QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT THEREPEUTIC TOUCH
Compiled by Carolyn Buchanan & Sue Frid
In Touch, Vol.XIV, No.4, Winter (December) 2002
Question: “I hope I misunderstood the teacher to have said (in answer to a question) that people with active cancer should not give/receive TT, as the cancer cells could feed on the energy. I do have cancer, so that your reply is very important to me. My own feeling about this(intuition) is that it is safe, as God’s energy would go where we need it most, or where we wish it to go.”
Response from Barbara Janelle:
Therapeutic Touch affects both the practitioner and the receiver positively and this is a very important theme in the teaching of TT.
Dora Kunz encouraged people who were ill, if they were able, to use Therapeutic Touch in support of others as a way of boosting their own health. This is supported by the pilot study that Janet F. Quinn and Anthony J. Strelkauskas did at the University of Colorado that showed that the use of TT helped the immune system not only in the receiver but also in the practitioner. (“Psychoimmunologic Effects of Therapeutic Touch on Practitioners and Recently Bereaved Recipients: A Pilot Study,” Advanced Nursing Science 1993: Vol. 15, No. 4, Pp13-26)
While the question deals with cancer specifically, illness of any kind is a disruption in the order/harmony of the field that reduces energy flow through the field; ultimately that leads to a depletion of energy.
Therapeutic Touch supports greater health by:
a) Encouraging the field toward greater order/harmony
b) Increasing energy flow within the field
c) Enhancing the functioning of the heart chakra through feelings of compassion, respect and trust; this in turn supports the immune, respiratory and circulatory systems
d) Addressing the entire being and supporting a move toward greater wholeness
Therapeutic Touch does this in both the receiver and the practitioner. These are very good reasons for people who are ill to practice TT, if they are able to do so.