At Lightbridge our Care Team is constantly looking for ways to improve and grow in the way we care for and manage patients and their families. This means staying up to date on new and current trends and branching off into what can seem like unfamiliar territory. When we were approached about incorporating Healing TouchTM into the LightBridge Care Protocol our nurses were excited to bring something new to their patients. Each LightBridge nurse is trained in Healing Touch TM and has seen the benefits and relief it can bring, but what is Healing TouchTM and how does it work? This article will show the positive impact Healing TouchTM can have on your life and the lives of the people you touch.
What is Healing Touch?
Healing Touch is an energy therapy in which practitioners consciously use their hand in a heart-centered and intentional way to support and facilitate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.
Healing Touch is a biofield (the magnetic field around the body) therapy that is an energy-based approach to health and healing.
Healing Touch uses touch to influence the human energy system, specifically the energy field that surrounds the body, and the energy centers that control the flow from the energy field to the physical body.
These non-invasive techniques utilize the hands to clear, energize, and balance the human and environmental energy fields, thus affecting physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and healing.
It is based on a heart centered caring relationship in which the practitioner and client come together energetically to facilitate the client’s health and healing.
The goal of healing touch is to restore balance and harmony in the energy system placing the patient or client in a position to self heal.
“I continue to be humbled and awed at the profound healing that is possible with this work.” ~Healing Touch Instructor, WI
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Why are hospitals offering Healing Touch?
- Reduces pain
- Accelerates postoperative recovery
- Improves mobility after surgery
- Decreases anxiety, tension, and stress
- Provides symptom relief during chemotherapy and radiation therapy
- Reduces the effects of trauma, chronic pain
- Leads to shortened hospital stays
- Eases the dying process
What do the experts say?
The following information was obtained from Energy Medicine, The Scientific Basis by James Oschman PhD, 2000. Dr. Oschman studied Healing Touch and has been a speaker at the Annual International Healing Touch Conference.
“In a few decades scientists have gone from a conviction that there is no such thing as energy fields in and around the human body to an absolute certainty that they exist.”(pg.27)
The scientific world has created a myriad of technologically advanced equipment that can measure the biofield (energy field) activity, such as:
- Electrocardiogram- (EKG) measures the electric biofield of the heart.
- Electroencephalogram (EEG) measures the electric activity of the brain.
- SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device)- measures biofields produced by our physiological processes and it is used to measure the geomagnetic field of the earth.
- Electromyography- measures the biomagnetic signature of our muscle movements.
- PEMF- (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field)- mimics natural electrical activities of the body and is used to “jump start” bone and soft tissue repair.
Practitioners of energy medicine have been creating a pulse frequency similar to that of the PEMF for centuries with their hands. Research has been done to study the frequencies that affect different types of tissues.
Specific Frequencies and their Healing Effects (Pg. 86)
Frequency – Effects
2Hz – Nerve regeneration
7Hz – Bone Growth
10Hz – Ligament Healing
15, 20 and 72 Hz – Decrease in skin necrosis, stimulation of capillary formation and fibroblast proliferation
25 and 50 H – Synergistic effects with nerve growth factor
Practitioners of traditional energy methods are currently being actively studied by biomedical researchers. The National Institute of Health funds studies each year on alternative and complementary therapies through the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).
John Zimmerman MD (1990) from the University of Colorado School of Medicine used a Squid detector to measure the biomagnetic field of a practitioner’s hands. He found that a trained practitioner’s hand can have a frequency range of .3Hz to 30Hz with most of the activity in the 7 to 8 Hz range. (pg.79)
“Healing energy,” whether produced by a medical device or projected from the human body, is energy of a particular frequency or set of frequencies that can stimulate the repair of one or more tissues.
Healing Touch Research
Healing Touch Research is conducted in a wide variety of setting and with a number of different problems and situations including:
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Death and dying
- Endocrine/ Immune function
- Pain
- Patient satisfaction and experience
- Psychotherapy/Psychology
- Post operative recovery
- Stress
These studies demonstrate that there is ample support for considering Healing Touch as an effective method for integrative care and that patients consistently evaluate it highly. Healing Touch research is supported and/or funded by hospitals, universities, colleges, professional organizations, private foundations, and the National Institutes of Health Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
See www.HealingTouchInternational.org for a complete list of Healing Touch Research.
How does Energy Healing work?
Theoretically, by correcting any defects in the energy field, energy healing may facilitate healing of the body, mind and spirit.
Energy therapies focus on removing energy congestion that forms in our energy fields and energy centers. Once these imbalances and disturbances are cleared, the energy channels resume their task of integrating the body, mind and spirit to restore health and/or promote healing. It may also help prevent future issues by restoring balance to energy field disturbances, which could later result in illness if left unbalanced.
There is still much mystery to how energy therapies work. Many theoretical frameworks for how energy medicine works exist in the literature of quantum physics and holistic healing. However, while the exact mechanisms of physics cannot be definitively described at this time, the cumulative results of numerous related studies on energy medicine and consciousness indicate strong support that “something is happening” and that recipients respond positively to energy therapies such as Healing Touch.
Over the years, researchers have developed ways to measure the energy
Some Practical Benefits of Healing Touch
NON INVASIVE
Healing Touch is done without the use of invasive procedures such as injections, inserting tubes, medication or surgery.
ECONOMICAL
Healing Touch does not require the use of equipment or substances and can be done in any setting. An open heart and a willing spirit is all that is needed.
EFFECTIVE
Research has shown that Healing Touch facilitates the relaxation response and enhances the healing process.
STANDARDIZED CURRICULUM AND PRACTICE
The curriculum of Healing Touch means that practitioners all over the world can be expected to use the same methods and to follow the Healing Touch Program Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice guidelines.
NON TOXIC
Medications can cause side effects and must be monitored. Healing Touch restores balance and harmony to our natural biofield without the use of pharmaceuticals.
“I absolutely loved Healing Touch. It explained ideas and things I had pondered and encourages such a level of virtue, well-being, helping and spirit.”
~ Student Amsterdam, NY
What to Expect from Healing Touch Treatment
Healing touch is a gentle, biofield (energy field) therapy that facilitates a deep sense of calm and relaxation in the Body-Mind-Spirit.
The treatment is typically administrated while the client, fully clothed, lies on a massage table. With your permission, the practitioner uses his/her hands to assess your biofield and proceeds to clear and balance your energy as needed using either off-body touch (near body but no direct contact) or a gentle (still) touch over various areas of the body.
Occasionally, a person may experience an acceleration of the healing cycle and his/her symptoms may actually intensify for a brief time. When this happens, the total recovery period of the illness is usually shortened.
Who can practice Healing Touch?
Healing Touch courses are open to all nurses, massage therapist, body therapist, counselors, psychotherapist, physicians other allied health care professionals as well as individuals who desire an in-depth understanding and practice of healing work using energy based concepts and principles.
Janet Mentgen, the Founder of Healing Touch, believed that anyone could learn how to facilitate healing in others. As she observed thousands of students doing Healing Touch, she noticed that there was no difference in the outcomes of well- prepared non-nurses to those of well-prepared nurses.
Janet believed that anyone with a compassionate heart and a desire to be of service to others could become a practitioner of energy healing. All that is needed is a commitment to learn and to grow.
Healing Touch Practitioners include:
*Nurses
*Physical Therapists
*Chaplains
*Physicians
*Occupational Therapists
*Counselors
*Massage Therapists
*Respiratory Therapists
*Students
*Psychologists
*Nursing Assistants
*Personal Trainers
*Body Workers
*Dentists and Dental
*Athletic Coaches
*Social Workers
*Hygienists
*Ministers
*People from all walks of life
