Energy Healing Information portal

Therapeutic Touch, developed by Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz in the 70s, is a non-invasive technique that uses the flow of energy through the palms to soothe and heal. Methods may vary but generally the practitioner will pass her hands over your body from head to toe, front and back, holding them two to four inches away from your skin. This is done to assess the condition of your energy field. The practitioner may then use rhythmical, sweeping motions of her hands in your energy field, to rebalance it. She may or may not actually touch you.

Therapeutic touch (based on the ancient arts of healing and laying on of hands) is now the most widely used complementary therapy in the USA. Because of this, over the last 15 years extensive research and trials on its effectiveness have been carried out. As interest in complementary therapies among conventional health care practitioners in the UK continues to grow, nurses are increasingly keen to add therapeutic touch to the complementary medical skills they employ in practice.

The Therapeutic Touch Process

Centering - bringing the body, mind, emotion to a quiet, focused state of consciousness. Centering is using the breath, imagery, meditation and/or visualizations to open one's self to find an inner-sense of equilibrium to connect with the inner core of wholeness and stillness.

Assessing - holding the hands 2 to 6 inches away from the individual's energy field while moving the hands from the head to the feet in a rhythmical, symmetrical manner. Sensory cues such as warmth, coolness, static, blockage, pulling, tingling are described by some practitioners.

Intervention- Clearing also called unruffling - facilitating the symmetrical flow of energy through the field. Unruffling is achieved by using hand movements from the midline while continuing to move in a rhythmical and symmetrical manner from the head to the feet. Balancing, Rebalancing - projecting, directing and modulating energy based on the nature of the living field; assisting to re-establish the order in the system. Treatment is accomplished by moving the hands to the areas that seem to need attention - energy may be transferred where there is a deficit or energy may be mobilized or repatterned from areas of congestion.

Evaluation/Closure - finishing the treatment - using professional, informed and intuitive judgment to determine when to end the session. Reassessing the field continuously during the treatment to determine balance and eliciting feedback from the individual are cues as to when to end the TT treatment.