‘Healing touch’ therapy gains popularity

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New York: An unconventional therapy called the healing touch is gaining acceptance as complementary aid in some US hospitals.

Although research on the technique – which uses light touch and deep breathing – is limited, it is practiced at 30 US hospitals and by nearly 2,000 certified therapists, according to Healing Touch International (HTI).

The system incorporates ancient Asian healing techniques and was developed in the 1980s by a nurse, Janet Mentgen.

Nurse Jackie Levin (left) using the healing-touch therapy on fellow nurse Sarla Santos at New York University Medical Centre

A healing touch therapist will gently touch or glide his hands through the patient’s energy points or affected areas, such as shoulders, feet and forehead. The practitioner concentrates on each point for a few minutes.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) classifies it as “energy medicine,” in which practitioners believe illness results from disturbances of subtle energy fields, and calls it controversial.

The NIH says neither the external energy fields nor the therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly.

However, some hospitals, including the New York University Medical Centre, have approved it as a complement to traditional rehabilitation.

Lisa Anselme, executive director at the HTI, stresses the method was not meant to stand alone.

“Healing touch is not intended to replace standard treatment. It’s a complementary therapy,” said Anselme, a registered nurse and healing touch practitioner.

Users of the controversial therapy agree.

“I would still see my doctor, but I wanted to make sure there were no blockages between my mind and body,” said Nancy Hauserman, a college professor who used the therapy. “In fact, my own doctor was extremely impressed with how fast my wound has healed.”

Scripps Doctors Give Touch Therapy A Big Hand

Scripps Doctors Give Touch Therapy A Big Hand
Research Suggests It Speeds Healing, Reduces Anxiety

POSTED: 6:58 pm PDT August 1, 2006
UPDATED: 7:28 pm PDT August 1, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- Employees at Scripps Green Hospital are getting touchy with patients -- and it's getting good results.

The hospital is now using certified healing touch therapists to give patients a hand before surgery and the results are grabbing the attention of medical experts.

The ``laying on'' of hands to heal someone from an illness dates back to biblical times but is getting a modern spin at the hospital, where doctors prescribe touch therapy to patients preparing for surgery.

For instance, 79-year-old Edith Taylor has had at least five stents inserted in her body in the last eight years and before and after every operation, she has a 10-minute touch session with a therapist like Elizabeth Fraser, who is also a registered nurse.

``It's a very light touch, we do things like balancing our chakras, opening them for the patient clearing their electric magnetic field,'' Fraser said.

It's not a massage. Sometimes hands hover above the body and don't actually make contact.

Taylor said she doesn't feel anything during her sessions but visualizes a powerful blue-green wave of pure healing washing though her body.

Scripps Cardiologist Dr. Erminia Guarneri said touch therapy is based on a concept that an ``energy body'' extends out from the physical body and can be manipulated through techniques.

``There are no pills, no chemicals -- you don't even have to believe in it,'' Guarneri said.

Research conducted during the last decade suggests touch therapy can cut pain and recovery time in half as well as promote reduction of pain, relieve anxiety and accelerate wound healing.

Scripps Green Hospital is one of several hospitals across the nation offering touch therapy and many of them prescribe it along with surgery, like a pain medication.

Stable owner believes 'holistic' therapy helps animals

Stable owner believes 'holistic' therapy helps animals
Monday, October 1, 2007
BY Benjamin Duer
REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER
A GOOD FEELING
Travis, a former racing horse suffering from multiple tumors, underwent successful sound and vibration therapy using holistic treatments during a demonstration Sunday. A floppy lip, glazed eyes and droopy ears are positive signs of a relaxed patient, Sheri Antrude of Concord Township said. "He likes this," said Travis' owner Stephani Kames, who also owns Fox Creek Stables, where the demonstration occurred.

LAKE TWP. "Travis" is an old boy.

A former racehorse, he desires to run endlessly, but his body cannot. At 27, the gray thoroughbred has many tumors.

But Travis has found relief in touch.

"He likes this," said Stephani Kames, who owns the aging horse, which was taken to Fox Creek Stables in Lake Township. Fox Creek is owned by Jill Kirsch.

Kames watches as tuning forks - gently applied - vibrate and tingle on the horse's back, chest and ears.

Travis passes gas. His lips become droopy. His head lowers. He has found his chi.

He has found harmony.

Carol Komitor, founder and director of Komitor Healing Methods, taught holistic touching techniques - to help heal and/or calm animals - to a group of students Sunday at Fox Creek. The four-level program is known as Healing Touch for Animals (HTA). Using tuning forks is just one application.

"When you keep the energy system in balance it allows for a deep relaxation to come in, and when we're relaxed - whether it is people or animals - it allows for correct physiology," Komitor, a former veterinary technician, said.

She said holistic therapy can help heal general illnesses, stabilize training, reduce anxiety and behavioral issues and regulate the immune system in animals.

She sees the therapy as a partner to medicine.

Pamela Fisher, a local holistic veterinarian, organized the event. Her practice is in Jackson Township. She has more than 500 clients.

"I was drawn to (the program) because I do energy work in my office," Fisher said. Energy work is another term for holistic therapy.

FISHER'S INFLUENCE

Fisher said the program is a "wonderful avenue" to teach holistic techniques to her clients.

One of her clients is Cindy Van Allen.

Van Allen, a Butler resident, has two epileptic dogs. The seizures were daily.

Van Allen said the holistic techniques have helped calm her animals and reduce the amount of seizures and other epileptic side effects.

With touch therapy, "an owner can see immediate differences," in their pets, she said.

Candace Phillips of Hartville is another client. She is a massage therapist. She owns two horses, three cats and three dogs.

She said the "energy work" of holistic treatments can identify a problem quickly and set you on a path toward a solution - medical or otherwise.

"The body will tell you a thousand times something is wrong before it becomes a problem," Phillips said.

TRAVELING AFAR

Komitor's holistic therapy for animals has attracted students from many countries. Joining students, such as Phillips, were twin sisters from the Netherlands.

Ria and Henriette Roosendaal train horses for competition in the Amsterdam area. They made the trip to Lake Township so they could complete their education.

Henriette Roosendaal said she believes holistic therapy has helped in competition. "(The horses) are more focused on their job."

"It is our self-healing that helps healing, not someone else," Komitor told students.

But, "someone else can facilitate the healing."

Reach Repository writer Benjamin Duer at (330) 580-8567 or e-mail: benjamin.duer@cantonrep.com

To learn more, visit: http://www.healingtouchforanimals.com

Healing touch therapy thrives despite skeptics

By Vivianne Rodrigues

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's not traditional medicine but patients love it: an unconventional therapy called the healing touch that is gaining acceptance in some U.S. hospitals.

The technique uses light touch and deep breathing to address energy imbalances, its advocates say. Though research on it is limited, the therapy is practiced at 30 U.S. hospitals and by nearly 2,000 certified therapists, according to Healing Touch International, based in Denver.

"Healing touch raised my awareness and brought me a deep state of relaxation, which is not something you can get just by taking pain medicine," said Sarla Santos, 40, a nurse who underwent lung surgery in October and receives healing touch therapy at New York University Medical Center.

"Pain medication takes the pain out but doesn't make you feel good or calm."

The U.S. National Institutes of Health classifies healing touch as "energy medicine," in which practitioners believe illness results from disturbances of subtle energy fields, and calls it controversial.

The NIH says neither the external energy fields nor the therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly.

NYU Medical Center has approved it as a complement to traditional rehabilitation, offering patients and staff free sessions as part of the hospital's MindBody Patient Care Program.

The system incorporates ancient Asian healing techniques and was developed in the 1980s by Janet Mentgen, a nurse in Colorado.

A healing touch therapist will gently touch or glide his hands through the patient's energy points or affected areas, such as shoulders, feet and forehead. The practitioner concentrates on each point for a few minutes.

Lisa Anselme, executive director at the Denver organization, said the method was not meant to stand alone.

"Healing touch is not intended to replace standard treatment. It's a complementary therapy," said Anselme, a registered nurse and healing touch practitioner.

Jackie Levin, a nurse who coordinates the NYU program, said the treatment works well for people with anxiety, depression and stress associated with surgery and cancer treatments.

"It's very safe, very calming and in the end, almost everyone can benefit from it," said Levin.

Nancy Hauserman, 58, a college professor in Iowa City, sought healing touch therapy twice, first during a period of emotional distress and then after foot surgery.

"I would still see my doctor, but I wanted to make sure that there were no blockages between my mind and body at that time," Hauserman said. "In fact, my own doctor was extremely impressed with how fast my wound has healed."

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Healing Touch: A Cost Effectiveness Study

Healing Touch: A Cost Effectiveness Study
Mary Beth Lodge, RN, BSN, CHTP

"A cost effectiveness study was conducted to assess the overall impact of the
inclusion of energy medicine (Healing Touch) and imagery on utilization of benefits and medical costs. It was a thirteen-month study with 440 employees in a self-insured manufacturing company. Healing Touch was included as a benefit available to any employee or dependent covered under the medical benefits plan. There were a total of 38 participants with chronic disease. Overall medical costs were higher during the study year than the previous year. The cost of the study represented on 3% of total medical benefit costs to the company. A co-pay comparable to other outpatient benefits of the medical plan would have reduced this. The company decided to include Healing Touch in its benefit plan with a co-pay after receiving demands for continuation of this service from study participants."

What is Healing Touch?

· Healing Touch is a complimentary (or integrative) energy therapy that can be used in conjunction with traditional therapies or as a stand-alone treatment.
· Healing Touch is an energy based therapy that is used internationally and found in numerous hospitals and medical offices throughout the United States.
· Healing Touch has been actively researched since its inception and has been granted funding from many medical centers, universities and other supporters of Integrative Medicine including National Institute of Health (Office of Complimentary-Alternative Medicine).
· Healing Touch is for people & pets

Healing Touch aids in:
· Reduction of pain, anxiety and stress
· Faster recovery from injury
· Accelerated post-operative recovery and improve mobility after surgery
· Decreased depression
· Reduced effects of trauma, chronic pain and post traumatic stress
· Enhanced quality of life
· Immune system strengthening and support
· Relieve symptoms associated with chemotherapy
· Deeper sense of spiritual connection
What to expect during a Healing Touch session:
Healing Touch sessions begin with the client filling out an intake form to let the practitioner know what they are feeling physically and/or emotionally to better aide in getting the most out of their session. Client and practitioner then discuss what is going on with client; client will then lie on the massage table fully clothed. Healing Touch utilizes light or near body touch to clear balance and energize the energy system in an effort to promote healing for the mind, body and or spirit. After the Healing Touch treatment you are asked about your session, how you are feeling, and to answer any questions you may have. Generally clients have a greater sense of well being after a session.

Healing Touch does not replace medical care.

Contact Information:
Phone: 586.719.4582
Email: CaroleHealingTouch@Hotmail.com

Story by Phil Galewitz for USA Today Healing touch: A new patient outreach program

Healing touch: A new patient outreach program

Healing touch practioners Karen Lynch and Paula Kobelt use the technique on Sheldon Smith at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio.

POPULAR, BUT UNPROVEN

Healing touch was developed 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, which borrow concepts from ancient Asian healing traditions.

The National Institutes of Health classifies healing touch as a "biofield" therapy because its effects are thought to be a result of manipulation of energy fields around the body.

The NIH considers healing touch and other types of energy medicine "among the most controversial of complementary and alternative medicine practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means."

Nonetheless, NIH notes on its website that energy medicine is gaining popularity in the marketplace and is now being studied at several academic medical centers.
Results of those tests are still pending.

By Phil Galewitz, Special for USA TODAY
Susan Iliff was out of the hospital within four days after open-heart surgery and never needed any pain medication.

She credited her speedy, painless recovery not just to her doctors, but also to an unconventional type of therapy she received at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, Calif.: a daily dose of healing touch therapy.

Every day, a nurse slowly guided her hands along Iliff's legs and feet and then lightly touched her elbows, wrists and forehead, stopping at each point for about a minute. By the end of the 30-minute session, Iliff would fall asleep in her hospital bed.

"It just put me into a deep state of relaxation," says Iliff, 58, a retired nurse who received the therapy in 2002 and 2005 at the hospital.

Scripps Green is one of at least 100 U.S. hospitals that have started offering the service in the past 15 years. Although there are no large clinical trials that prove its worth, hospitals offer healing touch based on strong anecdotal evidence that it works and the fact that there are no safety worries with this non-invasive procedure, says Diane Wardell, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and a healing touch provider.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Medicine | Medical Center | Lynch | Karen | Healing

"Hospitals are being motivated by patients asking for complements to traditional care," Wardell says. "It's always a step forward for patients when alternative care is integrated into hospital settings."

Not just a rubdown
Healing touch is not a massage. Sometimes the practitioner's hands hover above the body and don't actually make contact. Healing touch is an "energy therapy" that uses gentle hand techniques purported to help re-pattern the patient's energy field and accelerate healing of the body and mind. It is based on the belief that people have fields of energy that are in constant interaction with the environment around them, Wardell says.

More than 86,000 nurses and other health professionals use healing touch in hospitals and in private practice, according to Healing Touch International, a non-profit Colorado-based group that certifies practitioners. Many hospitals offer the service at no extra cost —largely because insurance doesn't pay for it. Outside the hospital setting, healing touch costs about the same as a massage therapist — or between $80 to $100 an hour.

The limited studies suggest its effectiveness in a wide variety of conditions, including speeding wound healing following heart surgery, reducing the impact of osteoarthritis and migraine headaches, and reducing anxiety and depression for women undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer.

At Scripps Green Hospital, healing touch is offered to all open-heart surgery patients. "This is so safe and there is no risk," says Erminia "Mimi" Guarneri, a cardiologist and medical director of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine.

Guarneri became a believer in healing touch a decade ago when a viral infection knocked her out of work for the first time in years.

"After the treatment, I felt like I had so much energy and I felt better almost immediately," she says. "I felt if this can help me this much, it can help my patients."

Many concede that when they first heard about healing touch they thought it was weird. "I thought it looked a little kooky," says Karen Lynch, a pain management nurse at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. That was her reaction when she saw nurses provide the therapy in the hospital's coronary care unit.

But when Lynch showed up for work with abdominal pain a few years ago, she gave healing touch a shot. "In a few minutes, the pain was completely relieved," she says. "That's when I started wondering what was going on with this stuff and began getting trained in it."

Doctors support treatment
Lynch says most doctors don't fully understand how healing touch works, but they believe it when they see patients improve. "It's difficult for me to understand, but it works and there's nothing to lose, and it shows we are treating patients in a caring manner."

Arthur Katz, a heart surgeon in Boca Raton, Fla., says he's convinced healing touch has helped re-energize his patients who were struggling after surgery. "Every time I have used it on one of my patients, I have had a favorable outcome," he says. "The body is more than a machine. It has a mechanical component but also an emotional and psychological component and an energy component."

Last year, he did coronary bypass surgery on a woman in her mid-50s. Although the surgery went well, she was depressed after the procedure and was not motivated to get out of bed or to do other things to help her recovery.

"I tried everything I know. A firm approach, the nice-guy approach to encourage her, but nothing worked," Katz says. "After a healing touch session, she was like a different person with a smile on her face."
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