http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-healing-power-of-touch.html
The Healing Power of Touch
Human touch is almost as necessary to life as air, water and food. Some people might argue that it is as important. We need to be held by our parents or a caregiver when we are newborns and as children we look for hugs when we fall and scrape our knees. As adults, we still need to be touched–in appropriate and healthy ways, of course.
Perhaps that’s why many hospitals worldwide have started incorporating therapeutic touch, Reiki, and other forms of healing touch into hospice care. As an example, the The Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire has provided well over 8,000 Reiki treatments to patients since 1995. Reiki (pronounced “ray-key”) is a Japanese healing art that involves laying-on of hands to channel universal healing energy through the practitioner to the recipient. The word “Reiki” is Japanese for “universal life energy.”
The highly successful Reiki program, started by Patricia Alandydy, BSN, RN, offers Reiki treatments in every department of the hospital. Now, patients can have Reiki alongside more conventional surgeries, radiation, and other treatments.
And research is documenting the positive healing effects of Reiki and healing touch on diseases like cancer, heart disease, endocrine disorders, immune disorders, orthopedic conditions and injuries, pain, post-operative recovery, and psychological disorders. In one study at St. Clare’s Center for Complementary Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Oncology Complementary Medicine Pilot Porgram, complementary therapies of meditation, healing touch, reflexology, Reiki, massage, and acupuncture were administered to outpatients. Patients who received Reiki or healing touch showed an average reduction in pain by 48 percent.
In a study of 48 patients who had total knee replacement surgery, along with pain and mobility impairment, those who experienced healing touch showed 30.6 percent greater mobility only 2 days after the surgery than those who had only conventional therapy, and 27 percent greater mobility than those people who experienced a placebo-type version of healing touch therapy.
The power of touch to heal is immense. In a world driven primarily by work and responsibilities, touch therapy has the capacity to help us slow down, experience the compassion of another human being, and heal our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Ready to Try Healing Touch?
Here are some tips to help you get the most from your healing touch session.
1. Speak to the therapeutic touch, Reiki, or other type of healing touch practitioner before going for a session. Ask for insight into the practitioner’s background, approach, and what the session will entail. You want to be sure that you are comfortable with the person.
2. Ask what approach the practitioner takes (hands on or off the body, whether he or she incorporates music, chanting or silence) and decide whether you are comfortable with that approach.
3. Reiki treatments are carried out with the client fully clothed. You may want to ask for a blanket before starting the session, though, because it is common to feel cooler while experiencing these types of therapies.
4. For some people, healing touch evokes an emotional response. If so, do not suppress it. Most practitioners realize that a person may be moved to tears during a session.
5. Go slowly when your session is finished. Take some time to integrate the therapy.
6. Drink plenty of water afterward. Most healing touch practitioners feel that the body needs more water than usual after the session to assist with detoxification and integration.
Michelle Schoffro Cook, DNM, DAc, ROHP, RNCP is a best-selling and six-time book author and doctor of natural medicine, whose works include: The Life Force Diet, The Ultimate pH Solution, The 4-Week Ultimate Body Detox Plan. Learn more at: www.TheLifeForceDiet.com.
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18 comments
add your comment »Reiki is just a starting platform for other similar styles of healing the latest to have a real effect is Gentle Touch Reflexology being used with great effect in Ohio and one of the leading teachers arrives there next week .This healing is specially effective with Babies and Children where ordinary reflexology uses a degree of force the Gentle Touch cause no discomfort but has remarkable effects but not only on the young ask your reflexologist about it or contact me
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As both a bodyworker & a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner, I would like to add that many energetic/vibrational healing arts are a wonderful way in which to connect with others, to support their body in becoming balanced on all levels.
The ancient healing arts are especially effective at renewing the vital life-force energy known as Chi or Prana. They aid in harmonizing the energetic pathways known as the meridians, as well as effectively releasing pain & tension, alleviating stress & improving mental & emotional states.
Whether you choose hands on, or hands off techniques is a matter of choice, as they all have their effects. However using hands on touch therapies is the choice of many in our touch starved society, and can be of deep benefit to those needing to feel what 'safe touch" is like. For those with a history of abuse, or other physical trauma, experiencing massage or other contact modalities, it can be their first step back to allowing touch in their lives.
Many of these healing arts can easily be done anywhere, from
birth to the time of transition, improving the quality of life of those who lives are touched with conscious intent & love.
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I always Reiki my clients after a massage.
I am a Reiki Master...but I also practice Jin Shin Jyutsu another form of healing touch...being used a lot out west in hospitals.
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Thanks, Lesley! I found that a church I had attended, a few times, does offer Reiki classes a couple of times a year. So, I'm going to sign up for the next class. One has already started. And they are taught by a Reiki Master.
Mom cracks up when I touch my plants, as I talk to them. But nobody laughs when my veggies are still producing long after the first hard frost! And my landlord was shocked that I brought back his mom's roses, that he'd thought the previous tenant had killed.
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I belong to a healing meditation group where we do energy healing following our meditations. Last Oct. on of our group had a stroke so several of us visited her in the hospital & rehab center to do energy work. She was back at work in Feb. & now carries a cane but doesn't use it most of the time. She even said the physical theraphist commented that she could tell when we'd been there the night before.
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Hands-on energy healing is wonderful... but in terms of Reiki, sometimes hands-off healing works better, as it cleanses the aura above the body as well as the body itself, and that can be more effective and do more for the person.
It's really a personal choice, though. Both types of healing are amazing and do great things for you. :)
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This is a good article, but I tend to agree that while hands-off energy techniques are valid and do work, there is something truly special and powerful about the actual art of human touch to facilitate healing.
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Chris, go online. You're sure to find local practitioners of Reiki. Yoga studios are good resources for alternative medicine/therapies too. You could also speak with a nurse or two at your local hospital(s). You're sure to find a master.
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http://abirc.com/ Online courses.
I live near Red Deer. My son brought me to a session : Russ has a support group in the studio.
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Debrah & Bella, thanks tons for your tips... I guess I have some research to do. Prior to my illness, I was a strong intuitive & empath.. I'm regaining a lot, and I hope that I'll continue to improve. I don't see auras, but I can feel other people's energy and/or need for energy. Many times, I'll either embrace, take their hand into mine or gently grasped their arm. I then silently ask God to 'share my energy'. I can literally feel it transfer. And, on one occasion, after a hug, the person looked at me and asked "did you feel that?". So, I know that I haven't totally destroyed my gift. I would just like to refine it, if I'm able to recapture what I feel I've lost. God bless you both, and thank you for steering me in the right direction!
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