THERAPEUTIC TOUCH 

Dolores Krieger (1993). Accepting your Power to Heal: 

                                        The Personal Practice of Therapeutic Touch

Krieger is a PhD and an RN who, together with Dora Kunz, developed "therapeutic touch" (TT) in the 1970's, taught TT to over 36k professionals, facilitated its teaching in over 80 colleges and health care facilities in the US, and researched TT for over 25 years as of the time of the books writing in the early 1990's. 

Simply, TT is using one's hands to direct and modulate one's energy to support the healing of another. The TT method involves centering oneself, assessing the energy field of another, treating the person, and then reassessing the energy field. 

What i love about the book is the ACTIVITES provided to learn TT...this is literally a "hand's on" book, very practical. There is also theory toward the end of the book that explains TT in terms of western and eastern perspectives. Finally, there is a section on specific applications of TT, and a 68-item numerical self-report scale for TT practitioners. 

My intention is to re-read the book while doing all of the activities, and testing out my TT skills in supporting others in their own healing. 

As one practice to begin, one can place the palms of each hand facing each other, close but not touching, and then move them slowly apart to about 4 inches, and then slowing move them close together again, all the while feeling for changes in the "energy" in and around the hands...then move to 8 inches apart, repeat, then even further and repeat, each time slowing move them together, experiencing the energy flow. 

The above practice of sensing the energy fields in and around one's hands prepares one for assessing the energy field of another before treatment. In the assessment stage of TT, one might feel in the hands: changes in temperature (heat and cold), levels of pressure or congestion in the energy field, lack of smoothness or irregularity in the energy field, or weak electrical shocks or tingly sensations. 

To continue with the pragmatic example, if one were to feel some congestion in the head of the person during the assessment stage of TT, one could "unruffle" the energy field by sweeping the hands (without actually touching the person) from the crown of the head, outward toward the edges of the shoulders and beyond several times, and then reassess for ideally some level of clearing of the congestion. This is just one of many examples of how to pragmatically use TT to facilitate healing in the book. 

Krieger notes that the healer supports the other person by compassionately sharing their energy with them with the intention to heal, and this activates the healee's natural immune system so that ultimately the person heals themselves. Kreiger admits that she does not really know how this works, but that it does indeed "work."  

The most reliable findings over 25 years of practice and research are: eliciting the relaxation response within seconds of TT, reduction or elimination of pain, typically withing 10-20 minutes, speeding up the healing process (e.g., bone fractures heal sooner than normal), and elimination of psychosomatic illnesses caused by stress (reported to account for up to 70% of doctor visits at the time).