Therapeutic touch

Therapeutic Touch (TT) is described by proponents as "an energy modality which encourages healing". TT practitioners say that by placing their hands near the patient they can detect and manipulate the patient's energy fields, which allows them to assist the natural healing process. There is no scientific evidence proving this is possible.

Origin
Dora Kunz and Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., R.N. developed Therapeutic Touch in the 1970s. Initially, nurses learned Therapeutic Touch and used it as part of patient care. More recently, lay people began learning this therapy because Kunz and Krieger realized all human beings have the potential to heal and help.

Therapeutic Touch has roots in ancient healing practices, although it has no connection with any religious beliefs. Dr. Krieger notes, "A basic recognition upon which Therapeutic Touch was developed initially was exactly that in the final analysis, it is the healee (client) who heals himself. The healer or therapist, in this view, acts as a human energy support system until the healee's own immunological system is robust enough to take over."

Description
Although the word "touch" is part of the modality's name, physical touch is not necessary when Practitioners offer a treatment. Another name for Therapeutic Touch is Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch (NCTT), giving it the moniker 'Distance Healing'.

The Therapeutic Touch Network of Ontario (TTNO) developed a list of assumptions underpinning Krieger-Kunz Therapeutic Touch. These assumptions are: Always individualized, a session usually does not exceed 20 minutes. Practitioners can administer Therapeutic Touch while his client is in a sitting or lying position and, followed by a rest period.
 * In a state of health, Life Energy flows freely in, through, and out of the field in an orderly manner.
 * Disease or injury affects, obstructs, disorders, or depletes the flow of energy.
 * Thereafter, Touch practitioners attempt to influence the energy flow to restore the integrity of the field and move it toward wholeness and health.

Research
Research of Krieger-Kunz Therapeutic Touch finds that Therapeutic Touch reduces anxiety, regulates and supports the immune function, alters the perception of pain, and encourages general healing. In a study conducted by Dolores Krieger in 1975 the effect of Therapeutic Touch on hemoglobin levels was examined. Practitioners of Krieger-Kunz Therapeutic Touch trained nurses to offer this service to patients as part of general nursing care. The control group received the nursing care without Therapeutic Touch. The hemoglobin levels of patients who received Therapeutic Touch changed. A 2004 study examined the effects of Therapeutic Touch on dementia. The findings of this study suggest that Therapeutic Touch decreases the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.

Some meta-analyses have found that, in general, Therapeutic Touch has an effect on various conditions and illnesses when comparing those receiving Therapeutic Touch to those not receiving Therapeutic Touch, i.e. the control group. They urge further research on outcomes of Therapeutic Touch and give recommendations. In 1998, Emily Rosa, at 11 years of age, became the youngest person to have a paper accepted by the Journal of the American Medical Association for her study of therapeutic touch, which debunked the claims of TT practitioners. Her study consisted of testing 21 practitioners of TT to determine their ability to detect the aura they claim surrounds everyone. The practitioners stood on one side of a cardboard screen, while Emily stood on the other. The practitioners then placed their hands through holes in the screen. Emily then flipped a coin to determine which of the practitioner's hands she would place hers near (without, of course, touching the hand). The practitioners then were to indicate if they could sense her biofield, and where her hand was. Although all of the participants had asserted that they would be able to do this, the actual results did not support their assertions. After repeated trials the practitioners had succeeded in locating her hand at a rate not significantly different from chance. They were right 44% of the time, slightly worse than chance.