Therapeutic Touch

Therapeutic touch refers to a treatment based on the idea that the body has an energy field and a trained practitioner can influence the flow of energy through light touch or hand movement a few inches from the body. In the process the practitioner will sense differences in the energy field such as temperature changes, pulsations or speed of the rhythm. The work is based on intention; the person using therapeutic touch works out of compassion and directs their own energies towards affecting and helping improve another’s energy field.

    There are a few key underlying points to Therapeutic Touch:

    • life energy flows freely through an individual’s energy field when the person is in a healthy state
    • if an individual is ill or injured that energy flow is blocked or imbalanced
    • affecting the flow of energy can help restore the quality and soundness of the energy field to improve overall health

    In the 1972 Dora Kunz, a theosophist who studied human energy fields and how they relate to emotions and health, and one of her students, Dolores Krieger, a registered nurse and professor of nursing science at New York University collaborated and founded Therapeutic Touch. They began teaching theory and application to others at a learning retreat centre and since then Therapeutic Touch has been taught worldwide.

    Benefits of therapeutic touch include: relaxation, anxiety relief, pain relief and/or perception of pain, enhancing immune system, increased sense of wellbeing. Clients receiving the treatment report feeling very relaxed; some fall asleep and others experience tingling sensation or feel energized.

Specific Techniques

Practitioners

Select a region to view to corresponding Therapeutic Touch professionals operating there: