Editorials

Newsletter

The Community of Healing Touch

By Betty Ann Baker, CHTP/LMT and Judy Lynne Ray, MS, LMT, CHTP/I

A mother's cool hand on your forehead; the reassuring embrace; a hand to hold; we are all healed through touch.It is one of the blessings of our human family. We reach out to others in need andcomfort ourselves in times of distress, holding the injured arm, clutching the heart when bad news comes. Through the ages, touch and healing are interwoven.

After a time of recent separation, touch has found its way back into modern care, updated and provided by practitioners of Healing Touch. Physicians, nurses, and psychotherapist are bringing human touch and the art of caring back to their professions.Healing Touch Practitioners in private practice and Healing Touch students join in providing education, awareness and outreach in our community. You can find us presenting an experiencial program to a cardiac support group at Gardens Medical Center, cancer awareness programs hosted by Jupiter Medical Center, Your Bosom Buddies II at Wellington Medical Center, a wonderful and informative health fair hosted by Radiation Oncology Institute in Palm Beach Gardens and much more. A favorite each year is our participation in the Susan G KOmen Race for the Cure in downtown West Palm Beach.

Healing Touch is a philosophy, a way of caring, and a sacred healing art. Research has shown that when ill or weakened,the human bio field oscillates at a different, less harmonic frequency. Balancing that frequency is the role that Healing Touch plays in helping the person to self heal.

As a type of Integrative Medicine, Healing Touch is included in a growing field called Vibrational Medicine, Energy Medicine or commonly, CAM (Complementary/Alternative Medicine), Other familiar therapies or modalities include Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Sound and Color Healing, Aroma therapy and Flower Essence Healing.

Defined in Healing Touch and Health Care Integration, Healing Touch International, Inc., 2002, "Healing Touch is a NIH classified bio field therapy and nursing intervention that contains a group of standardized, noninvasive techniques that clear, energize, and balance the human and environmental energy fields and that may be used to address the nursing diagnosis of Energy Field Disturbance."

Based on our knowledge that we are indeed multi-dimensional, interacting, subtle energy systems, H T works to balance these systems using touch, for when out of balance, illness or discomfort often occurs, thus affecting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. Studies show that when hands-on energy based techniques are used in hospitals: IVs and catheters go in more easily. Surgical wounds and sutures heal faster. Circulation and breathing improve. Pain is significantly decreased and less medication is needed. In hospital time is decreased. Anxiety and stress are significantly decreased.Healing is accelerated.

Training is offered through a continuing education program, with CEU approval through the American Nurse Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. Although initially developed by Janet Mentgen, RN, BSN to help nurses meet the needs of their patients, a typical class now includes massage therapists, physicians, physical therapist, body workers, lay people and clergy. Classes are offered nationwide and internationally, from Canada to South Africa: from India to Italy and Australia.

The Colorado Center for Healing Touch curriculum is brought to the our area by Healing Touch Florida, with classes from Miami to Sarasota to Orlando. Certification requires multi-levels of education, hands-on training, mentorship, internship and advanced practice, assuring high standards of quality and consistency in the practitioner.

Where there is consistency and a standard of practice, there is measurability; resulting in useable data.The benefit of Healing Touch is supported with an ongoing flow of results continually emerging from research.

Healing Touch International, Inc. headquartered in Denver, assists practitioners and institutions in development of research studies and community outreach programs. In 2001, The National Institutes of Health in Washington DC, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) awarded a grant of $250,000 for a two year study titled Efficacy of Healing Touch in Stressed Newborns, conducted at the Tucson Medical Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Tucson, Arizona. Closer to home, Baptist Hospital in Miami is currently sponsoring a research project involving Healing Touch with neonates as a direct result of a premature infant surviving against heavy odds with the administration of Healing Touch.

Over one third of the medical schools in the United States have developed courses in Integrated Medicine and upward of 30,000 nurses are practicing Healing Touch in major hospitals in the country, and using this hands-on healing technique as a legitimate, documented intervention. It is performed pre, during and post-surgically; and at hospitals such as Columbia Presbyterian and Beth Israel in New York City; Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California; Queens Hospital in Hawaii; Saint Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam, New York and Jackson Memorial in Miami.

In Florida, the list of institutions utilizing Healing Touch providers is growing as forward thinking administrators discover the benefits of providing Healing Touch in clinical settings,education,and as part of community outreach programs.Patients routinely request Healing Touch providers to assist the pre and post surgery, as a complement to standard care, bringing us to Jupiter Medical Center, Palm Beach Gardens, JFK, Good Sam's, Saint Mary's, Bethesda, Holy Cross, Broward General,, Boca Community Hospital, and Martin Memorial.

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful community of both Certified Healing Touch Instructors, Practitioners and students in Palm Beach and Martin Counties. Introductory classes are regularly offered at hospitals, nursing schools, massage schools, community clubs, churches and colleges. Practitioners presenting Healing Touch at health fairs and expos are always the last to pack up, as everyone wants to experience the work and learn more about the concepts of bio field therapies.

In sharing the work, our vision is to make Healing Touch a compassionate partner in healthcare and wellness in our community. We hope, through education, to encourage people to ask their care-givers for a Healing Touch practitioner pre and post operatively; to ask for Healing Touch as a method for stress reduction, or to experience emotional and spiritual transformational work.

In the spirit of community, we are proud to have brought Healing Touch Buddies to this area, linking cancer patients with Healing Touch providers for up to one year. Modeled on a successful program at Queen's Hospital called Bosom Buddies of Hawaii, we share their vision to encourage healing and self-care to women (men) with breast cancer by connecting them with specially trained Healing Touch Buddies. Women (men) receiving this free service benefit in a multitude of ways, as Healing Touch promotes relaxation, pain control and symptom relief. They are supported before and after surgery and are encouraged to develop and practice self care intheir physical, emotional, and spiritual lives.

Healing Touch Buddies has matched more than 90 HT Buddies with those challenged withbreast cancer.Referrals come to us from support groups,oncology offices, counseling services, and by word-of-mouth.We are trained volunteers for the Harmony Holistic Wellness Therapiesfor Hospice of Palm Beach County.As members of the Community Cancer Council, facilitated by the Cancer Alliance for Help & Hope,we share resources and networking with the American Cancer Society,Susan G. Komen,The Conner Moran Foundation,Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation,American Lung Association, Project Hope as well as al the major medical centers in Palm Beach and Martin County that serve those challenged with a cancer diagnosis.

Healing Touch Buddies is a proud, three year grantee of Susuan G. Komen for the Cure. We have received the support of BankAtlantic in funding of our 2010 Annual Volunteer Training Seminar, hosted this year by Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton, FL. We have reached out to institutions for partnership and to foundations and donors for support, with the intention of one day being self supporting through our own efforts. We trust that we will be every bit as fortunate as our Bosom Buddies friends in Honolulu, who have enjoyed the full support and funding from Queen's Hospital, Hospice Hawaii, the American Cancer Society and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Similarprograms at Saint Mary's, Amsterdam, New York, Chicago, Tampa and in Denver thrive with help from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Junior League and others. Our grant writing efforts continue...

We would ask that you keep us in your hearts and support us with your vision of our success. The life we touch may well be yours and we will do so with compassion and love.

About the authors

Betty Ann Baker, CHTP/LMT, serves as Founder and Executive Director of Healing Touch Buddies, Inc.
Betty Ann is a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and Nationally Licensed Massage Therapist FL #MA36880

Judy Lynne, MS, LMT, CHTP/I, C0-founder of Healing Touch Buddies, former Vice President of Education and Mentorship on the Board of Healing Touch Buddies, Inc.She is afaculty member of Colorado Center for Healing Touch as a Level I and II.

Go to www.HealingTouchInternational.org for general information about Healing Touch.

For enrollment or for more information regarding breast cancer project, please call Betty Ann Baker, Executive Director at 561-741-1671.
Home | Mission and Goals | Volunteers | In Memory of | Newsletter | Upcoming Events
Copyright (©) 2010 Healing Touch Buddines, Inc.