Therapeutic Touch Health Article

Definition

Therapeutic touch, or TT is a noninvasive method of healing that was derived from an ancient laying on of hands technique. In TT, the practitioner alters the patient's energy field through an energy transfer that transpires from the hands of the practitioner to the patient.

Origins

Therapeutic touch was developed in 1972 by Dora Kunz, a psychic healer, and Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N, a nurse and professor of nursing at New York University. The year before in 1971, when Krieger was working as a registered nurse in a hospital, she became very frustrated when one of her patients, a 30-year-old female, lay dying from a gallbladder condition. In desperation, she tried what she was learning from Kunz. Within one treatment, the patient's condition began to shift, and she lived, surprising the other hospital staff. Krieger and Kunz met during the study of Oskar Estebany, a world-renowned healer. They had invited Estebany to form a study for three years, observing his work with patients. In this study, Estebany practiced laying on of hands healing on various patients. Using her psychic and intuitive abilities, Kunz would observe and assist in the healing, while Krieger recorded the activities of the healing session and created profiles of the patients.

As the study progressed, Kunz began teaching Krieger how to heal, based on her perceptions of Estebany's healing techniques. During her research of ancient healing methods, Krieger concluded that the energy transfer between the healer and the healee that takes place in a TT session is prana, an Eastern Indian concept representing energy, vitality, and vigor. Krieger then combined her research with Kunz's techniques to create TT.

TT was initially developed for persons in the health professions, but is currently taught worldwide to anyone who is interested in learning the technique. As of 1998, an estimated 100,000 people around the world have been trained in TT; 43,000 of those persons are health care professionals, many of whom use TT in conjunction with traditional medicine, as well as osteopathic, chiropractic, naturopathic, and homeopathic therapies. TT is taught in over 100 colleges, universities, and medical schools.