Therapeutic Touch: This method is unique in that it was born and reached its maturation within the context of conventional Western medicine. Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N., a professor at New York University, and Dora Kunz, a natural healer, developed it in the 1970s. It is a contemporary interpretation of several ancient healing traditions.
It is based on the principle that the human energy field extends beyond the skin and the practitioner can use the hands as sensors to locate problems in it that correspond with problems in the physical body. Disease is seen as a condition of energy imbalance or blocked energy flow. Assessment is done by passing the hands over the body from head to toe at about two to four inches above the surface.
The practitioner then serves as a conduit for universal energy, consciously and actively transferring energy into the recipient. The hands are used to direct and focus the energy, sometimes in rhythmical, sweeping motions. The method is initially taught "off body," meaning the practitioner's hands do not touch the physical body, though later with experience some physical touch may take place.
Since it is not necessary to touch the physical body (what is being touched is the energy field or energy body), this method can be applied in situations where the patient may not be able to tolerate contact (e.g., in post surgical patients or burn victims). Sessions last up to thirty minutes and can be done sitting or lying down fully clothed.
Therapeutic Touch is currently taught in over eighty universities and thirty countries and is practiced by twenty to thirty thousand health care professionals in the United States and around the world In fact, massage therapy is increasingly being incorporated into complementary cancer therapy programs.......
