Healing Touch: Acupuncture without the needles

Healing touch therapy is a complementary energy-based approach to healing. The goal of healing touch is to restore balance to the human energy system through a heart-centered relationship with the use of contact and non-contact touch. It is believed this balance can help the body in its natural ability to heal.

While healing touch is an alternative treatment, it is becoming more and more accepted at mainstream hospitals. One hospital that provides healing touch therapy is St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Fla.

Kimberly Gray is the head of the Healing Touch Program there. She’s a nurse who has used healing touch for three years with her patients. Her managers, doctors and other nurses started to notice what a difference healing touch had on the patients.

So, in 2004, the hospital gave her a chance to do healing touch 100 percent of the time and to track the results of her work.

Gray conducted a study with 140 patients at the hospital. The patients rated their pain, anxiety and nausea before and after the treatment. The study found the average pain score on a scale of zero to 10 decreased from an average of seven before healing touch treatments to two after healing touch treatments.

The data also shows a decrease in anxiety, nausea, and in some cases, a decrease in hospital length of stay-days. The data also shows an increase in overall patient satisfaction. The results were so impressive, the hospital began a healing touch program and named Kimberly as the head of it.

Healing touch is a bio-field therapy. It is described as being similar to acupuncture without the needles. The healing touch practitioner facilitates the healing process by clearing and balancing the bio-electromagnetic field surrounding the human body. The belief is all healing is self-healing, and the balance of energy helps the body achieve the greatest level of ability to heal.

Patients describe the experience as relaxing and a sense of warmth around them. Many patients experience a profound sense of relaxation following a healing touch therapy session.

Kimberly said some of her greatest allies are those who were first skeptical of healing touch therapy. She said with healing touch therapy, the person does not have to believe in it, but they have to be open to the experience. She said that in healing touch, they do not push the energy; they allow energy to flow through them for the greatest benefit to the patient. In her years as a healing touch practitioner, she has seen amazing results from her work. In one case, she helped a young man come out of a coma.

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