What is Therapeutic Touch™?

By Barbara Schuster

The following article was written for people who have never heard of Therapeutic Touch. It was published in Tone Magazine, a free magazine available in the Ottawa area. Barbara wrote it to make Therapeutic Touch better known and to promote her business.

Therapeutic Touch™ is neither Quantum Touch, nor Healing Touch, nor is it a form of massage. Therapeutic Touch is a modern application of ancient forms of healing which use the laying-on of hands. In Therapeutic Touch, the practitioner uses his/her hands in the client's energy field to facilitate healing. The client remains fully clothed, in a sitting or lying position. The practitioner usually moves her hands at a distance of a few inches from the body, although touching can be involved.

Therapeutic Touch was developed in the 1970's by Dolores Krieger, at the time a professor of nursing at New York State University, and her mentor Dora Kunz, an intuitive with clairvoyant abilities. Dora had grown up in Indonesia and lived in several different countries where she had encountered the healing practices of various cultures. When Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz met, the scientist and the intuitive joined forces to develop a method of healing that has since been taught to tens of thousands of people. Many are nurses or other health professionals, many like myself, are lay people.

One of the most striking experiences I had with Therapeutic Touch happened in my early "Therapeutic Touch days", when I just had taken my second course of training and still had quite a way to go before becoming a Recognized Practitioner. I had just arrived from Canada to visit my parents in Germany, when my father called me in the morning, telling me that my mother was sick. Still jet-lagged and only half awake, I went into the kitchen where my mother sat at the table. She had heart trouble and some kind of painful, burning sensation rising from her heart to her head.

I said to her, "Mom, I recently learned something that may help you and I could try it out."

She was ready to agree to almost anything. So I started passing my hands through her energy field, trying to clear it, not quite sure what I could do in my half-awake state, while my father - who is not at all 'into these things' - paced around in the kitchen. After a few minutes the relaxation and change in her facial expression were amazing. Soon after that, the burning sensation and the pain had abated by half, which amazed both of us. Of course, a doctor had been called just the same and my mother received medical care as well.

How does Therapeutic Touch work, and what happened during that session?

One of the underlying working assumptions of Therapeutic Touch is that human beings are open energy fields. We may think of our own energy fields surrounding our bodies, or go even further along the lines of Quantum Physics and the Theory of Relativity, and consider ourselves consisting of pure energy, as matter is considered to be energy. This is just a question of degree or interpretation. In either case, any physical illness can be viewed as an imbalance in this energy field - as some form disorder.

Here we come to another working assumption of Therapeutic Touch: that our bodies and energy fields, just like the universe in which we live, have an innate tendency towards order. This may sound like a commonplace statement, but it is something very fundamental of which we are usually unconscious. Imagine for a moment what would happen if the planets did not stay quite in their orbits, or if your heart didn't maintain its rhythmical beat so that it had a pulse of 200 for a couple of hours and then rested for a day in between, or that apples didn't ripen in the fall but haphazardly over the course of 12 months. This is disorder, and while we may laugh at the examples, when disorder happens in our bodies or in our lives we usually don't find it funny.

The intent of the Therapeutic Touch practitioner will therefore will be to restore this order, in the energy field. Intent is an important factor in the Therapeutic Touch process. Energy flows where intention goes, and as Tone readers, you are certainly all familiar with the power of intention!

An additional working assumption of Therapeutic Touch is that we are bilaterally symmetrical, not just physically, but in our energy field as well. If the energy of the right shoulder feels different than the left, this indicates disorder, energetically speaking. Whether it originates from a physical strain of the shoulder, bursitis, a back problem, nervous tension or something else, is in a practical sense irrelevant, as we make no diagnosis. If the energy field can be restored to order, the underlying physical condition is likely to improve as well.

What does a treatment look like?

When I see a client, I start by explaining the procedure and ask them if they have any particular condition they would like help with, or any past condition they want me to be aware of. I leave it up to the clients how detailed they wish to be. I then ask for permission to touch them during the treatment. If not, no touching will be involved.

I then centre myself to be calm and present and to put aside any personal concerns. Next, I use my hands to scan the energy field, a few inches away from the body. Once I have a sense of the field and any possible imbalances, I "clear" the field. Dolores Krieger coined the term "unruffling"; it is sort of like straightening a wrinkled or uneven cloth. This helps to clear blockages, get stagnant energy moving and often elicits a deep sense of relaxation within a few minutes.

It is this deep relaxation, one of the most reliable and immediate effects of Therapeutic Touch, which had impressed me so much (as a relative novice) when I gave the treatment to my mother. After 'unruffling' ( I like this term!), I will continue to direct energy into the field as needed. Simply put, areas that feel 'hot', may need to be cooled, areas that feel empty may need to be filled etc. At the end of the treatment, after reassessing the field, I will finish by directing energy downwards through the feet.

By this time, some people are so relaxed that they doze off, which is just fine. In any case, I will ask them to rest for a minimum of 10-15 minutes (some need longer), and then we exchange impressions, deal with open questions or any leftover energetic adjustments that may be needed.

When can Therapeutic Touch be helpful?

Therapeutic Touch can be used to balance emotions. Often some of this happens even when the original reason for seeking help is on the physical level. I usually do not work directly in the emotional field unless the client has requested this.

As I have mentioned, relaxation and pain relief are two of the most reliable and immediate effects of Therapeutic Touch. Therefore, any condition that is made worse by stress or pain can be improved by Therapeutic Touch. Other common effects are accelerated healing (e.g., bone fractures often heal in four weeks instead of the usual six), improved immunity, reduced anxiety, increased hemoglobin levels, improved circulation, increased well being and improved sleep.

Changes may happen on deeper emotional levels as well. Depression often responds well to Therapeutic Touch. The need for pain medication is reduced, and the side effects of invasive treatments are lessened. This is used in cancer treatments, where the effects of radiation or chemotherapy can feel worse than the disease. Therapeutic Touch can also help with rehabilitation from drug or nicotine addiction and diminish withdrawal symptoms. I have seen it very useful when someone tries to quit smoking.

Some nursing homes are lucky enough to have staff or volunteers who practise Therapeutic Touch. In the summer of 2004, an eight-week study with Therapeutic Touch was done at the Résidence St.-Louis in Orleans. Several volunteers would come in once a week and give treatments to residents in one of the units where residents suffered from various type of senile dementia. Soon the staff noticed that not only the clients were calmer, more relaxed, but that the effects seem to spread to the ward in general. The whole mood was calmer and more relaxed. For people with dementia who cannot communicate verbally, a connection through Therapeutic Touch can be a godsend. As Dr. MichPle Raymond at RSL said: "I don't know what you' re doing to my patients, but keep doing it. I've never seen them so relaxed!"

In hospice and palliative care Therapeutic Touch can be a blessing in the last stages of life. Therapeutic Touch does seem to make the passing process easier, not hastening it, but allowing the sick person to go peacefully.

Entry into this life can also be helped greatly. Therapeutic Touch can be used during childbirth, both for the mother and the child - and maybe even for the father! I will never forget treatments I gave a friend of mine a few years ago. She was in her early forties and about to deliver her fourth child. Her previous child had been born seventeen years ago. I gave her treatments during the days immediately preceding the delivery and then on the day of the delivery itself. She reported to me the next day that she had never recuperated from a birth as quickly as this time!

As we are dealing with energy which transcends our notion of physical space, Therapeutic Touch can also be administered at a distance. The sessions to my friend giving birth were "delivered" across the ocean!

Barbara Schuster is a Recognized Practitioner of Therapeutic Touch.

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