The healing power of touch

On a warm summer afternoon, a girl walks into the center of a room overlooking the gardens and iconic grounds of Techny Towers in Chicago’s northern suburbs. More than 40 registered nurses, advanced practice nurses and others sit in a circle around a massage table. There is a colourful quilt spread on the ground, topped with yellow mums, candles, a sculpture of praying hands and affirmation cards.

As the group watches, the teacher summons two volunteers who approach the massage table and gently place their hands over the lady lying there. Volunteers stand on either side of the table, slowly move their hands over her feet and legs, then gently touch her elbows, wrists, brow and the highest of her head, pausing briefly at each point.

The quilted altar utilized in Healing Touch training programs comprises objects intended to symbolize “wholeness”? said instructor Barbara Starke, RN, MSN.

Instructor Barbara Starke, RN, MSN, of Coloma, Michigan, a 20-year nursing veteran and holistic nurse practitioner, leads the group within the practice of Healing Touch, an energy therapy that increasingly complements conventional treatments in hospitals and offices healthcare world wide. “Healing Touch is the most heart-centered and affordable way to help patients reduce stress and anxiety levels and induce a relaxation response in seconds”? Starke said. “It helps treat patients of all ages, from infants to seniors, and ensures restful sleep, which is a huge problem in hospitals.”

Long before modern medicine separated the mind from the body, the facility of touch was the premise of ancient healing practices, and practitioners revere the advantages of restorative touch, explained Starke, who trains nurses in Healing Touch techniques to assist patients find relief from pain and a myriad of conditions, including including post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans on the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center and the Saginaw (Mich.) VA Medical Center.

Starke points to a quilted altar, saying that these objects are supposed to symbolize “wholeness”? and asks volunteer practitioners to visualise healing energy flowing into themselves and the “patient.” (woman on massage table).

What is a healing touch?

Healing Touch is an energy therapy through which practitioners consciously use their hands, in a heart-centered and intentional manner, to support and facilitate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health, said Cynthia Hutchison, RN, DNSc, HTCP/I, director of the Healing Touch Program in Boulder, Col.

Hutchison, Starke and a team of Healing Touch practitioners, mentors and students gathered in July for 4 days at Techny’s Illinois retreat center to coach fourth- and fifth-level practitioners, the ultimate levels before certification, Hutchison explained. As Starke shows, treatment is usually performed with the client lying fully clothed on a massage table. Practitioners use their hands to evaluate an individual’s biofield, then cleanse and balance it as needed, using either off-body touch (near the body but without direct contact) or gentle (still) touch to numerous areas of the body.

Not everyone can “feel” energy,” said Ann O’Malley, RN, of Warrenville, Illinois, a former emergency room nurse and labor and delivery nurse. “I happen to be a kinesthetic learner, but I translate it this way: ‘Have you ever crushed your thumb?’ How bad is the pain? Much bigger than your physical thumb? I feel a warm and prickly sensation around the painful areas above my body. Even if I can’t “feel”? disruption of the energy field, based on my client’s opinion I can assess where to start clearing the biofield.

O?Malley said that pain is a blocked flow of energy. “Hand movement involves passing the hands through their biological field over the body to restore the flow or movement of energy that results in pain relief.” she said.

Participation in the Healing Touch program has no set duration and varies greatly for students who attend levels one through five to receive certification, O’Malley said. One year of mentoring is also required at levels four and five).

Cynthia Hutchinson, RN

Gaining new respect in hospitals

Over the last 20 years, Healing Touch has gained new traction? and respect? in hospitals, doctor’s offices and among physicians because evidence of its therapeutic effects is growing and because this non-invasive procedure does not pose any safety issues, Hutchison said. The Healing Touch program is a leader in energy medicine education, offering a multi-level international certification program for people of all backgrounds. “Hospitals are motivated by patients seeking a complement to traditional treatment?” Hutchison said. “They see it works.”

Since 1989, Healing Touch has been taught to over 110,000 participants worldwide in 32 countries. Approximately 1,000 nurses participate each year and are practiced in hospitals including Stanford Hospital and Clinics, University of California San Diego Medical Center and Hospice of San Diego, as well as numerous long-term care facilities.

Healing Touch’s biggest fans are nurses, who are always looking for ways to promote healing, reduce stress and anxiety and relieve pain in patients, said Lisa Mentgen-Gordon, CEO of the San Antonio-based program.

“Healing Touch allows nurses to return to the roots of bedside nursing, allowing them to touch patients without taking up a lot of time outside of their normal activities?” said Mentgen-Gordon, daughter of Janet Mentgen, founder of Healing Touch. “We often hear patients say that after receiving Healing Touch they feel calm and have a renewed sense of hope. Nurses want to provide this to their patients.

Lois Coldeway, RN

The practice also requires no equipment? it requires only a few minutes of focus, is non-invasive and can be used at all levels of care, including intensive care units, emergency departments, operating rooms, labor and delivery and pediatrics, Starke said. It is also commonly used by nurses to treat peers and other hospital workers to relieve headaches, stomach upset, and fatigue.

Nurses like O?Malley are paying attention. O’Malley opened her own Chrysalis Healing Center and is also a healing touch instructor. She said she chose Healing Touch “because I saw how effectively it really works, especially in cases where conventional medicine is unable to alleviate patients’ stress and anxiety.”

O?Malley also makes “home visits”? at hospital beds for patients who have just undergone surgery. She participated in training at Techny as a teacher and volunteer “patient”. on the massage table.

“I studied the Fruit of the Spirit. in church and asked God, “Am I a nurse, am I a healer?” O’Malley said. “Then I heard about Healing Touch from three different sources, so I took my first class and left remembering why I was a nurse.”

Burden of proof

More and more often, research shows that Healing Touch is a valuable complement to traditional medicine in the treatment of patients. Growing evidence shows that the effectiveness of Healing Touch can be explained by reducing pain in hospitalized patients and patients undergoing treatment for cancer and reducing anxiety levels, according to a 2009 study published in The International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (Springerlink.com/content). /n772q20j61180nj0/fulltext.pdf).

Certified Healing Touch practitioners point to the positive overall effects that touch has on the body because scientists have studied the use of Healing Touch to treat conditions ranging from cancer and cardiovascular disease to endocrine and immune function, Hutchison said.

One of Healing Touch’s biggest obstacles is acceptance, which has been slow to come by some physicians since “energy”? was not commonly taught in medical schools, O’Malley said.

But Starke and other enthusiasts say the trend toward evidence-based medical practices will help Healing Touch gain credibility and acceptance. “Our standard curriculum lends itself well to research?” Starke said.

The power of healing

Practitioners like Lois Coldewey, RN, MA, a longtime community nurse who opened her own practice in Arlington Heights, Illinois, say their commitment to Healing Touch is strong as they discover more evidence that the mind-body connection works and can be a powerful complement to conventional treatments.

Coldewey came across Healing Touch by accident when she was looking for ways to help a friend find relief and healing from cancer. She admits that she was skeptical at first, but when she gave this unconventional treatment a chance, she received a letter from her friend in which she wrote: “I do not know what happened or what you probably did, but what happened was very powerful and had an incredible effect. influence on my healing.

Coldewey was addicted. “I found it to be a heart-centered, spiritual practice that embodies science, spirituality and humanities in a way that creates a bridge to wholeness.” she said. “A very good nurse finds a option to place the patient in the very best possible environment where nature can work to heal him. Healing Touch works in a teaching hospital setting to assist the body heal holistically and using the very best medicines.

More information will be found at www.healingtouchprogram.com.