher Sheila King.

My lineage was the traditional Usui lineage. At level 1, I practiced on myself and on anyone I could get my hands on. Since I was so new to all of this energy, I stayed out of the way of it and just let it flow as I was taught to do so. The effects were profound, to say the least.

In 1998 I took level 2 from Sheila. Learning symbols and gaining the ability to send reiki remotely was very exciting! I couldn’t wait to expand my practice of reiki, and at that point longed to learn more and become a master teacher and study other healing modalities.

In 1999 I became a fitness instructor, and started practicing yoga and meditation. I dove deep into combining reiki with other healing modalities such as Barbra Brennan’s Hands of Light and Dr Eric Pearl’s Reconnection, feng shui, and space clearing.

In 2001, it was time to discover more about reiki. I studied with a master/teacher named Shon Clark, learned some interesting techniques, taking all 3 levels.

I still didn’t know how I could teach reiki, even though I was given the title of “Reiki Master”.  I felt I really didn’t know what that meant. I then worked with another master/teacher named Margaret Hinshaw. She was kind enough to attune one of my friends to level 1 and allowed me to assist. This is where my symbiotic relationship with reiki began.

She informed me she had no free time to train a master, but William Lee Rand was actually coming to town to teach a master class. Since she already knew I’d read all of his books, she knew I would be thrilled to take a class from him. I was, and I felt if I had not met Margaret, it would have been years before I’d get an opportunity like that.

The master class had many students and was co-taught by a professional master teacher, Colleen Benelli. I was attuned by both. The training was incredible! The training was complete, and I truly felt I could actually teach now.

I was part of a monthly healing group where all of us learned different modalities from one another. So naturally, they were my first class, and I attuned them all to both Reiki 1 and 2 .

As with everything in life, reiki has since evolved. In 2014 William Lee discovered and started working with a new reiki energy, Holy Fire 🔥. I upgraded my master/teacher training with another master/teacher from the ICRT (International Center for Reiki Training) with Kathleen Arnez. She was also a student of Colleen Benelli. In 2020 during the pandemic, Kathleen took Holy Fire 3 Karuna Reiki from Colleen and then taught it to me. Teaching again after several years of just practicing and learning reiki was something I was excited to dive back into. So, in 2021, I started teaching again using the upgrade to Holy Fire 3.

My passion now is to give people and pets a reiki experience. Learning reiki can be a very beneficial tool. Receiving reiki is extremely beneficial as well.

In addition to Symbio Reiki, I am the founder, owner and hair stylist at Bela HairStudio in Southeast Portland. I also sing in the Portland Peace Choir, and am a yoga and cycling instructor at 24 Hour Fitness.