Energy: Reiki, Healing Touch, and Therapeutic Touch
Intended Audience
All members including people living with cancer, family members and significant caregivers.
Program Description
Wellspring members are offered the opportunity to sample three energy-based modalities, including Healing Touch, Reiki and Therapeutic Touch, performed in a safe space with vetted volunteers who are certified energy practitioners. While these practices differ somewhat, they are all grounded in the current understanding of biophysics, based on ancient traditions (e.g., Chinese and Indian), and deemed completely safe. These energy-based practices are considered holistic and complementary, in that they encompass body, mind and spirit and are intended be offered as a complement to conventional medical treatment.
Please note members are permitted to enjoy a total of three complimentary energy sessions. If you are looking for more, we are happy to share the practitioner contact information for you for further sessions that are not provided by Wellspring Alberta.
Benefits and Impact
Energy therapies such as Reiki, Healing Touch, and Therapeutic Touch have been suggested in the literature to be valuable supportive therapies for some cancer survivors. Research has demonstrated that these interventions might improve anxiety, fatigue, pain and quality of life in people living with cancer (Mangione et al., 2017; Potter, 2013; Thrane et. al, 2014; Fleisher et. al, 2013; Birocco et. al. 2011).
What to Expect at a Session
For all three practices, participants are fully clothed and the table they are invited to lay down on is fully sterilized and safe. Also, while two of these practices may include light intentional touch, this only occurs with full permission from the participant.
When beginning a session, a certified practitioner takes a moment to get centred, calming their mind and becoming fully present to the participant. While Reiki is mainly a hands-off practice, Healing and Therapeutic Healing may involve placing the hands lightly on the participant’s body in various positions, with permission. All three may also include hands hovering slightly above the participant’s body. As the practitioner seeks to bring the person’s energy fields into balance, he or she may also make sweeping hand motions above the patient’s body.
In addition to Wellspring’s intent to offer these sessions in person, Reiki and Therapeutic Touch also have a virtual component, whereby the practitioner can administer these forms of therapy from a distance, most effectively when the practitioner and participant are both focused and intentional at the time of the session.
