Since arriving back in the UK I've been looking into the different accreditations, which are quite different from Singapore and may be confusing for those new to Reiki. Hopefully this summary will help if you are as confused as I was!
Firstly, you do not need any special accreditation to practice Reiki as a therapist or Reiki teacher in the UK. Reiki is still an unregulated field with individual Reiki teachers creating and certifying their own courses. With any certificate (as long as your attunements are done face to face) you will be able to get insurance and register with a Reiki Association to practice Reiki as a therapy in private practice (ie as a sole proprietor).
If, however, you are looking to work in the NHS or in a hospice/care home charity and get paid a salary for providing Reiki, you would probably need to be registered with the CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council). This is a voluntary register for therapists who have met certain practitioner standards. These standards are quite arduous including 9 months of training, 75 documented Reiki treatments, an exam and assessments via an external assessor. Do note that there are very few jobs that pay a salary for Reiki, so realistically the majority of practitioners offering Reiki do so in the private sector, and are not CNHC registered.
For a Reiki practitioner who is seeing clients from home or a clinic and even as a Reiki teacher whose focus is teaching Reiki for self-care and self-healing, CNHC accreditation is simply not necessary. However, if you are wanting to take your practitioner training to a more "official" level, then CNHC accreditation may be something to consider, especially as this will become more important in the future as complementary therapies become more mainstream.
In a nutshell, if you are new to Reiki and wondering which teacher to train with, firstly consider what you are going to be using Reiki for. If it is for self-empowerment and healing loved ones primarily then any Reiki course providing a good grounding in theory and practice will be perfect. Your certificate will come from your Reiki teacher and will enable you to practice Reiki on yourself and your loved ones.
If you are considering adding Reiki to your healing modalities as a complementary therapist, or thinking about offering Reiki professionally as a sole-proprietor business you can still do this with any Reiki training as long as it is face to face attunements (online courses will not allow you to register with Reiki Associations at present - don't get me started on why on earth this is still a thing!). To be doubly safe, just check the course is registered with a Reiki Association such as the UK Reiki Federation, this means the course lineage and quality has been checked and you will not have any issues. My face to face Reiki courses are all approved by the UK Reiki Association (my online courses are not).
If, on the other hand, you are already in the complementary therapy profession and looking for a salaried role to practice Reiki, then it would be advisable to consider a professional Reiki practitioner diploma as offered by several teachers around the UK.
They will follow a similar format to my Reiki Practitioner Diploma in line with the CNHC guidelines. Do note my diploma has not gained its accreditation yet as it is a new course, I am in the process of getting this done. For a full list of already accredited courses please see here.
