Healing Touch

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · Janet Mentgen · 1989 · San Antonio, Texas

What it is

The inventory has three parts: A, the psychotherapist's framing work; B, the session-sequence steps; C, the named techniques. Hand positions and movement sequences for most named techniques are taught in HTP and HBB course workbooks and are not published openly; where a technique's steps are not…

Format

• Intake: condition, goals (relaxation, stress, symptom relief, preparation for a procedure), health history; first private session includes a health questionnaire and privacy forms; in hospitals verbal consent.
• Intervention: one or more techniques (UMN gives 10–40 minutes of technique time).

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Alternative route: Healing Beyond Borders teaches an "HTI Healing Touch Certificate Program" in Courses 1–5 with its own student textbook; instructors are styled Certified Healing Touch Practitioner/Instructor. Its certification requirements are.
• HTP's full Scope of Practice and Code of Ethics are taught in class; their text is. A licensed psychotherapist remains bound by their own licence, ethics code and employer touch policy, which take precedence over any course certificate.
• Version followed: the five-level Healing Touch Program (HTP, San Antonio, Texas) curriculum founded by nurse Janet Mentgen, as HTP currently publishes it (Levels 1–5, mentorship, HTCP certification). Technique and course names used by the parallel "HTI Healing Touch Certificate Program" of Healing Beyond Borders (Courses 1–5) are noted where they differ.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status (one line). Small trials report relaxation, pain and mood effects (e.g. a 2012 randomised trial of Healing Touch plus guided imagery in returning active-duty Marines with PTSD symptoms), but the evidence base is limited and the proposed energy mechanism is unverified.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• strong emotion; pace slowly and check in.
• clients assuming a medical-device effect; correct this plainly.
• rushing the opening and closing steps. Working: the client knows what to expect at each stage.
• glazed eyes, slowed responses, freezing, sudden apology or compliance; these mean stop and orient.
• magical thinking, ideas of being influenced at a distance (contraindicated in psychosis), dependence.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.