Healing Touch is a relaxing, nurturing, heart-centered Energy Healing that uses gentle, intentional touch that assists in balancing physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. Classified by the National Institutes of Health as a biofield therapy and nursing intervention, Healing Touch may be used to address the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA-1) diagnosis of “Imbalanced Energy Field.”
Healing Touch is a collection of standardized, noninvasive techniques that clear, energize, and balance the human and environmental energy fields. Healing Touch assists in creating a coherent and balanced energy field, supporting one’s inherent ability to heal. It is safe for all ages and works in harmony with, is complementary to, and may be integrated with standard medical care.
Research suggests Healing Touch is beneficial in calming anxiety and reducing symptoms of depression, decreasing pain, strengthening the immune system, enhancing recovery from surgery, complementing care for neck and spine problems, deepening spiritual connection, supporting cancer care, creating a sense of well-being, easing acute and chronic conditions, and supporting resiliency in health care providers.
- Yes, Healing Touch and Reiki are similar in that they are both a form of Energy Medicine that occurs in the biofield.
- Reiki is passed from one individual to another, whereas The Healing Touch certification process involves five levels of structured coursework, an apprenticeship period (typically a year or more) under a Certified Healing Touch Instructor, and formal submittal of case studies and writings to an international organization for evaluation.
- Healing Touch is a collection of several healing approaches from many traditions and many healers from around the world. Reiki is one particular approach.
- Healing Touch is taught by an international nonprofit (Healing Beyond Borders) with teachings that are standardized, so that everyone studying Healing Touch learns the same techniques. That helps it to be easily understood and researched.
- Healing Touch focuses on personal development, has Core Values, Standards of Practice, and Code of Ethics. Heart-Centeredness is the most important.
- Healing Touch wisdom says that we don’t do the healing but become a facilitator for the intention of the Client’s Highest Good. That is our objective. The healing is between the client and the Creator. We help clients to relax and learn to hold a high vibrational sacred space.
The first session involves a consultation in addition to the Healing Touch session. I will ask a series of questions about your physical, mental, and emotional situation, and will answer any questions that you have about Healing Touch. Then you lay fully clothed on a massage table while I gently place my hands slightly above or on the body in specific spots and in specific sequences depending on what our mutual goals are for the session.
A session generally lasts 40 to 60 minutes, and people frequently report feeling deeply relaxed and peaceful during and after the session. Because there may be a cumulative effect of using Healing Touch over time, regular sessions are recommended.
Healing Touch is used in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, long-term care facilities, private practices, hospices, and spas. Healing Touch was founded in 1989 as a continuing education program for nurses, massage therapists, other health care professionals, and lay persons. Today, Healing Touch is taught in universities, medical and nursing schools, and other settings around the world.
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, this recently-published study shows that medical professionals often recommend complementary therapies. It is based on data collected in 2012, and I assume that the numbers would be even higher now.
Here is a nice chart that shows many modalities of health care, including Healing Touch.
Healing and curing are different. Healing is a process of bringing all the aspects of who we are into harmony and balance with one another. Curing, in a medical model, is about fixing one aspect of who we are. One can be cured without being healed, and one can be healed without being cured. They often go hand in hand.
Healing Touch is often used as an adjunct therapy to the cures of western medicine. For some articles and research, you can click on the different topics on this page for more information.