Challenges of introducing 21 Century healing method in the 20th century. Article written for the Nurse Healers Cooperative Newsletter an organ for Therapeutic Touch Practitioners,  Published 1992 

A commentary and observation by Maud Nordwald Pollock, Human Potentials Consultant/Lecturer/Author and teacher of Therapeutic Touch. 

     Since 1984 I have been teaching the USA developed healing with the hands method known as Therapeutic Touch (TT) in Europe (first in Italy, then in Germany, Switzerland, Austria). I realized when I structured my workshop that I was working in virgin territory especially since at that time non of the books on the subject had been published in Italian or German. There was no continuing spiritual support system for Therapeutic Touch practitioners as exists in the United States, i.e. Follow up TT workshops that provide the spiritual underpinnings on which TT is based, as offered in places like Pumpkin Hollow with instruction by the originators of this method Dora Kunz and Dolores Krieger, amongst others.

    I knew that I had to provide my participants with the most material in a short period of time, to prepare them for their involvement with this then unrecognized type of healing work. I developed a 4 day intensive workshop in which my participants learn the principles of healing, the why and how based on the newest scientific verifications. They learn experientially what I call the traditional method of Therapeutic Touch, working on the energy field or non contact (NCTT) and layin on of hands or contact TT (CTT) as I learned it at New York University, as well as other refinements that have evolved under my tutelage in the last 10 years. They learn to experience and understand the energetic structure of our multidimensional being, through what I call spiritual anatomy. To aid in love of self through conflict resolution at work or at home I also teach an energy transforming self-help method that I call "Feeling Dissolve" based what I call Spiritual psychology, it is an approach for living the soul and loving self and others unconditionally. The workshop is structured to assist my participants to integrate their expanded consciousness into their every day life.

    The challenges of introducing as valid and legitimate the concept that we can heal with the hands into traditional settings, by using a method like Therapeutic Touch, appears from what I have read and in discussions with my US colleagues to follow similar patterns of integration in Europe as have taken place in USA. With more than 15 year lead time it is possible to refer to the experiences of the US TT practitioners and most of all use the considerable research material now available. Some particularly noticeable differences to overcome are educational and attitudinal. Nursing has not been a subject for university education, there has been PHd degree in nursing in the countries where I teach. The professionality required in practicing the healing arts of nursing have been treated more like a mechanics trade with the consequent attitudes towards the nursing personnel. There are many restrictions concerning what nurses can do or say, for example the words treatment, healing or therapeutic are restricted for use only in connection with a MD activities in Germany.

     The most challenging aspect from my frame of reference has been to introduce this method in the hospital setting. This has evolved in two ways and valuable experiences are being gained as protocol for the future. The first approach started in 1988 when I was given my first opportunity, an invitation to teach Therapeutic Touch in a German nursing school. With pioneering insight, the director of this nursing school, who had participated at one of my workshops, felt that everyone should have the opportunity to be exposed to this material so she proposed my workshop as required curriculum for a complete nursing education. I was to teach students of the then 3rd year graduating class.

       I approached my first of two groups of 20 students in July of 1989 full of enthusiasm and optimism. My workshop experience was based on people who come to me out of choice, so I was not prepared for another response from the students. To avoid confusing them, the students were not given preparatory material or told anything about the course, which meant that to that first group I and my ideas were as alien as if I had just landed in an extraterrestrial space ship. To my surprise not every one was as open as I expected to this opportunity to be pioneers, to learn something new to enhance their human potential capabilities. Although my workshop is non religious, based purely on experience and facts, some students rejected what I presented because of their religious beliefs, others because of fear of the new, even though the effects of what they experienced as we practiced made the validity of this work obvious, some left and other become aggressive, some were overwhelmed by what they experienced but could not justify with their current world view which they were unable to change so spontaneously, others become defensive and resentful of what I was teaching, the atmosphere of the group was often confrontational. Non the less about 10 students were interested enough to accept and learn this new method. From this experience the school direction and I realized that even though our educational intent was well meant it was better to let the students elect to participate. The reaction of the second group followed the same pattern as the first, but since they were not compelled to stay by the third day 50% had withdrawn, the ones who remained become an unhampered and enthusiastic group of potential Therapeutic Touch practitioners.

      With the first 20 practitioners launched come the second realization, what to do for the follow up support. Since we were just getting started at that time atmosphere of the hospital was very unfertile, there where only a couple of nurses who had just barley begun to implement TT, the students found no support or encouragement for their new skills, no protocol or experienced guidance, and since they were the first ones with this know how they did not dare to implement TT openly.

     The intent of the school director was to continue teaching this work, I felt that the students had to be made receptive to this new thinking since teaching this method to unprepared students had created a hampering atmosphere of resistance. It was decided that a one day introductory workshop per class would allow the students sufficient exposure to encourage them to elect participation in my workshop. This worked very well and after some years I gained new awareness, I realized that the attitude of the teacher who guides the class for its 3 years, was very important; if it is open or at least neutral to the work, the students were open and signed up, the more open the teachers the more students signed up; if this was not the case, those students resisted or rejected what I presented, very few signed up. For 3 years I taught TT to those students that elected to come, yet there seemed to be no increase in implementation. It was suggested that the work was non effective, yet I realized that this is not true, it was the lack of support for the work that seemed to render it non effective. Lack of experience in promoting this kind of work explains this. Once the students took my workshop they were left on their own, they were not encouraged to practice, partially because of a full curriculum, partially because it was not deemed expedient. I felt this lack of practice did not support the motivation of the students, since like fragile plants in a fragile environment they needed to be nurtured; with no official sanctioned modeling in the hospital at that time not withstanding the very open and supportive attitude by the Director of Nursing who backed this work in every way possible, the students become discouraged and many seemed to have given up.

    I felt that especially under these circumstances if the work was to flourish it need to be officially encouraged, but non of the nursing school staff had time or was prepared to undertake this task, although several had participated in my one and/or 4 day workshop, and knew how TT was done. As an outside consultant who was present every few months my influence was limited. To give more substance and credibility to this work I proposed a new format, I suggested that the students be exposed to this work with a one day workshop in their first year, be given the in-depth workshop in the second year, with a follow up one day refresher to clarify techniques and exchange experiences in the third year. This I feel would give them a chance to integrate TT by applying it through out their nursing school years, with this approach they know that TT is considered an important adjunct to their other nursing skills and it would provide enough experiential know how to encourage them to implement TT with a level of professionalism wherever they worked. To date this program has not been incorporated.   

      Through the auspices of the nursing school direction, Therapeutic Touch was also offered as a continuing education course to its hospital staff as well as health practitioners and educators of the region. A few nurses from the hospitals staff participated in my first course, out of this group the core of the current practitioners was formed. To stimulate interest and provide practice support a monthly meeting was organized by one of my most active nurses, it was sparsely attended which some loyal few appearing regularly and only an occasional student, this program stopped when she moved to another town. One of the nurses who most actively implements Therapeutic Touch has as at the head of her department a doctor open to alternative health care, his support enabled her to practice TT openly with selected patients. The results were as we know them to be by now, reduced anxiety, accelerated healing, less pain, unexpected recoveries, dying with more dignity. After several years of practicing TT, it has become known that her intercession can assist in complications and difficult cases, as a result some of the more conventional MDs on the staff have also requested her assistance, with ever increasing validation for this method. This nurse is one of the few people the students can turn to for guidance and support. Through her another very important support that of networking has developed with other TT practicing nurses, it is a beginning.    

The second approach to introducing healing attitudes and methods into a hospital setting, evolved when the other pioneering directors of nursing currently involved with Therapeutic Touch participated in the continuing education courses of 1989. In close association with the head of the nursing school connected with her hospital, also one of my participants, it was first thought to start with a student program as in the previous example. After a lecture and introductory one day workshop it was decided that the best approach to introducing TT into this hospital setting is through a continuing education program offered once a year to experienced staff members. The director of nursing repeated my workshop several times and has a deep conviction of the value of what she learned, be this my human relations enhancing approach, the method "Feeling Dissolve" or the healing effects of Therapeutic Touch. As a practitioner of both she knows that they work. She demonstrates TT to her nurses by using them as subjects and encourages those individuals to participate in my workshop, who she feels will profit particularly form the conflict resolving aspect of it, or from the healing know how provided by TT. The conviction of the value of TT expressed by this director of nursing is evident when comparing the attitudes of her nurses to those of my nursing school students, these participants bring a great deal of willingness and enthusiasm, which is carried through in the incorporation of this work into their nursing practices. To the nursing director the changes that results from the workshop are noticeable, she has observed that in those departments where she has at least 2 of my participant nurses working per morning and per afternoon shift, an evidently stress free atmosphere is present. With their new attitudes and know how the presence of these nurses creates a much more harmonious interaction with patients and colleagues be these nursing staff or medical doctors. On the other hand if only one participant nurse works in a section, this individual is less able to energetically affect the surrounding environment to create a noticeable change. In other words a small force field of new thinking nursing personnel can bring about transition. Until now NCTT has been implemented sparingly, since the overt use of TT can not been officially introduced without the involvement of the medical staff, instead the nurses use subtle treatment and the colors technique frequently and with success. A more experienced practitioner alone can affect many, as proven by a Swiss head nurse, the work atmosphere in her department of pediatrics was so changed that it was taken by the administration as an outstanding model. 

      To further open the door in the former hospital so that the implementation of TT can be practiced officially and with protocol, they are following guidelines that have worked in the USA. The next step is to contact open minded MDs on the staff with the intent is to expose these to the reality of TT experientially as well as intellectually and present to them the recent research of at least 20 US PHd and Masters thesis that further validate this method. In the mean time the nursing students are being taught about the possibilities of TT by some of the nursing school teaches that have attended my workshops. One instructor a professional chemist has written some introductory materail for the students explaining the healing phenomenon from his frame of reference.

     In Switzerland where I gave workshops for several years sponsored by the Swiss nurses association I have had similar success stories although non as yet involving a Director of Nursing and a whole hospital. In Italy the nursing field has been closed to this teaching due to its educational structure, here my audience consists largely of individuals looking for alternative healing approaches such as physicians in private practice, psychotherapists, dentists and teachers. In Austria the audience is even more eclectic, with an occasional physicians and psychotherapist, to date no nurses. 

To provide treatment guidelines for the beginner practitioner I wrote 100 pg Therapeutic Touch guide book in German, published in 1992 it is based on experience and material I collected in the USA, it is available only to participants. In 1993 a comprehensive and illustrated book, my workshop expanded and in book form will be published first in Germany by Bauer Verlag, its title "Unconditional Love". Other books on TT available in German are Janet Macrea's book, "Therapeutic Touch" and several books by Dora van Gelder Kunz. In Italy just recently published, Dolores Krieger first Therapeutic Touch book. Some articles about TT have been published in Germany in nursing magazines and others several were written by me. Two articles of mine have been published in  Italian and several about my teaching Therapeutic Touch. 

These two approaches to introducing TT are the experimental models that demonstrate what works best and what to avoid. They are each interdependent, the students need the modeling professionals, the profession the next generation of students to carry on this work. New thinking nursing professionals are needed to assist in creating a loving aware and healing atmosphere, to avoid burn out in a very demanding profession and to prove that love is healing and that we can provide healing care with love. Until now I have found that the greatest resistance to this 21st century methods are due to lack of practical exposure, of appropriate information based on scientific knowledge and until now fear of change.

Great challenges of faith and daring that have been presented to those who have had the courage of their convictions and have risked ridicule for incorporating these new methods into traditional structures, for allowing them to be taught and being willing to learn them. They are spiritual challenges no different than mine when I offer this work, I am grateful for each and everyone who assisted in opening up this field in whatever way. In January 1993 we had a first yet small conference of Therapeutic Touch practitioners to exchange, give us courage and support the professionalism of this work, the nucleolus of a future organization no doubt. Several of the participants were from my earliest student nurses classes.

All material in this article is copyrighted © and to be used only as information not for reproduction