Healing touch is an energy-based therapeutic approach to healing (Poznanski-Hutchinson, 1999; Mentgen, 1996). Healing touch uses touch to influence the body’s energy system, thus affecting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and healing (Mentgen, 2001). The goal of healing touch is to restore balance in clients’ energy systems, thereby placing clients in a position to self-heal.
Mentgen, J. (1996). The clinical practice of healing touch. Imprint, 43, 33–36.
Mentgen, J. (2001). Healing touch. Holistic Nursing Care, 36, 143–157.
Poznanski-Hutchinson, C. (1999). Healing touch: An energetic approach. American Journal of Nursing, 99, 43–48.
Tabatabaee, A., Tafreshi, M.Z., Rassouli, M., Aledavood, S.A., AlaviMajd, H., & Farahmand, S.K. (2016). Effect of therapeutic touch on pain related parameters in patients with cancer: A randomized clinical trial. Materia Socio-Medica, 28, 220–223.
The purpose was to evaluate the effects of therapeutic touch (TT) for pain management.
Patients were randomly assigned to TT, placebo, or control groups. TT was provided by a trained therapist in a private area every three days for seven sessions. In the placebo group, hands were placed around the body in a sham procedure. The control group received usual care. TT and sham procedure took 10-15 minutes.
PHASE OF CARE: Transition phase after active treatment
Three-group sham-controlled randomized clinical trial
Brief Pain Inventory
Only pain interference was reported. No information was provided on pain severity. After the first TT session, there were no significant differences between groups in pain interference results. After session 7, those in the TT group showed lower pain interference for activity (p = 0.001), mood (p = 0.001), walking ability (p = 0.001), relationships with other people (p = 0.001), and sleep (p = 0.001).
TT may be helpful for pain management in patients with cancer and managing sleep disturbance related to pain.
TT is a low-risk intervention that may be beneficial for some patients in managing pain and reducing the impact of pain on sleep. This study had multiple limitations. Further well-designed research in effectiveness of TT for varied types of pain is needed.
Weze, C., Leathard, H. L., Grange, J., Tiplady, P., & Stevens, G. (2004). Evaluation of healing by gentle touch in 35 clients with cancer. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 8, 40–49.
The healing touch method was a noninvasive, noncondition-specific method in which hands were placed on various parts of the body for about 40 minutes; particular attention was given to areas of pain or discomfort. Four one-hour sessions were conducted over four to six weeks (or withdrawn).
Patients were undergoing the active treatment and long-term follow-up phases of care.
The study used a one-group, pre- and posttest feasibility design.
A statistically significant improvement was found from pre- to posttest for sleep disturbance.