Therapeutic Touch™
What is Therapeutic Touch ™?
Therapeutic Touch ™ is a modality directed at the human energy field. All things living, from cells to human beings, are endowed with their own energy field.
Therapeutic Touch ™ is based on the following working assumptions:
- Human beings can be considered as open, complex and pan-dimensional energy systems.
- In state of health, energy moves freely in, through and out the body, in a bilaterally symmetrical manner, and according to an inherent order.
- Illness can be viewed as an imbalance in an individual’s energy field.
- When the human energy system is out of order, healing intervention directed at the energy field can assist to restore the original order and thereby facilitate healing.
Therapeutic Touch ™ is also often called a modern interpretation of older traditions of laying-on of hands.
Where did Therapeutic Touch™ originate?
Therapeutic Touch ™ was developed in the 1970’s by Dolores Krieger, PhD, at the time Professor of Nursing at New York State University. She worked with her colleague and mentor Dora Kunz who had grown up in Indonesia and been exposed to a variety of traditional healing techniques. Dora Kunz was highly sensitive and able to perceive human energy fields. Together they aimed at developing a therapeutic technique which
- was independent of any particular tradition or belief system
- could be researched by modern scientific means
- could be learned by lay people.
Both set out to develop what was eventually to be called Therapeutic Touch™. A lot of the research in the early stages was conducted by Dolores Krieger herself. Many additional studies have been done since, and for the scientifically minded an extensive list is available at www.therapeutictouch.ontario.org .
What are the effects of Therapeutic Touch™ ?
The most immediate and notable effects are
- profound relaxation ( I did not know what it meant to be profoundly relaxed until I had my first treatment of Therapeutic Touch during my training),
- reduction of pain and anxiety.
Therapeutic Touch also
- supports the functioning of the the autonomic nervous system,
- accelerates the healing process, – e..g bone fractures can heal almost twice as fast with frequent short applications of TT –
- supports the immune system,
- supports healthy haemoglobin levels,
- reduces side effects of invasive medical treatments like chemotherapy etc
- can reduce the amount of medication required.
It has shown to be of benefit when coping with conditions like
- depression, anxiety,
- lack of self-confidence
- difficulties with concentration and focus etc., when used consistently.
Therapeutic Touch™ can be used for emergency care after an accident, or for long-term support and health, and for anything in-between.
Who can benefit from Therapeutic Touch™ ?
Anything living. The foetus in the womb, mothers during delivery – and those around them – mature and premature infants, children, adults, men, women, believers and non-believers, people in palliative care, their caregivers, and animals. Animals can also benefit both for physical and behavioural issues.
Last not least, even plants can be given Therapeutic Touch™.
Since its early days, Therapeutic Touch™ has been taught to tens of thousands of health professionals and laymen and is taught in many nursing schools in the US and elsewhere.
What does a treatment look like?
As it is directed to the energy field, Therapeutic Touch™ uses light touch or near-touch. The client remains fully clothed, in a sitting or resting position. The practitioner will then assess the energy field with her hands and proceed to
balance and modulate as needed. The recipient may or may not notice the energy, although most people do. At the end, the energy is grounded and a 20 minute integration period follows. It is not uncommon for people to fall asleep during or after a treatment.
Therapeutic Touch™ can also be administered at a distance. Even people new to energy modalities tend to feel treatments administered at a distance. This route is ideal for people from out of town or during Covid restrictions.
House calls, hospital visits are available in principle but depend on circumstances.
A personal story
I started learning Therapeutic Touch™ in 2001. When I had taken Level II and was still far from being a “full-fledged” practitioner, I visited my parents in Europe. My mother had not been well for a while and one morning my father called me into the kitchen telling me that she was feeling sick. She was experiencing heart trouble and some kind of painful, burning sensation rising from her heart up into her head. I was feeling rather jet-lagged but told her that I had recently learned something that might help her, and that I could try it out. She was ready to agree to almost anything. I passed my hands through her energy field as best as I could under the circumstances, having still little experience, feeling only half-awake and not too sure what my father would think of all this. After a few minutes of working on my mother, the relaxation and the change in her facial expression were astonishing. Soon after, the burning sensation and the pain had abated by half, which amazed both her and me. – Of course a doctor had been notified in the meantime and my mother received the necessary medical care shortly after.
Since then, I have been “astonished” many many times. The effects of Therapeutic Touch™ I have observed range from pleasant relaxation to profound relief and turn-around of whatever was troubling the client.