Healing touch helps those with cancer in many ways. It improves the quality of their life, helps to decrease side effects of chemo and radiation, decreases anxiety, anger and depression, improves physical functioning and helps decrease pain. This is based upon what I have seen in my own practice,what many of my healing touch colleagues have experienced and the results found in several studies.

Many hospitals are incorporating healing touch into their outpatient cancer units. Locally, Stanford has a volunteer program for women with breast cancer and Valley Care in Livermore has a paid RN, HTCP for a few hours per week. I am so pleased and excited that health institutions are finally starting to appreciate how holistic therapies can complement what they are doing!  What do you think about hospitals incorporating this into their care? I would love to know.

I have been volunteering at the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic for low income women with cancer since 2008. Time after time clients tell me the services they receive here are what allows them to keep going in for chemo or radiation therapy. Many are dealing with housing, food and family issues as well and tell me that the worry, anxiety and stress melt away after receiving healing touch. They feel more optimistic and lighter. You see you hold your thoughts not only in your mind but in your energy field as well. Healing touch can help gently clear the negative thoughts from the field allowing the energy to flow and the body to help heal itself.

There are many different healing touch techniques to address physical pain and side effects of cancer treatment. One side effect that many people develop is neuropathy. This can manifest as tingling,burning or pain in the feet or hands. Receiving HT after the chemotherapy can greatly decrease the occurrence and severity based on our experiences. A great example is my colleague Jeri, she was unable to see a client the day of her chemo treatment because Jeri was ill. That was the only time her client experienced tingling in her feet after chemo. Every other time Jeri had worked on her the day of her treatment. Many clients are recovering from surgery and experiencing pain. Others have general body pain due to the chemo or the cancer itself. I have clients rate the pain on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 10 (excruciating pain) before and after the HT treatment. Healing touch allows the client to relax which helps the body release endorphins that reduce pain. Usually clients indicate a decrease of 2 – 5 points after the treatment. Many times my clients leave standing taller and walking better because their pain has been significantly reduced. Healing touch can be done long distance, also called distance healing. I have worked with cancer clients in other states that received the same benefits as those that came to my office. Healing touch helps those with cancer in many ways.

As an energy worker, I believe there should be some sort of exchange between people so this content is not for free. If you found it valuable, in exchange for payment, I ask that you do one or all of the following:

1) Share it with at least 2 people on Facebook, via email or any social media of your choice.

2) Answer the question or leave a comment.

Laurie Ratto, RN, BSN, Speaker, HTCP, CCA has 30+ years’ experience helping people to heal from physical, mental , and emotional pain. She provides a safe, nurturing space for women to release fears and self-doubt, what spiritually ties us to pain. Laurie Ratto specializes in complementary medicine,as a holistic healer, she keeps her RN certification current because she understands the power of balance as we heal.