Question: I know a massage feels great, but
have recently read about “Healing Touch” being used to treat and prevent health
problems. What exactly is Healing Touch, and what conditions does it
help?
Answer: Marilyn Bach, a Certified
Healing Touch Practitioner and adjunct faculty member at the University of
Minnesota, writes: Healing Touch is a complementary therapy based on
the energetic techniques of many practices, both ancient and contemporary. It is
based on the belief that humans are composed of energy fields that are in
constant interaction with self, others, and the environment. The practice falls
into the general category of Energy Therapy, along with other familiar
energy-based practices like Reiki or Qigong.
The term “Healing Touch”
certainly sounds like massage. However, unlike massage, Healing Touch
practitioners may or may not literally touch their patients! In Healing Touch,
trained practitioners use their hands (using either direct contact or hands
placed above the body) to clear, align, and balance the energy field of another
person. This realigns the patient’s energy flow, which reactivates the patient’s
mind/body/spirit connection, and eliminates blockages to self-healing.
In other words, Healing Touch does not necessarily strive to cure
anything. Instead, Healing Touch creates an optimal physical, mental, and
spiritual state so the patient can most effectively heal. It is important to
remember that Healing Touch is not a substitute for medical treatment. Instead,
it complements conventional medical care and effectively integrates with other
mind/body treatments, including massage, guided imagery, music therapy,
acupressure, biofeedback, or psychotherapy.
Healing Touch was developed
by nurse Janet Mentgen in 1980 in Colorado. It is now used by more than 30,000
nurses in hospitals each year for conditions ranging from chronic pain,
post-operative recovery, migraine, cancer, and depression to general stress
reduction and improvement of spiritual, mental and physical health. Measuring
its effectiveness can be difficult, because it is hard to determine whether
outcomes can be attributed solely to Healing Touch techniques or to other
factors. However, Healing Touch’s popularity and use is growing annually; 75,000
people are formally trained in Healing Touch techniques, and the practice is
employed worldwide.
To learn more about Healing Touch, including
information on theory, practice, training, and regulation, visit the official Healing Touch web site.