My mom has been a practitioner for many years, and she's achieved the status of Reiki Master, which pretty much means that she's able to attune other people and teach it.
Really, as long as a person has good intentions and goes about a good, positive way to heal, then I think any method of healing is fine. I want to be officially attuned to Reiki, but since my mother has been procrastinating attuning me, I've learned a different way to manipulate energy and heal. Of course, it's all the same thing, really; taking life's energy and making someone feel better.