MM Chapter 18: Energetic Approaches

There is no official certification process to become a therapeutic touch practitioner in the United States. However, therapeutic touch is not massage and should not be practiced as part of a massage session; Chapter 6, discusses why energetic systems should not be mixed with nonenergetic systems without the client’s informed consent. Most often, therapeutic touch […]

Therapeutic touch practitioners notice that sessions increase client relaxation and are beneficial for any stress-related condition. The benefits of therapeutic touch for reducing anxiety in a hospital or clinical setting before stressful testing are well documented.17 Therapeutic touch also demonstrates the ability to reduce the experience of both acute and chronic pain. For example, in

Therapeutic touch practitioners follow a specific series of steps when providing sessions to clients. Centering: The goal of centering is to quiet the mind and emotions, set an intent to benefit the client, and focus on the session by setting aside the concerns of the external world. Practitioners are mindful of maintaining their energetic boundaries.

Therapeutic touch is based on a belief in a human energy field and on universal energy available to all people. This system also promotes the idea of order as an underlying characteristic of the universe and human beings that allow the body, mind, and spirit to act as a coherent whole. Healthy function relies on

You already know that when the positive and negative poles of two magnets are put together, they attract each other. The therapist places their hands in such a way to use this attraction of positive to negative to balance the flow of energy in the client’s body.  Two contacts are made simultaneously with the hands,

Polarity therapists note that clients have a variety of reactions to polarity. Some experience profound relaxation, while others have physical “unwinding” where the arms and legs jerk as the nervous system decompresses. Still, others experience emotional releases and intense body sensations or imagery.  Like most energetic approaches to bodywork, polarity therapy is indicated for any

During sessions, polarity therapists follow some basic guidelines to ensure treatments are comfortable for the client and as effective as possible. Focus of treatment: Treatments focus on life energy and not on a specific disease, condition, or injury. The therapist uses hand contacts to free blocked or fixed energy, knowing that the body can heal

Polarity therapists use different approaches to assess clients and determine where energy is blocked or fixed. Some therapists use one method for assessment, while others use a combination of methods. Interview: The therapist interviews the client to find out about present conditions, symptoms, physical sensations, emotional balance, stress levels, and thought patterns. The information gained

The term polarity is used in both electricity and magnetism. It is helpful to understand polarity in terms of electrical wiring to better understand how Stone believed energy flowed in the human body. Imagine two points or objects connected by a wire that carries an electric current. One of the points or objects (poles) has

In the reiki tradition, a practitioner must be empowered with “attunements” provided by a reiki master to channel reiki source energy for healing. For this reason, specific techniques are not taught here, but a general session is described. In a typical reiki session, a client lies down on a massage table in a relaxed position