Healing Touch: Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others

Material

Praise for Healing Touch

I depend on Healing Touch practices to fill in the chasm between life’s unmet needs and my capabilities...

Dorothea’s book is an absolute must for anyone and everyone who lives a real life, which is what we are essentially here to do. We are here to be a light from heaven on earth, even while walking, talking, working, loving, arguing, sleeping, and simply being. We are here to light the world, whether in a grocery store, doctor’s office, or day care center. We are here to give and receive light, and that is the instruction really provided by Healing Touch.

—FROM THE FOREWORD BY CYNDI DALE

Author of the award-winning bestseller The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy

This is a superb book! Your hands can be powerful tools for healing. While our ancestors knew this well, we have forgotten. Healing Touch is a wonderful guide for re-embracing your natural healing abilities. It shows you how to use your hands to bolster the energies that are the foundation of health.

—DONNA EDEN

Author of Energy Medicine and Women’s Health with Energy Medicine

Healing Touch is an essential part of the education in being human we always needed but never got, skills that we need today more than ever. And Dr. Hover-Kramer is the perfect expert to provide it. Do take advantage of the opportunity this book gives you to learn directly from her how to add HT to your education in being human, whether for yourself or to help others.

—DAVID GRUDER, PhD

Integrative psychologist, ACEP cofounder, eight-time award-winning author of The New IQ, and America’s Integrity Expert

Dorothea Hover-Kramer expresses the same compassion on every page of Healing Touch that I feel when I’m with a roomful of Healing Touch practitioners. The book contains everything you could possibly want to know, whether you are a novice or an accomplished practitioner: delightful true stories, easy-to-follow descriptions of techniques, scientific studies, and a short history of energy healing. Both easy and fun to read, I had trouble putting it down.

—LINNIE THOMAS, HTCP/I, MLM

Author of The Encyclopedia of Energy Medicine and founder of the International Association for Energy Healers

Learning to consciously tap into and work with the intelligent, loving flow of energy that gave us birth, the reason we wake up every day, is such a gift. Healing Touch: Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others puts back into our own hands the power to affect our health and well-being and to share that with others. This book should be right next to the toothbrush or water glass, something we use every day.

—LINDSAY WAGNER

Actress, author, Oneness Deeksha, and related energy medicine trainer

This delightful, well-organized, easily readable book does indeed present Healing Touch in a format accessible to everyone. Reading it, I find myself eager to pursue further training in Healing Touch to benefit my patients, family, friends, and myself. The methods presented here should be invaluable to anyone feeling the stresses of life in this complex, fast-paced world. Thank you, Dorothea, for such a gift of a book.

—PENNY BURDICK, MD, ABFM, ABHM, FAAFP

When Janet Mentgen founded the Healing Touch Program in the late 1980s, Dorothea partnered with her to assure the quality and professionalism of this popular and highly respected Western medical-based energy therapy program. Twenty-one years later, she continues to get the good word out to the world about the benefits and practicality of Healing Touch.

Healing Touch: Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others is enjoyable and comprehensive in its presentation and provides enough detail to guide the reader in some of the basic practices of Healing Touch. It is sure to inspire many interested people who would like to learn to use their hands and hearts to facilitate healing in themselves and others.

—CYNTHIA HUTCHISON, DNSc, RN, MSN, HTCP/I

Director, Healing Touch Program

An energy medicine must! Dorothea’s book offers a cooperative application to bring traditional medicine and energy medicine together. Her perspective allows the patient the best of care through integration of science, theory, and practical application.

—CAROL KOMITOR, CMT, HTCI, HTACP

Founder of Healing Touch for Animals

Although there are many careers and pathways, it is the heart that makes us human.

This book is dedicated to everyone who wants to share the beauty of the human spirit.

List of Energy-Related Exercises and Methods

Exercises

7.1 Chakra Meditation

7.2 Self-Chakra Connection

7.3 Sensing Your Protective Field

8.1 Life-Giving Breath

8.2 Imaging a Peaceful Place

8.3 Bringing Consciousness into Every Activity

8.4 Connecting with the Unlimited Supply of Energy

9.1 Brush Down

9.2 Magnetic Clearing

11.1 The Chakra Rotation

11.2 The Chakra Connection

13.1 Integrating Self-Affirmation into the Body

13.2 An Energy Psychology Pattern to Release Trauma

13.3 Installing New Possibilities with Acupoints

Methods

Magnetic Passes for Headaches

Magnetic Passes for Pain Relief Anywhere in the Body

Ultrasound

Laser

Mind Clearing

List of Illustrations

Photos and illustrations related to Healing Touch throughout this book are provided with the kind support and permission of the Healing Touch Program, with central offices in San Antonio, Texas.

Figures

4.1 The Human Biofield with Its Major Layers

4.2 The Seven Major Energy Centers

9.1 Attuning to the Client

9.2 Practitioner’s Hands in Motion over an Affected Area

9.3 Hands Still on or above the Painful Area

9.4 Grounding and Releasing the Client

10.1 Holding the Front and Back of the Head to Relieve a Tension Headache

10.2 Practitioner’s Hands in Motion over a Painful Knee

10.3 Practitioner’s Hands Still on a Painful Knee

10.4 Model of Energetic Ultrasound

10.5 Models of Energetic Laser

10.6-10.13 Mind Clearing Sequence

11.1-11.17 Sample Hand Positions for the Chakra Connection

Table

4.1 The Energy Centers and Their Predominant Physiological and Psychological Aspects

Foreword

by Cyndi Dale

Two hundred years ago, our great-great-great grandmothers and grandfathers would have been shocked to hear about today’s advancements in Western medicine, perhaps to the point of disbelief. A shot will prevent polio, mumps, or yellow fever? A small pill, called an antibiotic, will cure deadly diseases or prevent gangrene? Surgical procedures will reattach severed limbs? Something called stem cells will regrow fingertips or even entire organs?

Far across the ocean in the Orient, Easterners were already practicing a form of medicine that included using needles to move invisible energies in and out of the body. Our Western ancestors would have considered this form of health care nonsense—or possibly witchcraft. They might have asked how acupuncture could work when a needle is meant for sewing, not healing.

Two centuries ago, the Western mind couldn’t understand a different culture’s form of medicine, which has since been scientifically proven effective in treating pain, addictions, depression, and other afflictions. These days, we call this medicine holistic, alternative, or complementary.

History has proven that great progress is seldom foreseen and is often unpublicized. Dorothea Hover-Kramer’s book, Healing Touch, however, must be noticed. News of this book, and the implementation of its advice, can’t wait for tomorrow’s audience. Therapeutic Healing Touch is a landmark healing approach—one that blends Eastern and Western philosophies and techniques. Even more important, Healing Touch promises to usher in a new era that focuses the power of love for patient and practitioner alike. The best part is that Dorothea’s book really is for everyone—for real people with real lives and real concerns. Now we can all learn how to deliver and benefit from this healing medicine, regardless of any previous experience—or lack thereof—in a medical field.

As a healing practice, Healing Touch is unsurpassed. As explained by Dorothea, Healing Touch falls under the category of energy medicine, or the manipulation of energy to establish optimum wholeness—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The basic philosophy is holistic, a 5,000-year-old Eastern tradition that treats the entirety of a person, not just the symptoms she or he experiences. Because of this, Healing Touch invites a transformation of body, mind, and soul—the three elements of the self that intertwine to create true well-being. Reminiscent of ancient wisdom, Healing Touch is ageless. It carries forward a torch of hope, the light needed when our doorsteps are darkened by illness, loss, or trauma.

Healing Touch is not only an Eastern or alternative care. It has matured and is quickly being integrated into allopathic medical communities worldwide. As of 2007, at least a hundred U.S. hospitals offered Healing Touch, with more than 86,000 nurses or health-care professionals delivering the service, according to Healing Touch. This number is growing by leaps and bounds annually, with hospitals frequently incorporating Healing Touch as a complement to standard care. It’s not uncommon to find Healing Touch practitioners soothing patients in hospital pre- and post-surgical areas, or assisting with sleep disturbances. In addition, hundreds of thousands of individuals have received Healing Touch treatments in practitioner-based clinical and office settings.

Procedures include assessing energy imbalances, shifting energy in the biofield (the layers of energy that surround our body), creating ease through various relaxation processes, and utilizing a number of other maneuvers to alter the issues underlying a presenting concern. The idea is that as you modify the energy causing a problem, you can potentially shift the problem right out of existence—or at least initiate enough change to enable balance and hope.

Practitioners can receive energy through their heartfelt intentions and send it to a recipient with their hands, which usually move above the physical body. They can also send healing in absentia or to someone in a different locale. As explained by Dorothea, Healing Touch works by aligning the unlimited supply of energy in the universe through committed focus called centering. The process requires knowledge and practice, but no extraneous materials such as stethoscopes, pills, or needles. This means that Healing Touch can be performed anywhere and by anyone committed to love—once he or she has been guided through the correct steps.

This ease of delivery is one of the reasons Healing Touch is so popular, but the main attraction is its efficacy. Nearly one hundred studies have been conducted on Healing Touch, with many organizations participating in the discovery. Healing Touch has certainly earned its reputation as one of the world’s most credible, widespread, hands-on energy medicines; it’s well documented in its ability to relieve anxiety, pain, suffering, emotional distress, stress, and illness. This energy treatment has benefited so many people that the Healing Touch Program agreed to support Dorothea in authoring a book that shows us average people how to apply these techniques in our everyday lives.

For decades, Healing Touch was only taught to those willing to undergo the intensive training available through the Healing Touch Program (HTP). More than a hundred thousand people (both laypersons and health-care practitioners) have been trained through HTP, the only nationally accredited program of its type. Multiply the number of practitioners by the thousands upon thousands who have received Healing Touch treatments, and you will understand why it is spreading so quickly and why you want to be apprised of this simple yet amazingly powerful practice.

Dorothea is uniquely capable of revealing these trade secrets in such a way that we can all safely access these healing methods. Her wall is covered with professional credentials in nursing and psychology, including a doctorate in educational psychology, a master’s degree in public-health nursing, and a diploma in comprehensive energy psychology. In addition to being a founding elder in the Healing Touch Program, Dorothea is also one of the pioneers of energy medicine and energy psychology. She is, therefore, an extraordinary guide into the world in which small to large miracles occur daily.

Yet it is her spirit that guarantees the beauty and accessibility of this book. Dorothea cares. As a child, she could perceive the light inside living beings. Because of this sensitivity, Dorothea is distinctively able to show us our true light—no matter what is happening in our lives—and how to use the resulting insights to better ourselves and others. As a collective, we can now begin to close the gap between the Eastern world, which embraces the subtle and the soul, and the Western universe, which comprehends the body and the mind. As individuals, we can bridge chasms that separate parts of ourselves, creating unity where there was once divisiveness.

I was able to use the tools outlined in Dorothea’s book at a critical time in my own life. While reading a preview of her book, I helped my ill mother move four times. I inhaled Dorothea’s wisdom about caregiver burnout—I felt ready to check into a senior center myself. Dorothea’s practical methods for nourishing my inner core and physical well-being were crucial to my survival.

Is a loved one dying? Dorothea instructs us on how to ease the transition or perhaps even stave off death until another time. Are you or someone you care about ill, fatigued, traumatized, or in pain? The techniques included in this book are thoughtful, simple, and safe.

Myself, I’ve employed Healing Touch and related practices in my everyday life for decades. As a professional energy expert, I use these types of tools in my practice all day long. As an author, I often research and write about the history of healing, sharing how energy medicine really works. As a person, however, I know that what really counts is how I integrate these truths into my real life: how I deal with unkempt rooms, needy children, dead batteries, the flu, and Minnesota winters that seem eleven months long.

Let’s face it: life is challenging, and we can use all the supernatural help we can get. As a single mother with two boys and five animals—none of whom feel particularly called to listen to my deep wisdom—I depend on Healing Touch practices to fill the gap between life’s unmet needs and my capabilities.

How often did I soothe a child’s brow, furtively delivering the kiss of healing energy when Tylenol wasn’t cutting it? How did I tear my younger son’s homework out of the wild maniac dog’s toothy grip, if not for the power of Healing Touch? My older son still doesn’t admit that there was something pretty cool about reducing his swollen ankle to normal size in five minutes with that weird stuff Mom does. And my partner doesn’t realize that we would have twice the discussions we’ve actually had if I hadn’t learned how to soothe my inner being with Healing Touch relaxation techniques.

To be honest, the only thing Healing Touch hasn’t helped me do is cook. My younger son still thinks that homemade cookies come out of a long tube and need only to be cut before being baked.

Could my children have survived my mothering if not for Healing Touch practices?

Clearly, Dorothea’s book is an absolute must for anyone and everyone who lives a real life. We are here on earth to be a light from heaven, even while walking, talking, working, loving, arguing, sleeping, and simply being. We are here to ignite the world, whether in a grocery store, doctor’s office, or day-care center. We are here to give and receive love, and that is the essential instruction provided by Healing Touch.

As the Greek physician Hippocrates said ages ago, Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity. Through Healing Touch, Dorothea presents real-life techniques that will help you deal with all the opportunities life presents, from broken hearts to crying children to bodily wounds. At their core, Healing Touch really is an opportunity to advance—to learn, grow, transform, and ultimately to open more to the truth of who we are. Essentially, this book is about the great truths we are to insert ourselves into every day. May you learn how to shine even brighter because of it.

—CYNDI DALE

Bloomington, Minnesota

June 2011

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the stories sent to me by many practitioners from the worldwide Healing Touch community who bring the examples in this book to life. All names and specifically identifying circumstances have been changed to protect confidentiality, but their reality as lived experiences rings true.

I also want to express my appreciation to the large networks of the Healing Touch Program (HTP) for their support and encouragement in bringing this work to reality. The growing community of thousands of practitioners worldwide welcomes the increased public visibility of the work that this book can bring. I especially want to thank Lisa Mentgen-Gordon, HTP’s CEO and administrator, and Cynthia Hutchison, the HT Program director, for their steady encouragement and support in writing this book.

Thanks also go to the steady help from the staff of Sounds True for their vision in seeking me out and for assisting with this book project: Jennifer Y. Brown, Haven Iverson, and Shanti Einolander.

Introduction

There is a quiet light that shines in every heart ... It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life.

—POET JOHN O’DONOHUE, FROM TO BLESS THE PLACE BETWEEN US

All of life is imbued with energy, the nonmaterial life force that is dramatically absent when life ends. Science is showing us that we humans are indeed energy beings with a vibrational field that communicates information within the physical body as well as within the creative mind. Allowing ourselves to sense the quiet light within is a natural human potential. We can extend this inner light to express caring for others and to alleviate suffering, as we’ll explore in this book.

My own life story has always been closely intertwined with sensing the life essence of other people and living things. On reflection, I think this sensitivity was my best response to handling the vast, incomprehensible forces that surrounded me. No one could make sense of the horrors of life and death with which I grew up in the midst of the massive world war in Berlin, Germany, during the time of saturation bombings and the death of my mother.

I had to trust my inner knowing, which was undoubtedly enhanced by my five-year-old fanciful imagination. As a child, I noticed that some people seemed to have brightness, vitality, or a quality of light surrounding them. Based on this quality, I chose my substitute caregiver from the many wandering refugees passing by our house. I also noticed the diminished lights in many of the refugees. One woman particularly had no visible life force. She was brought to our front door. While other refugees attempted to help her, and while I ran to get a glass of water, she died on the doorstep.

When the magnificent trees on my street were felled for post-war winter firewood, a neighbor brought several little fledgling birds for me to tend. I intuitively put my hands over the frantically jumping, helpless birds. Surprisingly, this calmed them. I then invented ways of feeding them with medicine droppers, and by watching their lights, I could tell which ones were going to live and which ones would die. Those that died became part of little burial rituals my older sister and I dreamed up. As for the living, in a few days the little nestlings would fly off on their own.

As the famine after the end of the war progressed, more helpless chicks were brought to me. As before, I used my hands over them and added heartfelt prayers of good wishes for either outcome—whether it be life or death—to help them along.

Years later, while