March 27, 2017

Meet Brian Kukan of Kukan Reiki Kai in North Hollywood

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Kukan.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Brian. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started getting into Reiki in 2007 while I was on summer break from teaching high school math. I was going through a tough time in my life, and by learning how to meditate and practice Reiki I started seeing improvements in myself. Over the next few years I studied with two Reiki Masters and found myself getting more involved in my Reiki practice. I was going to a Reiki Circle in Santa Monica once a month and practicing on my friends in the valley, and eventually in 2011 I started hosting my own Reiki Circle at my house in North Hollywood. My friends started inviting their friends to my Reiki Circles, and a Reiki community close to home started growing. By this time, I was in a one-year Reiki Master Teacher Training.

As the time progressed during the 2011-2012 school year I found myself losing my patience and passion for teaching math, and I started contemplating leaving the profession. I talked with friends and family about the possibility of pursuing a career in the healing arts, and to my surprise they all were supportive of the idea. I was waiting for someone to tell me I was crazy for wanting to leave a stable and secure job for a dream, but no one did. When I realized that I was the only person holding me back and that everyone I knew believed I would be successful, I knew it was time to take the leap. I tendered my letter of resignation after 13 years of teaching, and I cleaned out my classroom in May 2012.

Since then I have been learning a lot and getting help from friends and clients. A friend connected me with weSPARK Cancer Support Community in Sherman Oaks where I started giving Reiki treatments and hosting Reiki Circles for cancer patients and caregivers in 2013. weSPARK connected me with Tower Cancer Research Foundation in Beverly Hills where I offer the same services, and through word of mouth and a little online advertising, my business has been steadily increasing over the last few years with more private clients contacting me and an increase in the number of Reiki Classes I teach. Most of the growth has been organic, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t put any effort into my business. I constantly have to learn how to be business savvy without it taking away from the quality of my work. As a healing practitioner it takes a lot of effort to be a business owner, but it’s totally worth it because I love what I do and want to continue doing what I do.

After a few years of freelancing with an unclear business name, I decided to rebrand myself and create Kukan Reiki Kai in January 2016.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
After resigning from my classroom job, the biggest struggle was financial. I didn’t have any regular clients nor was I teaching Reiki classes often. The Reiki Circles that I led were donation-based, and after paying for the rental space (once I moved it out of my house) there wasn’t much money to take home. I had to be really strict with my budget, and I did a lot of substitute teaching and tutoring to pay the bills that first and second year out of the classroom.

Please tell us about Kukan Reiki Kai.
Kukan Reiki Kai promotes healing through teaching Reiki classes and offering Reiki treatments, hypnotherapy, and meditation instruction. I offer free Reiki Healing Circles at The Yogi Tree Center for Growth in Toluca Lake every Monday at 7:30pm for people that want to learn more about Reiki without having to commit to a full treatment.

I’m known for my grounded approach at explaining Reiki and how it works to anyone, and I believe that’s what sets me apart from others. My clients and students appreciate the respect, knowledge, and experience I have with the practice without being too “lost in the clouds” and unable to connect with someone that is new to spirituality and healing practices. Because of my background as a school teacher, I take pride in how I teach and present Reiki to students and clients, and I provide a safe and supportive environment for questions in my classes and during my treatments. I found that a good approach to teaching or learning Reiki is to balance knowledge with experience.

I’m most proud of the work that I do at weSPARK Cancer Support Community and Tower Cancer Research Foundation. Through the work with the cancer community, I learned how to be of service as a Reiki Practitioner to those that truly need healing, and I’ve seen amazing transformations in patients over the course of working with them.

Because of my work with cancer patients, I specialize in reducing and eliminating the anxiety that comes along with the diagnosis and treatments for cancer, and especially the anxiety that continues after treatment is complete. When the anxiety lessens, a patient enters a state of deep relaxation, and in that state the body’s healing systems can work more effectively.

Anxiety and stress are conditions that can affect all of us especially in the work place, and I’m currently working with a business that is offering Reiki treatments to the employees once a month to keep the work environment more peaceful and the staff more relaxed. A few of the staff members didn’t even know what Reiki was before they had a session with me, and now they all look forward to their Reiki treatments when I’m there.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have started learning about business as soon as I chose to change careers. I would have asked a lot more questions to those with entrepreneurial skills and researched a lot more on my own.

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