People ask me where Sekhem actually comes from, and I want to give a straight answer, not a marketing answer. Sekhem is an ancient Egyptian energy healing practice, sometimes called Egyptian Reiki, and some of what I'll tell you here is documented history. Some of it is oral tradition passed teacher to student, the kind of knowledge that was never meant to sit in a museum case. I'll tell you which is which as I go.
What we actually know about ancient Egyptian healing
Egypt had a long, documented tradition of physician-priests who treated the body and worked with what they understood as life force at the same time. There wasn't a hard line between medicine and spirit in that world the way there is now. Temples functioned as healing centers. Priests were trained in both practical treatment and in energy work connected to the gods and goddesses, the Neteru. That part is historical record, not speculation. Egyptologists have written plenty about temple medicine, about healers who combined herbs, surgery, ritual and hands-on energy work in the same practice.
What's harder to pin down with documents is the specific lineage of what's called Sekhem today, versus Reiki, versus Seichim, versus SKHM. These are all related systems that surfaced or resurfaced in the twentieth century, each claiming a connection back to that older Egyptian root. I'm not going to pretend I can hand you a clean paper trail from a specific ancient temple to my own teacher's teacher. Nobody honestly can present that credential. What I can tell you is the lineage I was trained in, and where I believe, from my own experience and what I've been told, it connects to something real and old.
My lineage, as far as I can trace it
I'm a certified master Sekhem energy practitioner. My teacher is Juliet Carillo. Her teacher is Gamal, a fifth generation alchemist living in Egypt, known for his Egyptian oils, which I still use in session. That's the documented part of my own training. The deeper claim, that this energy itself goes back before what we call the fall of Egypt, into a time that ran alongside what people call Atlantis, that's not something I can hand you a citation for. That's oral tradition. That's what was passed to me, what I've sensed in session after session, and what I've come to trust through direct experience rather than through a paper somewhere.
I say this because I'd rather you know exactly where the line is between "documented" and "this is what I was taught and what I believe" than have you assume I'm presenting myth as fact. Sekhem has always existed, as far as I understand it. It was never really lost and reclaimed the way people sometimes describe it. It was remembered, by people who were there the first time around and came back.
Why it's called the power of powers
In the tradition I was trained in, Sekhem is called the first energy, the power of powers, because it's considered the root energy that the other more specific gods and goddesses, the Neteru, work through. Horus the falcon, Sekhmet the lion, Thoth the ibis, Anubis, the way shower of the inner world. Each of these carries a specific archetypal energy, and in session, different ones show up depending on what the person in front of me needs. I don't choose which one appears. I'm the channel. They do the work.
The Egyptians depicted their gods as animals and as shape shifters for a reason I think is practical, not just poetic. It gave people a tangible way to relate to cosmic energies that are hard to hold in the mind otherwise. Horus as a falcon is easier to feel into than "an abstract solar consciousness." That choice, animal and human blended, was a teaching tool as much as a belief system.
Sekhem and Reiki: related, not the same
Reiki as most people encounter it today has a documented twentieth century origin in Japan, with Mikao Usui. Sekhem, Seichim and SKHM are often described as older or parallel systems that surfaced through different teachers claiming connection to the same Egyptian root. I don't hold that Reiki title and I don't teach Reiki. I practice Sekhem specifically, which I was trained to understand as more multidimensional, working through the soul chakra and earth chakra, touching past, future and even parallel lives at what I'd call a soul or monadic level, not just the physical and emotional layer. If you want the full side by side, I wrote about it directly on the Sekhem vs Reiki comparison page.
Why this history matters for how I practice
I don't bring this history up to sound impressive. I bring it up because context changes how a session lands. When you understand that the hands over your body, the sage, the Egyptian oils, the sound, all of it sits inside a tradition that treated healing as something temples were built around, not a weekend workshop invention, it changes what you're willing to let happen in the room. People relax differently when they understand they're not the first ones to walk this path. They're joining something that's been walked a long time, by a lot of people, in a lot of different bodies.
I studied psychology at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and went on for a master's in marriage and family therapy, and I bring that training into every session too. This isn't history replacing modern understanding of the body and mind. It's history sitting alongside it, informing a practice that's grounded in both.
What a Sekhem session draws from this history
A session today still follows the shape of that older work. Grounding into deep relaxation, channeled energy with hands over the body, sound and vibration, sage and cedar, the Egyptian oils from Gamal's lineage, a return to the body, journaling, and a debrief where I share what I received and we pull a card or two for confirmation. The work often continues for days afterward. That continuity, session to session, teacher to student, century to century in whatever unbroken or re-remembered way it happened, is the actual history of Sekhem as I understand and live it. If you want to read about what happens session by session, the Sekhem Energy Healing page walks through it in detail, and the Sekhem session walkthrough goes even deeper into what to expect.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sekhem the same thing as Egyptian Reiki?
People often call it Egyptian Reiki as shorthand, and I use that phrase too because it's familiar. But Sekhem and Reiki are related, not identical. I'm trained specifically in Sekhem, not Reiki, and the two have different histories and different depth of reach across lifetimes. See Sekhem vs Reiki for the full comparison.
How old is Sekhem, actually?
Physician-priests combining medicine and energy work in Egyptian temples is documented history. The specific claim that Sekhem itself predates the fall of Egypt, connecting to a time alongside Atlantis, is oral tradition passed to me by my teachers, not something I can point you to a historical document for.
Who is Gamal and why does that matter?
Gamal is a fifth generation alchemist living in Egypt, known for his Egyptian oils, and he's the teacher of my own teacher, Juliet Carillo. I still use his oils in session. It's the closest thing I have to a documented lineage thread connecting my training back toward Egypt itself.
Why do different gods and goddesses show up in different sessions?
In the Sekhem tradition, I understand the Neteru as cosmic archetypal energies, our star family in a sense. Which one shows up depends on what the person in front of me needs that day. I don't choose it. I show up, stay open, and let the work happen through me.
Come find out what the Neteru have for you.
Book a Sekhem session