Stress relief and self care are important components to overall health and well being. The stress response creates a cascade of chemical and hormone releases in the body that provide us with the ability to react appropriately in dangerous situations. However, when those same chemicals cannot effectively be released due to chronic unmanaged stress, they become toxic to our systems and begin to breakdown organ functions. We can experience a host of symptoms including anxiety, irritability, sleep and concentration problems as a result of being in a prolonged “spring loaded” stressed-out state of hyper-vigilance.
If left unchecked, this situation can lead to mental and emotional instability including a sense of detachment, or moving as though through a fog, memory difficulties, and general apathy. In other words, the stress response, which is designed to protect you, reaches a point where you feel helpless and feeling helpless makes your stress response spin out of control.
STRESS ANTIDOTE
The antidote to this situation is the Relaxation Response, one of the main benefits of Therapeutic Touch. Relaxation is a physical state of deep rest that triggers body reactions that reduce the physical and emotional responses to stress. Those reactions include a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure, improved blood circulation, decreased, more effective respirations, resulting in better oxygenation of the blood and a reduced production of stress hormones.
Our bodies have a natural drive toward order and balance for optimum health that can be enhanced through conscious choice. By taking responsibility for our own well-being and healing processes, we become empowered. Self help is self empowerment. Instead of frustration and helplessness in times of stress, we feel a sense of strength and purpose. The fight or flight response that exists in stressful situations is diminished and we are more capable of, calmer, clearer thinking. These emotional changes are reflected at the cellular level with physical responses that boost the immune system.
BECOME EMPOWERED
Therapeutic Touch teaches us to recognize, and most importantly, to act on early warning signs of impending health problems. We can develop a heightened sense of awareness of our bodies and become more able to recognize symptoms early, when exterior forces are having a negative effect on them. We can learn to direct our bodies in their natural movement toward restoration and wholeness. We begin to understand that we have choice about how we respond in any situation. Becoming knowledgeable about and using Therapeutic Touch on a regular basis provides skills for self help and guides us in making more informed choices and help us cultivate healthier lifestyle.
APPLICATIONS
Because Therapeutic Touch is natural, safe and can be learned by anyone, it can readily be incorporated into our daily lives. Families who practice Therapeutic Touch together develop bonds of communication that go deeper than words often can. It goes a long way to relieve the stresses that accompany our everyday lives and it offers a way for all family members to be able to help one another in a nurturing, compassionate environment, bringing together both young and old. New expectant fathers can feel more involved and capable of helping their wives throughout the pregnancy and particularly at the time of labour and birth.
Therapeutic Touch is also effective for family pets who reflect in their behaviour the emotional environment in the home. Many veterinarians offer Therapeutic Touch and some practitioners specialize in domestic farm and zoo animals. Therapeutic Touch is included in services provided in some wellness clinics, spas and retreats and it has been shown to be an effective method of averting ‘burnout’ and job stress in the workplace. Corporations can introduce Therapeutic Touch in the workplace for people to unwind from stressful meetings, deadlines, and preparing for speaking engagements and presentations, thereby improving productivity and cultivating a workplace culture that refreshes vital energies.
Children are naturally open and generally eager to learn Therapeutic Touch. They are open to discovery without the inhibitions that adults acquire over the course of their lives. Young children tend to navigate their worlds from an intuitive perspective and are able to sense when energy is moving and when it is stuck. Teaching Therapeutic Touch to children from early childhood education through to adult life can enhance the wellness quotient of future generations and society in general.
Therapeutic Touch is also recognized as an effective first aid tool. Practiced in many ‘hot spots’ around the world, during natural catastrophes, it has provided relief for sand bag crews during the Mississippi floods in 1993, after earthquakes and forest fires and more recently after terrorist attacks around the world and helped African communities, challenged with pain, suffering and loss, due to Aids. It has been used in everyday emergencies by emergency medical technicians in ambulances and in the air, firefighters, trauma personnel, life guards and ski patrols. Therapeutic Touch has a reliable and rapid relaxation response that assists front line workers to calm trauma victims , change the perception of pain and make the immediate job easier . At the same time, victims feel a sense of being supported, heard and valued as people, facilitating co-operation and healing in the process.
LOOKING AHEAD
As we move into the 21st century and let go of fixed attitudes about healthcare, making room for new understandings of health and wellness is critical to maintaining a healthy and productive society. We need to shift from a position of being reactive to one of being proactive – to encourage citizens to take responsibility for the direction of their own health care and provide them with the training and tools to do so. Self help is self empowerment. As a complementary modality, Therapeutic Touch is well-positioned to provide an effective, simple and safe self care method to promote health and wellness for all.
Written by Susan Keith with Julia von Flotow
April, 2011
REFERENCES AND RESOURCES
- Gerber, Richard, M.D., A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine – Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation, 2000, New York: Harper Collins
- Krieger, Dolores, The Therapeutic Touch: How to Use Your Hands To Help Or Heal, 1979, Prentice-Hall Inc.
- Krieger, Dolores. Accepting Your Power to Heal: The Personal Practice of Therapeutic Touch. Santa Fe: Bear & Company Publishing, 1993.
- LeShan, Lawrence, How to Meditate: A guide to self-discovery, New York: Little, Brown and Company
- Macrae, Janet, Therapeutic Touch: A Practical Guide, 1987, Random House
- May, Diane R.N., The Therapeutic Touch Handbook Level One Basic, 2001, Scribe Press Mississauga
- McTaggart, Lynne, The Field, The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, 2002, New York, Harper Collins
- Moore, Teresa, Therapeutic Touch Bibliography of Research 1974 – 2004
- Rossiter-Thornton, Maria, Therapeutic Touch – An Introduction for Beginners, 2001, Rossiter-Thornton and Associates Inc, Toronto
- Wagner, Susan, MD, A Doctor’s Guide to Therapeutic Touch: Enhancing the Body’s Energy to Promote Healing, 1996, Berkley Publishing Group, New York
About Julia von Flotow
