Healing Touch - Frequently Asked Questions 

Click on the question below to go directly to the answer.

• What is Healing Touch?
• What happens during a Healing Touch session?
• Has research been done for Healing Touch?
• What is integrative health care?
• Is Healing Touch already being used in health care settings?

What is Healing Touch?

Healing Touch is a relaxing, nurturing, energy therapy that uses the hands to balance the energy field surrounding the individual. Healing Touch practitioners work with the client in a heart-centred, intentional way to facilitate healing and to balance the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being.

The goal of Healing Touch is to restore balance in the energy system thereby supporting the client’s natural ability to heal. Healing Touch is safe for all ages and is a complementary therapy that can be safely integrated with conventional health care.

What happens during a Healing Touch session?

• Goal of Treatment: Before you come, you will be asked to think about your goal for the session. What do you want to achieve with this treatment?
• First visit forms/information: During your first visit, you will be asked to complete a health questionnaire, consent form and any other forms required. The practitioner will provide more information about Healing Touch and any questions you might have.
• Intake: On subsequent visits, the practitioner will ask you questions about your symptoms/condition and your goal for this session. The practitioner will obtain the client’s consent for the treatment and permission to touch the body. Note that treatment can be provided above the body if requested.
• Client comfort: The client remains fully clothed and either lays down on a massage table or sits in a chair.
• Practitioner Preparation: The practitioner ensures s/he is “heart-centred,” fully present and grounded. S/he attunes with the client and sets an intention for the client’s highest good.
• Pre-Treatment Assessment & Goals: The practitioner scans the client’s energy field or biofield with their hands and/or a pendulum to assess the field for imbalances/disturbances. The practitioner and client discuss the health issues to be addressed, the short-term goals for the session and the long-term goals for the next few sessions.
• Treatment/Intervention: The practitioner uses Healing Touch techniques to bring balance to the field. Techniques may include light touch on the body or hand movements above the body.
• Post-Treatment Assessment: Another assessment is conducted to determine changes in the client’s energy field and the effect of the intervention.
• Grounding & Release: The practitioner grounds the client to bring the client’s awareness back to the present, and releases her/himself from the client’s energy.
• Evaluation, Feedback & Plan: The client will share her experiences during the treatment and discuss with the practitioner whether the goals were met. The practitioner may recommend techniques or homework, and may offer referrals.

Has research been done for Healing Touch?

Hundreds of studies have been conducted that involve Healing Touch and/or other biofield therapies, and Healing Touch research is actively ongoing. While earlier research was challenged by methodological issues, efforts were put in place to ensure that more recent studies focus on proper research methodology such as Randomized Clinical Trials.

Research has been conducted in relation to:

• Anxiety and Depressed Mood
• Cancer Care
• Immune System
• Pain
• Stress Reduction
• Surgery
• Dementia
• Spirituality

Studies demonstrate that there is support to consider Healing Touch as an option for integrative care and that patients evaluate it highly.

Some interesting reviews have been conducted of biofield therapy research:

Clinical Studies of Biofield Therapies: Summary, Methodological Challenges, and Recommendations
This document highlights the findings from systematic reviews to identify clinical areas with the most promise for integration of biofield therapies into conventional care as well as for future research. The evidence base regarding clinical effectiveness of biofield therapies is strongest in symptom management for pain and cancer, the two conditions that have received the most study. Studies are sparser but evidence is promising for clinical populations with arthritis, dementia, and heart disease.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4654788/

Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype? A Best Evidence Synthesis
This 2009 review of 66 clinical studies concluded that biofield therapies show:


- strong evidence for reducing pain intensity in pain populations
- moderate evidence for reducing pain intensity in hospitalized and cancer populations
- moderate evidence for decreasing negative behavioral symptoms in dementia
- moderate evidence for decreasing anxiety for hospitalized populations

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2816237/

For more information about Healing Touch research, click on each organization below:

• Healing Touch Program
• Healing Beyond Borders

Even with proper research practices in place, studies involving energy-based therapies face unique challenges:

• There are core differences in how health is understood in conventional medicine and in biofield therapies—from philosophical differences about how the body works to differences in assessment and treatment approach.
• Our understanding of the mechanism of biofield therapies is limited within the biomedical paradigm.
• With biofield therapies, it is difficult to research one variable (i.e. a specific procedure) on another variable (i.e. a biomarker). Because biofield therapies affect the whole person, a broad array of whole-person outcomes must be measured to adequately assess their effects, including biomarkers, clinical response, cost-effectiveness, and qualitative data.
• The effects of healing on biofield therapies may be very subtle and may be hard to measure.
• The fact that some techniques are hands-on and some are hands-off can present some challenges since touch can have its own beneficial effects.
• Energy-based therapies are often focused on long-term rather than short-term results.
• The skill set, experience, intention and state of mind of the practitioner and the beliefs of the client may affect the results.

What is integrative health care?

Integrative health care makes use of conventional, complementary and alternative health care options and focuses on the whole person: body, mind and spirit as well as all aspects of lifestyle.

Philosophy of Integrative Health Care:

• An individual's health and well-being is viewed in terms of wholeness of body, mind and spirit.
• An individual has an innate capacity for healing; the goal is to maximize this capacity to optimize personal wellness through prevention and use of safe and effective healing resources.
• The healing process is highly individual; choices and decisions are strengthened through knowledge and empowerment.
• A partnership exists between the individual and practitioner in the healing process.
• An individual is responsible for his/her health and well-being and is at the centre of all care provision.
• The best evidence supporting conventional, complementary and alternative medicine is embraced.

Complementary therapies: Treatments that are used with conventional medical treatment. Examples: Healing Touch, massage

Alternative therapies: Treatments that are used instead of conventional medical treatment. Examples: naturopathy

CAM: Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a US government body that developed a system to classify CAM therapies into five main groups:

1. Alternative Medical Systems are complete systems of medicine that use different theories than western medicine. Some examples are homeopathy or naturopathy.
2. Mind-Body medicine uses the mind to change how the body functions to manage symptoms such as pain. Meditation and hypnosis are examples of mind-body medicine.
3. Biologically Based Therapies use herbs, foods and vitamins to prevent disease and promote health.
4. Manipulative and Body-Based Methods are therapies based on moving or working one or more parts of the body. Massage and chiropractic are examples of body-based therapies.
5. Energy Therapies (like Healing Touch) are based on the belief that all matter is made of energy and that everything has an energy field surrounding it. Complementary and alternative therapists refer to this energy field as an aura. Energy therapies are based in the belief that blockages to the aura cause disease. Once those blockages are cleared healing can occur. NCCAM names 2 types of energy therapies: Biofield therapies and Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies.

More information:

Energy Therapies in Advanced Practice Oncology: An Evidence-Informed Practice (EIP) Approach https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4093427/

Is Healing Touch already being used in health care settings?

CANADA

Healing Touch practitioners across the country are sharing Healing Touch with their colleagues in many health care or other workplaces as an option for self care that helps to reduce stress and burnout.

Interestingly, one of our instructors has been offering Healing Touch training at Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland where more than 50 health care providers now practise HT on their colleagues.

New Brunswick: 

• Three nursing homes have introduced Healing Touch and would like to see it offered as part of their holistic care for the elderly.
• Healing Touch is part of nursing care within Vitalité Health Network from nurses who are trained in HT and have time to offer it as part of their nursing care.
• Healing Touch was offered as part of the Oncology care and support with the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in Moncton in 2006-07. It was well received, having benefited over 200 patients, and work is ongoing to offer it once again.

Yellowknife, NWT: Once a month, local Healing Touch members volunteer at the Aven’s Senior Centre offering treatments to appreciative seniors.

Victoria, BC: BC Cancer Agency – Vancouver Island Group: Offers Therapeutic Touch (an approach similar to Healing Touch) as part of its Relaxation Program
http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/our-services/centres-clinics/vancouver-island-centre/support-programs

U.S.

Veterans Affairs Facilities: In 2011, 89 per cent (125) of Veteran Affairs facilities in the U.S. provided some form of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) in addition to allopathic medicine, with the majority (59) offering 6-10 modalities. Of those, 14 per cent (17.5) offered some form of Energy Medicine, including Healing Touch. Interestingly, the most popular CAM modality offered was Stress Management/Relaxation Therapy (The top five reasons they offer CAM: (1) promote wellness, (2) patient preferences, (3) as an adjunct to chronic care, (4) proven clinical effect and (5) provider request. Other reasons: reflects facility's mission, has providers that volunteer their services, consistent with Patient-Aligned Care Team (PACT) model, promotes cost savings, and reflects cultural preferences. (Source: U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2011 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Report http://www.research.va.gov/research_topics/2011cam_finalreport.pdf)

Tampa, FL: St. Joseph’s Hospital/BayCare Health – Healing Touch Program
https://baycare.org/sjh/for-patientsvisitors/healing-touch-program

Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Health Care – Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine – Healing Partners offers free Healing Touch sessions to those diagnosed with cancer who are under the active care of a physician, regardless of where they are being treated.
https://stanfordhealthcare.org/events/healing-touch.html