therapeutic baths See HYDROTHERAPY.
Therapeutic Touch (TT) Based on ancient healing
practices involving the body’s electromagnetic
energy fields, a scientific nursing intervention for-
mally developed in the early 1970s by Dolores
Krieger, Ph.D., R.N., professor emerita of New York
University, and the natural healer Dora Van Gelder
Kunz, to assist in balancing the flow of human
energies by directing or manipulating them with
the hands. The Therapeutic Touch practitioner seeks
to repattern the recipient’s weakened or compro-
mised energy flow and stimulate the immune sys-
tem to boost its innate ability to foster healing.
Therapeutic Touch (TT) was the first of human
bioenergetic field therapies to receive funding for
further study from the National Center for Com-
plementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM),
which was established by the National Institutes of
Health. In one study conducted by the University
of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Center for Nurs-
ing Research, Therapeutic Touch was shown to
have a positive impact on acquired immunodefi-
ciency syndrome (AIDS) patients’ immune system
function and to reduce stress. In another UAB
study, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense,
TT was shown to be beneficial in reducing pain and
anxiety in burn patients, and a more recent study
suggested that TT also helps patients who are
bereaved. It has also been reported that neonates
and anesthetized or comatose patients may also
benefit from TT, which is intended to create a feel-
ing of integration and equilibrium through mobi-
lizing the body’s own healing energies.
The principles of TT are centering, assessment,
balancing, and reassessment. Centering refers to the
practitioner’s summoning and maintaining a peace-
ful mindset before a TT session with a patient. This
may be accomplished through deep-breathing or
other relaxation or meditative technique, which is
chosen by the individual. Once centered, the prac-
titioner “scans,” or assesses, the patient’s energy
field in order to perceive cues, that is, indicators of
imbalance in the energy field. Usually the patient is
lying down as the practitioner uses the palms of his
or her hands to “connect” with the energy that sur-
rounds the outside of the body. In general TT, the
patient’s body is not touched by the practitioner; TT
differs from a laying-on of hands or other direct-
contact therapies. Instead, the practitioner focuses
on the few inches beyond the body, where the
energy field may be manipulated. Energy field cues
may be perceived by the practitioner as sensations
such as heat, cold, tingling, or whatever is intuited.
After the practitioner gains that intuitive knowledge
about the patient’s energy field, balancing involves
several techniques: modulating refers to tempering
the outflow of energy, directingrefers to the transfer
of energy between the patient and practitioner,
unrufflingis a clearing or smoothing of the energy
field, especially in areas that are distressed. The law
of opposites also applies, in that an energy field may
be rebalanced by the practitioner’s intuitive projec-
tion of an opposite cue.
Upon completion of Therapeutic Touch, the
practitioner then must reassess the patient’s energy
field to determine the outcome of the session. Prac-
titioners agree that a consistently beneficial out-
come may be the result of many years of practice
and development of the therapist’s own sensitivity.
Training in TT consists of a minimum of 12 hours
of education with a qualified TT educator who
meets specific guidelines of the Nurse Healers-Pro-
fessional Associates International Inc. (NH-PAI),
the official organization of Therapeutic Touch.
Therapeutic Touch is taught at New York Uni-
versity by Dr. Krieger as well as in more than 200
facilities, including medical centers, universities,
and massage therapy schools, and in more than 78
countries. The NH-PAI offers a national credential,
along with policies, procedures, and guidelines for
scope of practice and teacher/mentor/practitioner.
A variation of TT, Healing Touch, was developed by
Janet Mentgen, R.N., in 1981; it uses TT in addition
to other bioenergetic techniques.
See also BIOENERGETICS; KRIEGER, DOLORES; KUNZ,
DORA VAN GELDER.Thomson, Samuel Leader of a movement of
herbalists who patented his system of herbal medi-
cine in 1813 and sold the rights to others who
wished to practice it. They became known as Thom-
sonian practitioners, and by 1839, there were
100,000 in the United States. Thomsonians formed
the Eclectic Medical Institute in 1845, on the
premise of combining European herbal medicine150 therapeutic baths