Chapter 59 Therapeutic Touch
OVERVIEW.
Therapeutic touch (TT) is a form of energy field work that is believed to access a patient’s energy field by having the practitioner’s hands placed over (above) the patient’s body. The practitioners attempt to direct some of their own energy (which they have an excess of) to the patient, who is viewed as having some less optimal level. The aim of TT is to treat health problems such as pain or anxiety, or to help the patient relax.1,2
Ironically, therapeutic touch does not involve touch. The technique involves five steps that includes (1) centering (getting into a meditative state); (2) assessing by tuning into the patient (with hands 5-15 cm above the patient’s body surface to detect energy fields); (3) clearing (facilitate the flow of energy in patient areas that are sluggish by sweeping the hands over the patient’s body from head to toe); (4) redirecting areas of accumulated tension to areas sensed as depleted; and then (5) evaluating the patient’s energy flow.1
