What is energy healing?
Throughout history, cultures around the world have relied on energy therapies to help support wellness and healing. Many people are familiar with the benefits of acupuncture, shiatsu, martial arts, tai chi, qi gong and yoga. There are also many ancient and modern styles of hands-on healing. These can also help to balance the natural flow of energy within and around the body. Healthy and unobstructed energy flow can foster healing on many levels.
Common terms for this natural energy are energy, life force, chi, ki, prana, bio-field, universal energy, subtle energy, or spirit. Energy healing may be called energy therapy, bio-field therapy and energy medicine, among other terms. Within the general field of hands-on energy healing, there are many styles. Some are similar to one another in theory, technique and training, and some are quite different.
The human energy system has a structure, comprised in part by chakras (energy centers), meridians (energy tracts), and energy fields (aura). These aspects of our energy system are connected and interrelated. Acupuncturists work with the meridians to support healthy energy flow. Other modalities may also work with the meridians, plus the chakras, energy fields or a combination.
Life experiences can impact the flow of energy throughout the body and energy field, leaving us feeling imbalanced, stressed or depleted. Energy healing can help to clear and re-vitalize the individual energy field, which then can support overall well-being.
What is Healing Touch?
Healing Touch is a compassionate, non-invasive energy therapy in which practitioners use their hands in a heart-centered and intentional way to support and facilitate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and self-healing.
Healing Touch uses gentle, light or near-body touch to clear, balance, energize and support the human energy system, impacting body, mind and spirit.
Healing Touch is a complementary, integrative energy therapy that can be used in conjunction with traditional therapies. Healing Touch is accepted, validated and utilized in hospitals, hospice, long term care, integrative health centers, private practices and clinics.
Is Healing Touch a substitute for standard medical treatment?
No. Healing Touch is a complementary/integrative modality that can be used in conjunction with standard or holistic medical care. Please continue to consult your doctor for your medical questions and care. Healing Touch does not replace standard medical care or guarantee cures. We distinguish between the terms cure and healing. Cure implies the resolution of particular symptoms or medical conditions. Healing, on the other hand, applies to body, mind and spirit balance and wholeness. Someone in excellent physical health may still feel the need for healing in other areas of their life. Likewise, even on their death bed, someone may experience peace and healing on deep spiritual and emotional levels. You should continue to consult with your doctor and follow their advice, even while you are receiving Healing Touch.
What is the history of Healing Touch Program?
The Healing Touch Program was founded in the 1980s by Janet Mentgen, a holistic nurse. Her personal mission was to develop a training program that would help restore compassionate care within the medical setting. As an energy sensitive nurse, she made an exhaustive study of past and contemporary energy healing practices from around the world. She also created her own techniques. She first taught Healing Touch as a complementary continuing education program for nurses. The Healing Touch Program now trains lay people as well as medical professionals worldwide. It is a standardized 5 level program which includes a year long mentored apprenticeship. It is backed by a professional Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice. Healing Touch Program is endorsed by the American Holistic Nurses Association and is an accredited provider of continuing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Healing Touch Program has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
How can Healing Touch help me?
Healing Touch theory states that “People’s health and quality of life are affected by the health of their energy systems” and that “All life experiences are recorded and stored in the energy system which includes the physical body and multidimensional energy body.” Chronic stress, or even a single life event can impact the healthy function of our individual energy system. Even when illness, injury, loss, grief, or other difficult life transitions are in our past, it can take a long time to feel fully recovered. When energy flow remains impacted, it can diminish how we feel and function over time.
As a Healing Touch Certified Practitioner, I am trained to help restore your individual energy system to a state of vibrant, healthy and unobstructed flow. When energetic balance returns, and you begin to feel better, it is easier to manage day to day and make strides in your healing.
Healing Touch can help: reduce pain, ease anxiety, relieve stress and depression, provide support during chemotherapy, strengthen and immune system, create a sense of well-being, reduce the effects of trauma and chronic pain, enhance recovery from surgery, deepen spiritual connection, and support the dying process.
Is Healing Touch the same as Reiki?
Healing Touch and Reiki are two of the most widely known and practiced styles of energy therapy today, however, they are not the same. While they each support self-healing through the chakras and energy fields, their history, training programs and methods vary.
Is Healing Touch connected to any particular religion or faith?
While Healing Touch is not aligned with any particular religion or faith, many people feel it supports their personal connection to higher source or higher self. Spiritual support may be felt in the experiences of peace, serenity, clarity, inspiration, insight and connection.
How long is a session?
A standard full length session is typically 45 minutes to an hour. First sessions typically last an hour and a half.
How many sessions do I need?
Some people benefit from receiving a few sessions close in time. Some enjoy a single session on an “as needed” basis to focus on self-care. It depends upon your goals and what you are going through. You can decide what works for you!
Healing Touch supports the relaxation response. What does this mean?
During times of stress, the body’s physiological self-care tendencies are temporarily inactivated as we switch from being in a state of “rest and restore” to “fight or flight”. This survival mechanism helps us escape from real danger. However, our stress response can remain turned on simply as a result of non-life threatening daily fatigue and strain. This can impact us physiologically and emotionally over time. Blood pressure, stress hormones, fat distribution, digestive problems, sleep disruption are just some areas in which an overworked fight or flight response can negatively impact our lives.
Healing Touch sessions typically induce the deeply restorative relaxation response. This helps to quiet the fight or flight mode. The relaxation response not only feels good, it supports physiological recovery. It has a vitally important role in helping us return to a state of health and feeling of well-being. The relaxation response typically eases muscular tension, improves circulation, oxygenation and nutrition to tissues, assists in waste removal, helps balance the endocrine system and supports immunity.
Don’t you get tired from picking up people’s negative energy?
While the flow of energy through the bio-field can become blocked or depleted, we regard the energy itself as neutral. Rather than removing “negative energy”, a Healing Touch Practitioner helps to ease energy blockages and restore vitality within their client's energy field. When the energy system returns to a state of balance, and a client’s goals for healing are supported, an innate tendency to move towards self-healing can occur. Florence Nightingale’s nursing theory states that "Patients are to be put in the best condition for nature to act on them.” Healing Touch Program teaches a similar philosophy. A Healing Touch Practitioner is trained to provide both compassionate care and healing techniques that can help restore health to the human energy field, which in turn, supports a client’s healing journey. We neither absorb our client’s energy, nor give up our own.