INTRODUCTION TO HEALING TOUCH

Healing Touch Mary Jane Aswegan, RN, CHTP/I INTRODUCTION TO HEALING TOUCH Mary Jane Aswegan RN, CHTP/I

INTRODUCTION TO HEALING TOUCH OBJECTIVES: 1. The participant will: o Define the goals of Healing Touch as it restores harmony and balance to the human energy system to facilitate the self-healing process o Describe the Benefits of Healing Touch in the Hospital Setting o Learn some Healing Touch techniques that can help reduce stress, relieve anxiety, decrease pain and create a sense of well-being in the healing process WHAT IS HEALING TOUCH? Healing touch (HT) is a biofield therapy that is an energy-based therapeutic approach to health and healing. It uses gentle touch to influence the human energy system that surrounds the body and the energy centers that control the flow from the energy field to the physical body. Non-invasive techniques utilize the hands to clear, energize and balance the human and environmental energy fields, thus affecting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and healing. It is based on a heart-centered caring relationship in which the practitioner and client come together energetically to facilitate the client' health and healing. GOAL OF HEALING TOUCH Restore harmony and balance in the energy system placing the client in a position to SELF HEAL Healing Touch complements conventional health care and is used in collaboration with other approaches to health and healing. INDICATIONS: Facilitation of wound healing Reduction of acute/chronic pain Decrease anxiety, tension and stress Preparation for medical treatments and procedures and to manage side-effects Support for the dying process HT may be used with individuals of all ages and stages of health and illness WHO CAN BENEFIT? Since Healing Touch influences the whole person, it can be used on everyone, infants to the elderly and take place in any setting: home, hospitals, healing centers, pain clinics, accident scenes, schools, hospices or a doctor s office. FOUNDATION OF HEALING TOUCH: Healing Touch International curriculum teaches the healing philosophies and methods of well-known healers such as Alice Bailey, Dr. Brugh Joy, Rosalyn Bruyere, Barbara Brennan and Janet Mentgen. Throughout the learning process, learners are encouraged to enhance their self-understanding and intuitive skills. HISTORY OF HEALING TOUCH INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM: Was developed by Janet Mentgen, RN, BSN who had been practicing energy-based care since 1980 in Denver, Colorado as a continuing education program for nurses. The program began as the Healing Touch Certificate program sponsored through the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) in 1989 and then AHNA Certification began in 1993. In 1996 Healing Touch International, Inc became the certifying authority with AHNA endorsement. The HT certificate program is now taught throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South Africa, India and South America

As of 2010 there are over 100,000 individuals who have been trained in the program and there are over 300 Certified Healing Touch Instructors offering the program throughout the world. HEALING TOUCH OVERVIEW Multi Level program in energy based therapy, which includes both didactic and experiential learning in which participants use specific healing interventions. Certificates of attendance with approved continuing education credits are issued at the completion of each level. The program of study is carefully sequenced in five levels beginning with level 1 to advanced practice at Level 5 (certification) and Level 6 (Teaching.) After Level 5 a person may apply for certification from Healing Touch International Level 6 is the Instructor Level and the participant must apply and be a Certified HT Practitioner THE ENERGY SYSTEM (BIOFIELD) ENERGY FIELDS (BIOFIELD/AURA): Every person has a physical body and a subtle body comprised of many layers or fields of energy referred to as the biofield. Etheric: ¼ -2 inches from the body. It is made up of light blue/gray lines of force. It duplicates the physical body Emotional: 1-3 inches from the body. Appears as clouds of fine substance rainbow colors Mental: 3-8 inches from the body and appears as fine structural lines that are yellow in color Spiritual: Made up of 4 more layers, which help us relate to higher dimensions. Extends about 24 inches from the body. Spiritually evolved persons, like Mother Teresa or Ghandi were able to extend their auras even further out. ENERGY CENTERS (CHAKRAS): There are 7 energy centers located from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Chakra is a Sanskrit word, meaning wheel or disk. It is a spinning vortex of energy, which moves clockwise in rotation. These energy centers interface between the biofield/glands and organs of the physical body ENERGY TRACTS (MERIDIANS): These are lines of force, which intersect through the entire body and relate to the nervous and endocrine systems. Acupuncture uses these lines. Healing Touch primarily works with the Energy Fields and Energy Centers. ENERGY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE Reflects health and illness Disturbance in the Energy System occurs before it manifests as a symptom Working with the Energy System helps the person to heal The Energy System is often referred to as the essence of life (Chi, Ki, Prana, Life Force) BASIC TERMINOLOGY CENTERED; One is centered when one is fully present and in touch with the self. One is calm and open HEALING: Is the process of altering the mind, body, emotional and spiritual health positively. INTUITION: The ability to receive information beyond the five senses MEDITATION: Centering, connecting with the self and being open for guidance UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: Being open to another without expectation and having intention for their highest good BASIC PRINCIPLES AND IDEAS IN HEALING TOUCH The world and everything is interdependent A person s health and quality of life is affected by the health and quality of the Energy System

Potential for illness appears in the Energy System before physical signs appear The healing act is a sacred process Healing Touch takes place within the self and is influenced by the persons receiving and giving The environment and person are interactive Becoming centered and grounded are the first steps to facilitate a healing The Energy System may be perceived through the visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic senses or intuition A person can influence the Energy System without being able to see or feel it The Energy System is influenced by the environment, thoughts, emotions and actions of the self and others The healers perceptions become a teacher guiding the practice of Healing Touch Becoming a healer is an internal and external process of self development that is individualistic QUOTES The road to health is through moderation, harmony, a sound mind in a sound body. Hippocrates 160-377 B.C. Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work. Albert Schweitzer REFERENCES: 1. Dorthea Hover-Kramer; Janet Mentgen, Healing Touch: A Guidebook for Practitioners, Delmar Publishers 2002 second edition 2. Course materials from Healing Touch International, Inc Including Student Workbooks for Levels 1-5, 2010 3. Barbara Brennan, Hands of Light Bantam Books, 1988 4. Dr. W.Brugh Joy, Joy s Way: A Map for the Transformational Journey Jeremy Tarcher, Inc. 1979 5. Healing Touch International website at www.healingtouchinternational.org

Date: My Self-Healing Assessment Healing Touch Mary Jane Aswegan, RN, CHTP/I As I am assessing my Lifestyle health today, this is what I see without judging myself: Physical: In order to change my physical health for the better, I will do the following: Emotional: In order to change my emotional health for the better, I will do the following:

Mental: In order to change my mental health for the better I will do the following: Spiritual: In order to change my spiritual health for the better I will do the following:

Guide for Using Healing Assessment to Transformation Exercise This exercise helps you to look at yourself more holistically from a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual perspective. Physical Assessment: Do a body scan, notice areas of weakness, pain, stress. Do you feel you have enough energy to support you? Be honest without judging. You can rate yourself on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being no energy to 10 feeling you have a lot of energy to carry through your activities in life. Where do you think you fall on that scale? Emotional Assessment: Are you happy most of the time or are you sad, depressed? You can rate 0-10 with 0 being sad, depressed to 10 feeling happy and vital. Where do you think you fall in that scale? Mental Assessment: Do you mostly have more positive or negative thought forms? Are you more optimistic about life or are you more pessimistic? Rate yourself with 0 being negative thinking and 10 more positive thinking. Where do you fall without judgment? Spiritual Assessment: Do you feel that you are spiritually connected? This does not mean religion. Do you just feel a connection to something higher than yourself? In the 0-10 scale 0 would mean you do not feel a connection to 10 feeling a strong connection, again without judgment. Pain, Anxiety and Stress can always be rated also on a 0-10 scale with 0 being absolutely no pain, anxiety or stress to 10 being the worst in those areas. When evaluating pain give the location, think about what you were doing when pain occurred. What makes it worse? What makes it better? When evaluating anxiety--what causes you to be anxious and what do you do to relieve that anxiety? What would it look like for you to be less anxious? When evaluating stress, is it related to work or personal issues? Where in the body do you seem to hold your stress? (Back, neck, shoulders, TMJ joint grinding teeth etc) What do you do to relieve stress? What could you do to relieve stress? Remember to do your assessment without judgment. Then be the observer just notice things. Often you can perhaps change the way you look at something. Sometimes when you ask yourself to see it differently, it changes. Wayne Dyer says, When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Redo your assessment from time to time to see how it changes.