Category: Healing Touch

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Neuropathy and Healing Touch

From the Osho Zen Tarot

For my clients going through chemotherapy, I am finding that the Healing Touch sessions I do with them is greatly reducing, if not eliminating, neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy is a side effect of chemotherapy and is mostly felt in the hands and feet. Symptoms include: tingling, pain, cramping, loss of the sensation of touch, weakness when picking up objects and sensitivity to temperature. Symptoms are usually most strongly experienced right after a chemotherapy treatment. Then the sensations usually decrease with time.

I first noticed how effective Healing Touch was with neuropathy several years ago while volunteering at the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic in Oakland.  My friend and Healing Touch Practitioner colleague Laurie Ratto mentioned that her client at Charlotte Maxwell had greatly reduced numbness in her feet after her Healing Touch session. I realized then that I was also noticing how my clients with pain and cramping in their feet, legs and hands were also commenting how much less intense their symptoms felt after our Healing Touch session together.

In my private practice I recently had a client who had such extreme coldness and numbing sensations in her hands that she wore gloves to her Healing Touch session on a very warm day. She came right after her chemotherapy infusion. After the healing she had no numbness in her hands at all. Zero. It was amazing. She also reported later that she had only very minor neuropathy sensations later that week. She was amazed.

In my practice it seems that Healing Touch has the greatest effect on neuropathy if the client gets a healing session right after each and every chemotherapy treatment. I currently have one client who was warned by her doctor that she might experience neuropathy during her current chemotherapy, but she is over halfway through her treatments and there are only very minimal sensations in her hands and feet. Her blood count has also held steady and her doctors are very pleased. She also comes every week, on the same day as her chemo treatment. Even though our Healing Touch sessions are obviously minimizing the side effects of her chemo, she finds our healing sessions also helps her stay calm and grounded.

I have worked with clients at the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic who still have neuropathy months after their chemo treatments have ended. I have had only minimal success releasing the neuropathy with only one treatment in these cases. I would love to do a series of healings with someone post chemo to see if it would help.

Peripheral neuropathy can be challenging to deal with during chemotherapy and affects your quality of life significantly. Healing Touch has helped my clients have one less physical issue to deal. It’s very, very satisfying to know I am making a difference in my clients’ lives.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer and would like to receive Healing Touch, there are many Certified Healing Touch Practitioners and several no cost options in The San Francisco Bay Area. One is the Haelen Center in Lafayette, California that I wrote about in this post. Another is The Charlotte Maxwell Clinics in Oakland and San Francisco that provides free complementary alternative medical treatments to low-income woman with a cancer diagnoses.

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Every person who decides to go through chemotherapy should have access to Healing Touch.

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Energetic Releases

Connecting.Most people who come for a Healing Touch Session expect to feel relaxed throughout the session. Every so often I have a session where the opposite happens, and a client will experience an energetic opening that can feel invigorating for a few minutes. These are sessions in which an energetic block is released and the body is flooded with energy that was constricted and held back my client’s basic life force.

These unexpected, yet welcomed sessions can have a very positive and lasting effect on my client’s general energy level and overall sense of well being.

While any part of the body can facilitate an energetic release, in my practice I find that the neck is the most common location for more stimulating releases. It’s stimulating because the blocked energy is now flowing into your brain, and you may feel instantly invigorated and full of ideas, thoughts and, well, a lot more energy than you are used to.

If I am holding your head at that moment, I can feel it in my hands. Sometimes it feels like a welling up of water that then slides down the neck. Sometimes it feels like my client’s whole body starts buzzing for a few moments, like there was a slight electrical upgrade. Sometimes all I feel is the physical muscles of the shoulders and neck relax.

Physically tight muscles in the neck restrict blood flow to the brain. When blood can finally flow more easily to the brain the cells get more oxygen and are more energized.

I have several ways of gently supporting my client through these energetic releases. Most of the time clients will relax again after a few minutes and spend most of the session in a very calm, peaceful and rejuvenating state. An energetic opening can feel slightly confusing because you think you should be relaxing during a healing instead of suddenly feeling like you want to jump up and write down the ten best ideas you have ever had. Some clients start talking the moment I feel their neck release. Added bonus: This kind of session can heal writer’s block instantly.

After a session in which energetic blocks are released my clients report experiencing a higher state of energy. They later have let me know they feel less tired throughout the day and more optimistic in general.

Energetic releases are wonderfully beneficial.

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A Healing Community

Here I am recieving a healing from HTP Julie Bergum.
Here I am receiving a healing from CHTP Julie Bergum in 2004.

Community is an essential factor in my success as a self-employed healer. As a Healing Touch Practitioner, I have a local community of active Practitioners to call on for my own self-care and to refer clients to when I am on vacation. I also belong to the Healing Touch Program (HTP),  an international association for professional development that supports me in growing my business and provides me with resources for learning to become an even more grounded, present, and effective healer.

Many years ago I realized how important community was as a self-employed business owner when I had a massage client who was a chef in a stressful, high-pressure restaurant. She worked long hours and professional cooking was very hard on her body. Being a chef is a very physical activity.

She finally quit that job and started her own catering company. She did very well right from the start, was always busy and could choose her clients and schedule. Yet in just under two years after she started working for herself she went back to full-time restaurant work. I couldn’t believe it. Why did she give up her successful business?

When I asked her, she told me she found working for herself to be too lonely.

I realized then how important my friends, family, colleagues, and community were to the success of my business and my overall sense of well-being.

So, as a self-employed healer, I belong to several healing communities. The Healing Touch Network of the East Bay/San Francisco is one of them. We meet quarterly on the first Monday of each month in Lafayette, California. Healing Touch Practitioners attend from all over the San Francisco Bay Area to share a potluck dinner and catch up on Healing Touch events in the area. There is also a talk or presentation on a related healing subject. We support each other on all levels: personal and professional.

I am always incredibly inspired by these meetings. I learn what other Healing Touch Practitioners are doing in their practice and which hospitals, clinics, and hospice facilities have Healing Touch available. This is valuable for my clients when they are interested in finding Healing Touch for themselves, friends and family who may be staying in local medical facilities.

As I mentioned above, I also belong to the national Healing Touch Program (HTP). HTP has a worldwide Healing Touch Conference every year that I am planning to attend next year. Every year I attend the Healing Touch regional conferences and this year we will be in Santa Barbara. The Healing Touch Program is a great resource for staying connected with the current healing trends and learning new skills. It’s also really a fun weekend.

HTP also has a free online periodical, Energy Magazine that I think is the most interesting and relevant energy periodicals published.

Another very important benefit to being connected to my healing community is that I am able to refer my clients. When I go away on vacation, or get a cold and can’t work with clients who have a compromised immune system, I can send them to another local Certified Healing Touch Practitioner in the San Francisco Bay Area and I know they will be in good hands. I can’t imagine the responsibility of feeling like I was the only person who could help someone feel better during a long round of chemotherapy.

I’m so grateful for my Healing Touch community. Without my community support, I know being a solitary healer would be stressful and lonely. I wouldn’t be able to truly help my clients in the best possible way.

Community helps me realize I’m not alone. Today there is a whole consciousness shift in the world and people are opening to the potentials of energetic healing that is inherently available to all of us. I’m very excited to be a part of this community and this awakening.

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Tami Simon interviews Healing Touch Practitioner and Instructor Dr. Dorthea Hover-Kramer

Energy Ball
Tami Simon, the founder of Sounds True, conducted a very intelligent and thoughtful interview with Dr. Dorothea Hover-Kramer, a leader and energetic healing pioneer in my Healing Touch community. This is a fantastic and informative interview about the scientific evidence for energy medicine, the practice of Healing Touch and how anyone can learn to do energy work. This 75-minute interview will be thought-provoking and inspiring for anyone interested in Healing Touch, from beginner to experienced practitioner.
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Dorothea Hover-Kramer has written five books including her new release from Sounds True: Healing Touch: Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others. I have not read the book yet, but I highly recommend this interview available now at Insights At The Edge. I downloaded it from the website and copied it to a CD to play in my car. You can easily download any interview from Insights At The Edge to an iPod or IPhone and listen it anytime.
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A psychotherapist, Dorothea Hover-Kramer has had a private practice for over 30 years. She also has a background as a clinical nurse specialist, cofounded the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, and is now a designated diplomate in comprehensive energy psychology (D.CEP). Dorothea is well respected in the Healing Touch Community and this interview gives you a sense of her vast experience and heart centered commitment to energy medicine and to life in general.
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Getting In Your Body

Centered OneBeing in my body helps me stay more present. Being in my body is a tangible, physical sensation that I can follow to keep me in the present moment.

How do you know if you may be “out of your body”?

You notice bruises on your shins and you have no idea how they got there.
You lose your car key frequently.
You feel bored, tired and not engaged in your daily life.
You find yourself tripping over steps, and knocking glasses of water all over the dinner table.
You catch yourself daydreaming….

How to “get in your body”:

  • Exercise.
  • Meditate.
  • Do yoga, or Tai Chi.
  • Take a day off, take a nap, do nothing and give yourself a break.
  • Get a Clarity Breathwork session or a Healing Touch Session.
  • Eat a piece of chocolate. Notice this is not my first suggestion, but it does make being in your body quite enjoyable.

“To connect with our bodies is to learn to trust ourselves, and from that comes power.” Mirka Knaster

“Great ideas originate in the muscles.” Thomas Edison (I was surprised to find this!)

“There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it.” Elizabeth A. Behnke

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What do I do in a healing session?

A woman asked me the other day, “What exactly do you do when you do a healing?”

I told her I assess the electromagnetic energy field around my client’s body and assist in rebalancing her energy so she can self-heal.

More specifically, I told her that if it were her session, she would be lying comfortably on the table fully clothed with her shoes off. Soft music would be playing in the background. I would move my hands about three inches slowly above her and note any variations in her energy field. Then I would feel and assess her aura, mainly with my hands.

If I found an area that felt “thick” or “stagnant” I’d use my hands in a sweeping motion to move and clear the thickness from that part of the body to restore a smooth energy flow in her energy field. If I found an area that felt cold, I might place my hand on the body, letting the energy flowing through me revitalize and warm the area.

A balanced body heals itself. I should really call myself an energetic rebalancer instead of an energetic healer. But that would mean even more explaining!

When your energy is balanced and flowing it is so much easier to feel relaxed, grounded in your body and fully present. You can physically feel the difference before and after the session.

This is the practical no-nonsense explanation of what I do in a healing. Yet my clients come out of their sessions and report seeing colors, images, or feel like they traveled to another place during their sessions. Clients have also said they have experienced the divine or have felt a very deep peace. Clients have to discover this in the healing session for themselves, because it would take too long for me to explain!

Have a wonderful weekend and please feel free to call or comment with any questions. Phone: 510-601-9632.

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Healing Touch And The Present Moment

Image for Presence
Backyard Buddha

“The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” –Abraham Maslow

“Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.”–Eckhart Tolle

“Living in the present moment creates the experience of eternity.”–Deepak Chopra

You hear a lot about “being present” and “being in the moment”. How do you know if you are “present”? Maybe you feel that you are not as present in your life as you could be, but how do you “get present”?

One way is to meditate.

Another way is to get a Healing Touch Session. I have witnessed so many clients make incredible shifts in their life because they felt what it was like to be more present. Being present and being in the moment is something you have to experience to understand, a tangible difference you can feel from before the session to after the session. Once you know what being present feels like, it is SO much easier to get back there.  It is also easier to go deeper into it.

“You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.”–Eckhart Tolle

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A Healing Touch Clinic in Lafayette, California

Martha Engelbert at the Haelen Clinic

The Haelen Center is a wonderful Healing Touch Clinic in Lafayette, California. Haelen is a Greek word for wholeness and you can feel the fullness of the energy as soon as you step through the front door. I have always wanted to volunteer at Haelen and last Saturday I finally made it happen by telling myself it was time to write a post about it.

The Haelen Center is in the peaceful home of Martha Engelbert. She has a Baltic Wheel labyrinth made from gravel and brick as part of her beautifully landscaped grounds that you can walk before or after your session. There is a nice shot of the labyrinth in a recent article in the Lamorinda Weekly.

The Center is open the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month with two appointment times. The first is at 9:00am and the second is at 10:45am.  On the first and third Saturday of the month there is one session at 9:00am. There can be as many as four people at a time receiving a Healing Touch Session and all sessions are done in separate rooms, giving the healing recipients complete privacy. Sessions last from 45 to 75 minutes.

Two amazing women run the Haelen Center: Martha Engelbert and Suzanne Mittica, a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner. The clinic is well organized and efficient. All Healing Touch sessions are documented and all client files are kept confidential and secure in a locked cabinet.

All volunteers at The Haelen Center have been trained by the Healing Touch Program™ and adhere to the program’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. They are dedicated to serving the surrounding community. They do not charge for their services.  Donations are not expected.  When given, they are welcomed and used to cover expenses benefiting clients.

Call Martha to schedule an appointment at 925-935-6236 and receive directions to The Haelen Center.

The community of Lafayette, California is quite fortunate to have such a life affirming center like Haelen.

 

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Radiation Therapy and Healing Touch

From The Altar of Patty Conway

Many clients healing from cancer decide to do the radiation therapy that their doctor recommends. They also get x-rays, MRI and CT scans to monitor their healing progress, all of which affects the electromagnetic field around their body.

I have found that radiation affects the whole energy field of the body – from the head to the feet – even if the treatment was localized, such as on the chest for breast cancer or at the head for brain tumors. Like chemotherapy, radiation has its own particular ‘feel’ for me when I work in the energy field. I think of it as “disorganized” and “confused” energy. It does not flow smoothly like balanced and healthy energy does.

After “organizing” the client’s energy field with a Healing Touch session the aura feels thicker, stronger and the more energized to me. The client usually reports feeling more energy, less fatigue.  They are able to be more present in their body and more mentally alert and relaxed. All of this supports healing and general well-being of the client.

I am able to use Healing Touch to help clients who experience itching and burning sensations on their skin due to ongoing radiation therapy. Healing Touch can help relieve skin discomfort. After the healing session, I like to show the client how to clear the radiated area themselves as part of their self-care routine.  The radiated area will benefit greatly from being cleared several times a day right after radiation.  Sometimes the discomfort will come back but with less intensity as the body continues to heal.

Please call with any questions or to schedule a healing. I would love to talk with you.

510-601-9632

Special thanks to Healing Touch Practitioner Suzanne Mittica for her insights and expertise on this post and the previous Chemotherapy post.

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Chemotherapy and Healing Touch

The Labyrinth symbolizes the journey to our own center and back again out into the world.
Labyrinth: A Symbol For The Journey

I decided to make Healing Touch and Energy Therapy my life’s work because of the sessions I had experienced while working with clients who have decided to go through chemotherapy. I have been working with clients diagnosed with cancer since 2001.

I believe anyone going through chemotherapy should have Healing Touch available to them. I have had so many clients walk into my healing room with muscle pain, nausea, fatigue and headaches due to chemotherapy.  Many suffer mentally and emotionally knowing that they have many more rounds of chemotherapy ahead of them. My clients report feeling so much better after their session. Most clients feel better for hours or days after and some just don’t experience many of the side effects of chemotherapy at all.

Healing Touch sessions are done with the client fully clothed, on a massage table with relaxing music playing. I assess my client’s energy field by feeling the area around their body with my hands. Depending on what I find, I usually do a 15-minute Chakra Connection with at least 30 to 40 minutes of Magnetic Clearing. The Chakra Connection is a gentle full-body technique that connects, opens and balances the flow of energy throughout my client’s physical body and energy field.

The Magnetic Clearing is an essential technique I use when working with clients going through Chemotherapy because it clears excess chemo from the energy field. Before beginning a Magnetic Clearing, I set my intention to clear all chemo out of my client’s energy field not needed to heal the cancer. A Magnetic Clearing is done from 1” to 6” off the body depending on the client’s sensitivity.  I start slowly and gently about 12” above my client’s head and “rake” my fingers over the body about 12” past the feet. Clients tell me afterwards that this is very calming. I repeat this as many times as needed to clear the field. I have Healing Touch sessions that are 90% Magnetic Clearing.

Usually I can feel with my hands the chemotherapy drugs in my client’s aura.  I can also feel the individual layers of the energy field as each level clears.  I have had some clients who just release or shift all at once after many passes of the Magnetic Clearing. I observe them as they exhale deeply and I watch something just click into place. They usually smile at this point.

Magnetic Clearing can help a client’s emotional or mental state by supporting the release of fears, and mental confusion or fogginess—“chemo brain.” Clients have told me that they are more profoundly aware of with their own inner guidance after the session. This makes it so much easier for them to handle the many medical decisions they have to face throughout their healing process.

I have had friends ask me if working with so many cancer clients is depressing. It’s just the opposite. It is actually thrilling to be able to help another person in such a positive way when they need it the most. There is not a better feeling in the world. I have unbelievable job satisfaction.

Please call with any questions or to schedule a healing. If you or someone you know is starting or currently going through Chemotherapy outside the Oakland/Berkeley area you can check the Healing Touch Website for other certified Healing Touch Practitioners.

510-601-9632

Special thanks to Suzanne Mittica for her insights and suggestions on this post.