Healing Touch is energy medicine. Also called biofield therapy, it activates a person’s natural flow of energy.
Healing Touch Madison is a community of Healing Touch Certified Practitioners in Madison and the surrounding area joining together to promote the art of Healing Touch, attracting to us those who will benefit from it.
We are here to increase the well being of Madison and the surrounding area through the use of Healing Touch.
Healing Touch expresses itself through various avenues: individual sessions, lectures, classes, workshops, practice group, a free clinic and events.
As a community of healers we support:
One of the root words of medicine comes from the latin word medeor which means to heal. Medicine’s area of expertise is health and healing. Energy medicine promotes and maintains health and well-being by working with your biofield (also known as your energy field or aura). It has a network of pathways called meridians near the nervous system, and major and minor energy centers, or chakras.
Today, science is catching up to the Energy Medicine modality of healing and is collaborating its efficacy. Data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey tells us that over 3.7 million adults in the United States surveyed have seen a practitioner for energy healing therapy (over 1.6 million in the past year). Insurance covered the visit for 8% of the adults surveyed (Jain 2015 Clinical Studies of Biofeld Therapies article).
Healing touch is the leading modality that provides biofield therapy. The National Institute of Health (NIH) through the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) defines biofield as a field of energy and information that regulates and balances living organisms and may help us better understand health. It has many names from ancient wisdom traditions: chi (TCM) prana (Ayurveda) ki (Japan). Energy medicine practitioners and scientists use the word biofield to communicate about this universal energy field and the human energy field. (Rubik, B et al 2015).
Physics is the branch of science which teaches us that all things are made of matter. The building blocks of matter called atoms are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Matter is made up of energy: E= mc2. Quantum physics tells us everything is energy, a wave like process, a universal flow. The human body is an energetic system. Its energies and forces make up your biofield.
Your biofield is a part of the universal energy field which surrounds us and connects us.
From a certain point of view, dis-ease in the body is caused by either localized overactivity or stagnation/congestion within the biofield. Biofield therapy provided by Healing Touch flows universal energies through and around one’s individual energy field to bring the field back into a state of balance.
Healing Touch has its roots in the traditional practice of healing hands. At that time there wasn’t the practice of medicine as we know it today. People with an interest in healing learned to use their hands to provide comfort. Even today in the era of modern medicine if we are injured the first thing we do is put our hands on the wound. It’s as if we are instinctually programmed with the knowledge that the energy of touch promotes healing.
Healing Touch combines the nurturing abilities humans have with an understanding of how the body functions. Science discovered our bodies are electric. Our heart rhythms and brain waves are examples of electrical impulses that can be recorded. Healing Touch practitioners are heart centered and learn to generate extra electric energy and share it through their hands.They use a sense of compassion, focus, and intention with light or no touch hand placements to promote health and healing in the client’s biofield. Practitioners assess and select appropriate techniques to connect, open, and balance the client’s energy field.
The evidence base is strongest in symptom management for pain and cancer, the two conditions studied the most. Evidence is sparse but promising for arthritis, dementia and heart disease. Researchers hope the next decade will bring significant increases in research efforts to study the impact of biofield therapies in promoting health (Jain 2015 Clinical Studies of Biofield Therapies article).
The articles listed below are rated Level One Evidence: they are systematic reviews or meta-analysis of all relevant RCTs (randomized controlled trials). One is specific to Healing Touch, the other to all biofield therapies including Healing Touch.
Anderson, J. G. & Taylor, A. G. (2011). Effects of Healing Touch in Clinical Practice: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 29: 221-228.
Jain, S. & Mills, P. (2010). Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype? A Best Evidence Synthesis. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 17 (1), 1-16.
The web sites listed below are resources for more information about Healing Touch, energy medicine and the science of biofield therapy
Healing Touch Program’s web site for research
Healing Beyond Borders this organization publishes a Healing Touch Research Brief and updates it every 5 years, 2020 is the most recent edition.
Conscious Healing Intiative (CHI). This organization published a report: Subtle energy and Biofield Healing Report. In the report there is a link to a peer review published special issue in the journal Global Advances in Health and Medicine called Biofield Science and Healing. It contains thirteen articles as an overview of biofield science and research.
The articles listed below were referenced on this site
Guarneri, M and King, R (2015) Challenges and Opportunities Faced by Biofield Practitioners in Global Health and Medicine: A White Paper. Global Adv Health Med 2015, 4 (suppl): 89-96.
Jain, S et al. (2015) Clinical Studies of Biofield Therapies: Summary, Methodological Challenges and Recommendations. Global Adv Health Med 2015, 4 (suppl): 58-66.
Rubik, B et al (2015) Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts. Global Adv Health Med 2015, 4 (suppl): 8-14.
