Therapeutic touch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Therapeutic Touch (TT) (English for Therapeutic Touch ) is a pseudo-scientific alternative medical treatment method, a variant of the laying on of hands , in which the therapist does not touch the patient. It is based on the thesis widespread in esotericism that humans have their own "energy field" (also called prana , aura , qi , etc.) that is constantly in contact with the - presumed - energy fields of their environment.

Therapeutic Touch is an alternative treatment method that has often been scientifically studied. An effectiveness could not be determined in these investigations. TT practitioners have not been able to demonstrate their alleged ability to perceive a person's energy field, which is essential for treatment, under controlled conditions.

Procedure

According to the users, the aim is to use the hands to feel and harmonize the human energy field that forms in the body and extends beyond the body's limits. This should give the touch an additional "dimension", the conscious "energy control".

history

Therapeutic Touch was published in 1972 by the two theosophists Dolores Krieger ( Theosophical Society Adyar ), professor of nursing science at New York University , in collaboration with Dora van Gelder Kunz (1904–1999), president of the American section of the Adyar-TG. The work of the New York nursing scientist Martha Rogers (1914–1994), in which she assumed that humans are an open system that is constantly in communication with the environment via electromagnetic waves , formed one of the foundations for the development of TT.

The method spread due to a publication in the renowned American Journal of Nursing and intensive lobbying by its supporters. In the United States, about 100,000 people, including 50,000 nurses, have been trained in TT. More than 100 colleges and universities offered courses. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association cataloged Energy Field Disturbance with TT as the primary intervention in 1995.

Scientific assessment

A few careful reviews of the literature came to the conclusion that many of the relevant studies had methodological deficiencies. According to the criteria of evidence-based medicine , the postulated effectiveness of the "Therapeutic Touch" therapy has not been proven.

In 1998 the then 11-year-old student Emily Rosa, the youngest author of a major scientific journal at the time, published an article in the journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which required peer review, about an experiment she had already carried out two years earlier, i.e. when she was 9 years old Years ago. This study showed that 21 TT practitioners were unable to perceive the "energy field" of the experimenter's hand if they could not see her hand. Emily and the TT practitioners were separated from each other in the test arrangement by a cardboard screen. In this privacy screen there were two holes through which the TT practitioner stuck his hands. Emily, on the other hand, held her hand over either the subject's left or right hand without touching it. The order in which this happened was determined at random by the tossing of a coin . The task of the TT practitioners was to demonstrate that they felt the girl's energy field by indicating which of her hands Emily was holding her hand over. The 21 TT practitioners came up with a hit rate of 44%, while random guessing in this experimental setup resulted in an average hit rate of 50%. After protests from Therapeutic Touch supporters, the attempt was repeated two years later. This time the TT practitioners came up with a hit rate of 41%.

International Therapeutic Touch Association

The International Therapeutic Touch Association (ITTA) , based in Utrecht (Netherlands), develops guidelines for training, curricula and quality standards in the field of Therapeutic Touch. As a minimum requirement for the exercise of the activity, it requires training consisting of 48 lessons of theory and 20 lessons of case studies. The association pursues the goal of integrating Therapeutic Touch into the European health systems and is an amalgamation of TT organizations in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria and Scandinavian countries as well as South Africa.

See also

literature

  • Donal P. O'Mathuna, Steven Pryjmachuk, Wayne Spencer, Michael Stanwick, Stephan Matthiesen: A critical evaluation of the theory and practice of therapeutic touch ( Memento from December 22, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Nursing Philosophy. 3 (2), 2003, pp. 163-176.
  • Donal P. O'Mathuna: Evidence-based practice and reviews of therapeutic touch. In: Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 32/2000, pp. 279-285.
  • Linda Rosa, Emily Rosa, Larry Sarner, Stephen Barrett: A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch . In: Journal of the American Medical Association. 279, 1998, pp. 1005-1010.
  • Pamela Potter Hughes, Robin Meize-Grochowski, Catherine Neighbor Duncan Harris: Therapeutic Touch With Adolescent Psychiatric Patients . In: Journal of Holistic Nursing. 14 (1996) 1, pp. 6-23.
  • Dolores Krieger: Therapeutic Touch. The healing power of our hands . Verlag Lüchow, Freiburg 2004.
  • Imre and Dagny Kerner: Heal . Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, Cologne 1997.
  • Rita Beckendorf: Touching the soul with your hands - Therapeutic Touch in child psychiatry. In: Care magazine. Verlag W. Kohlhammer. 8/2004, pp. 552-554.
  • Renate Wallrabenstein: Conducted Energy - Therapeutic Touch. In: Elderly Care. Vincentz Network Publishing House. 4/2005, pp. 2-4.
  • Susanne Backs: Therapeutic Touch and Energy Training: Touch that moves - movements that touch. In: gymnastics and sport. Pohl publishing house. 10/2004, ed. by the professional association of state-certified gymnastics teachers, Deutscher Gymnastik Bund DGYMB eV

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ international.theoservice.org
  2. ↑ theosophical.org
  3. ↑ Patricia Winstead-Fry, Jean Kijek: An Integrative Review and Meta-Analysis of Therapeutic Touch Research. In: Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 5 (6), 1999, pp. 58-66.
  4. ^ JA Astin, E. Harkness, E. Ernst: The efficacy of 'distant healing': a systematic review of randomized trials. In: Annals of Intern. Medicine. 132, 2000, pp. 903-910.
  5. ↑ Linda Rosa, Emily Rosa, Larry Sarner, Stephen Barrett: A Close Look at Therapeutic Touch. In: Journal of the American Medical Association. 279, April 1998, pp. 1005-1010. (Full text)