Therapeutic Touch and the Human Energy Field

Therapeutic Touch is an alternative health modality commonly used in hospitals by nurses, but it's a skill anyone can learn. It helps elicit a relaxation response from the client and it can reduce pain and support the body's natural healing process. While it can be performed without physical contact - making it the most non-invasive treatment possible - clients who are comfortable with touch generally benefit from some contact during a session of Therapeutic Touch.

While some practitioners are naturally sensitive to the human energy field and can sense it without assistance, most of us need some training to experience the field or enhance our ability to pick up and interpret the many nuances the field offers.

The field of energy in living things flows naturally from the head to the feet. The job of a Therapeutic Touch practitioner is to assess the field for disruptions in flow, which may manifest as congestion or depletion of energy at various locations in the field. The practitioner then restores the human energy field so that its flow is once again smooth and uninterrupted.

I cannot expound enough on the benefits of relaxation provided by Therapeutic Touch. I work with some of my clients in their homes, especially those with mobility issues. Some of them have chronic pain. Yet, it's not uncommon for them to fall asleep as soon as I begin the session. I often tiptoe out at the end, leaving them in a deep pain-free slumber. As a perk of performing Therapeutic Touch, I find myself relaxed and with energy to spare.

Therapeutic Touch is also useful as a calming agent for distressed animals. In my volunteer work as a driver for a wildlife rescue organization, I provide Therapeutic Touch in transit to help the animal cope with its injuries and the stress of transportation to the facility.

Courses in Therapeutic Touch are offered in three levels, but Level 1 is all that is needed for people who want to use it at home with their family and pets. While Level 1 is fine for home use, Levels 2 and 3 deepen one's ability to assess the finer nuances of the human energy field and its various layers, not only feeling tactile differences but using the other senses to spot changes as well. People who become very proficient in Therapeutic Touch, and learn to harness the energy available to all of us for healing, find great satisfaction in offering an alternative health modality that benefits not only the client but the practitioner as well.