Healing Touch is a relaxing, nurturing, heart-centered energy therapy that uses light, intentional touch that assists in balancing physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. The National Institutes of Health classifies Healing Touch as a biofield therapy and nursing intervention, and sanctions its use to address the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA-1) diagnosis of “Imbalanced Energy Field.” It is complementary to medical care, as it enhances the body’s natural ability to heal. Healing Touch is safe for all ages and is even safe for your pets!

Healing Touch is a subtle biofield energy therapy. Shamani Jain in her standout book, Healing Ourselves, defines biofield as “a set of interpenetrating and interacting fields of energy and information - some of them dense and electromagnetic in nature and some more subtle in nature.” EEGs and EKGs record the dense electromagnetic fields of the brain and the heart. We have yet to discover a modality for consistently measuring subtle biofields. Nonetheless, research in subtle biofields therapies shows their ability to make modest to dramatic improvements in subjects' well-being.

Studies have been conducted to determine the impact of HT therapies on many conditions such as cancer, heart disease, hospice care, elder care, immunological issues, HIV, diabetes, headaches, post-operative wounds, alcoholism, PTSD and dementia. Healing Touch has been found to significantly affect anxiety and depressed mood, cancer care, immune system, pain, fatigue, stress reduction, surgery and spirituality. Healing Touch has even been shown to protect natural killer cells (those that attack cancer) during chemotherapy!

We look towards research in other subtle biofield therapies, such as acupuncture, meditation, yoga, tai chi, Reiki, EFT (tapping), and Qigong to help us understand the mechanisms of healing. Reiki, at an oncology and infusion service unit, was helpful in improving well-being, relaxation, pain relief, sleep quality and reducing anxiety. In another study, Reiki treatments were shown to significantly affect cortisol levels, thus reducing fatigue, in a population of breast cancer patients. These results are notable as cortisol is a readily measured hormone in the human body - it is not a self report item like fatigue, anxiety, depression or pain. Subtle biofield therapies have also been shown in the last decade in at least 4 different studies to affect tumor growth, tumor death, tumor migration in both animal and cell culture studies.

It is an exciting time in biofield therapy research - Stay tuned for further updates!