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 THERAPEUTIC TOUCH

What is it?
DEFINITION AND EXPLANATION OF THERAPEUTIC TOUCH
Therapeutic touch (TT) is a healing modality adapted from several religious and secular healing traditions and is most commonly used in nursing practice for a wide range of health conditions. During a session, the practitioner focuses energy through their hands, which are held or waved several inches away from the patient, and directs it towards the patient's energy field.  The practice is based on the hypothesis that human beings are complex fields of energy, and with that have the ability to enhance healing.

What is it used for?
CONDITIONS THERAPUETIC TOUCH HELPS
Research has shown that TT is useful in:
- Reducing Pain
- Improving and speeding up the process of wound healing
- Aiding relaxation
- Easing the dying process
- Reducing Anxiety
- Regulating and supporting the immune function
- Encourages healing

Where did it come from?
HISTORY OF THERAPEUTIC TOUCH
Therapeutic touch co-creator Dolores Krieger PhD, RN, says that TT was inspired in part by the "laying on of hands" practiced by some religious sects as a means of transferring divine healing energy to the believer. In the 1700s Austrian physician Franz Mesmer first conceptualized the energy field and contended that physical disorders resulted from disharmony in the body’s magnetic forces.  

Krieger, then a professor of nursing at NYU and healer/clairvoyant Dora Kunz, collaborated to develop TT in the early '70s. Krieger's boss, Dean of Nursing Martha Rogers, was a well-respected nursing theorist who believed that human beings are energy fields that interact with their environment. This synchronicity of like-minded healers stimulated scientific research of TT. Several professional nursing organizations have endorsed the use of TT.

What is it based on?
THEORY OF THERAPEUTIC TOUCH
Two main theories have been put forward on how TT works .
The first theory contends that the pain resulting from a physically or emotionally harmful experience is actually stored in the body’s cells.  This pain is harmful and keeps the cells from functioning properly with the other cells in the body, resulting in illness and disease.  TT helps the body return to health by enabling communication among the cells.

The concepts of quantum mechanics provide the base of the second theory.  Blood contains heme iron and as thus as it flows through our bodies an electromagnetic field is generated.  This theory contends that with practice anyone could observe this field, also known as an aura.  Because health commands a harmonious circulation of life energy, TT therapists detect the patient’s energy through their own hands and provide positive energy back to the client.  Eight areas of the body serve as portals for this sensing of energy, including the head, heart, stomach, knees, and feet.

How is it done?
CLINICAL PRACTICE OF THERAPEUTIC TOUCH
There are five basic elements to a session of TT:

Centering – helping the body, mind, and emotions attain a soothing, focused state using breathing techniques, meditation, and guided visualizations.

Assessing – keeping the hands a few inches from the client’s energy field yet moving the hands from head to feet in a periodic, equal manner. 

Intervention – causing the equal movement of energy throughout the field, also known as “clearing” or “unruffling”. 

Balancing/Rebalancing – moving, providing, and moderating energy based on the quality of the energetic field, and helping the field to move into harmony.  In areas lacking energy it may be transferred or moved away from areas of excess.

Evaluation/Closure – ending the treatment by using intuition and judgment to decide the proper ending point.

Who does it?
PRCTITIONER STATUS
There is no formal certification program in the United States for therapeutic touch. Most therapeutic touch practitioners are in the allopathic or alternative healing professions.  Today over 100 colleges and universities in 75 countries teach TT.