Healing Touch
Healing Touch is an energy therapy that encompasses a group of non-invasive hand techniques that clear, energize, and balance human and environmental energy fields. Healing Touch was developed as a touch therapy program by Janet Mentgen, a nurse who has used energy-based care in her practice in Colorado since 1980. Mentgen and some of her colleagues developed a training program that incorporated the techniques of many well-known healers, as well as concepts borrowed from ancient shamanic and aboriginal healing traditions.
The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) identifies an Energy Field Disturbance as a disruption in the flow of energy surrounding a person's being that results in a disharmony of the body, mind, and/or spirit.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) defines Healing Touch as a biofield or energy therapy. It is based on the beliefs listed below.
- There is an energy or force greater than human beings.
- Human beings are made up of energy. We have an energy field that extends beyond our bodies.
- The energy field is out of balance before you feel symptoms.
Healing Touch helps you to relax, restore, energize, and balance an energy field disturbance and supports your body’s healing process. A Healing Touch practitioner acts as a conduit to bring this energy to you by using light touch hand placements on or above your body.
Healing Touch concentrates on the human body’s Energy System; specifically the Energy Field that surrounds the body, and the Energy Centers, which regulate the flow of energy from the Energy Field to the physical body.
The hands of the practitioner can become quite warm. You may feel heat flowing to other parts of your body. Healing Touch is a gentle method that helps you to receive the amount of energy you need to bring your energy field into balance.
Who Can Benefit From Healing Touch Therapy?
This type of therapy has benefited numerous groups of people, ranging from those in trauma treatment centers, to those in depression treatment facilities. Specific examples include people with:
- Back and neck pain
- Bone fractures
- Fibromyalgia
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Headaches
- Cancer
- Arthritis
Benefits of Healing Touch Therapy
Various benefits of healing touch therapy include:
- Stress reduction
- Furthered spiritual connection
- Assistance to those in drug treatment
- Lower anxiety levels
- Decreased need for pain medication
- Treatment of pain and sickness
- Enhancement of the immune system
- Benefits to the joints, muscles and nervous system
- Assistance in developing personal well-being
- Faster recovery from surgery and chemotherapy
- Decreased chance for severe depression
- Better circulation of the blood
- Increased relaxation
- Assistance in trauma recovery for those with suppressed emotional trauma
- Peace given to those in the dying process