End Of Life Care With Healing Touch
Imagine the following: Someone you love is dying and suffering.
She is in Hospice care.
The staff is great but you feel absolutely helpless.
You and your family are exhausted and upset by the impending passing.
You are a hospice volunteer.
You support the hospice staff, the family and their loved one in transition.
You know your hospice patient.
You are aware of her spiritual, religious beliefs.
You're skilled at providing her chosen way of being comforted.
But today, those comforts are not working.
You are a caregiver-perhaps a massage therapist, nurse or friend.
You often hold the hand or provide gentle foot massage to your hospice friend.
But not today.
The one under your care is nervous about being touched.
He is unable to tolerate physical contact.
What can you do? You can lead with your heart and help with Healing Touch (HT).
HT is an international educational program that offers techniques to reduce pain and alleviate suffering for people throughout their life span.
The most common experience of receiving HT is the relaxation response.
As a result of the nervous system calming and relaxing many benefits are experienced.
There is clinical evidence of the effectiveness of HT on people who are terminally ill and actively dying.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) has included Healing Touch as an effective complementary therapy in their Complementary Therapies End-of-life Care Manual.
HT is used by hospice volunteers, by nurses who work for Hospice programs, and by family members and other caregivers who recognize the efficacy and benefits.
Janet Tebo, a Certified HT Practitioner and Addison/Chittenden County Vermont Hospice Volunteer, shares some of her story: I have been working as a volunteer with hospice for nearly a decade.
Most of the people I have worked with view death as the scariest and most stressful time of their lives.
I have used Healing Touch on cancer patients, people with chronic (rheumatoid) arthritis, Alzheimer/dementia cases, and with patients who are actively dying.
In all instances, despite whatever pain the person may have been experiencing (spiritual, emotional, mental or physical); the result of using Healing Touch placed them into a deep state of relaxation, inner peace and calm.
I have observed this occurring time and time again.
Here is my personal story of my own grandfather in hospice care.
HT gave us something to do along with the hand holds, foot massages and prayers.
It soothed him as much as us, the caregivers, especially his adult children.
My grandfather was dying from old age and Black Lung disease.
He moaned in pain and communicated with eye blinks.
His suffering tore at our hearts.
Though the morphine helped, we were helpless.
We held vigil and my entire family and I were naturally grieving.
I did the chakra spread, a technique for anyone in transition especially someone actively in the dying process.
During the session, he would stop moaning.
After chakra spread he would either fall asleep or be quieted.
He received respite from pain.
About 5 sessions of Healing Touch were given him.
On a quiet early evening, circled by the collective heart of us, his family, we witnessed his passing.
His last breath was taken moments after he received the chakra spread.
He wasn't moaning during that time, his last moments of life were quiet.
His presence was calm as he exhaled here and inhaled new life on the other side.
He left peacefully.
We were left with the comfort of that peace.
Healing Touch helps.
The beauty is in the humbling results seen in a face.
Anyone can learn this work.
Anyone who has a heart calling to help others.
Beautifully, too, HT also helps us, the caring person, to help our self.
What can you do? Help with your heart and, if you are called, learn Healing Touch.
It is heart-centered work that can help you to deliver the care of your heart.
She is in Hospice care.
The staff is great but you feel absolutely helpless.
You and your family are exhausted and upset by the impending passing.
You are a hospice volunteer.
You support the hospice staff, the family and their loved one in transition.
You know your hospice patient.
You are aware of her spiritual, religious beliefs.
You're skilled at providing her chosen way of being comforted.
But today, those comforts are not working.
You are a caregiver-perhaps a massage therapist, nurse or friend.
You often hold the hand or provide gentle foot massage to your hospice friend.
But not today.
The one under your care is nervous about being touched.
He is unable to tolerate physical contact.
What can you do? You can lead with your heart and help with Healing Touch (HT).
HT is an international educational program that offers techniques to reduce pain and alleviate suffering for people throughout their life span.
The most common experience of receiving HT is the relaxation response.
As a result of the nervous system calming and relaxing many benefits are experienced.
There is clinical evidence of the effectiveness of HT on people who are terminally ill and actively dying.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) has included Healing Touch as an effective complementary therapy in their Complementary Therapies End-of-life Care Manual.
HT is used by hospice volunteers, by nurses who work for Hospice programs, and by family members and other caregivers who recognize the efficacy and benefits.
Janet Tebo, a Certified HT Practitioner and Addison/Chittenden County Vermont Hospice Volunteer, shares some of her story: I have been working as a volunteer with hospice for nearly a decade.
Most of the people I have worked with view death as the scariest and most stressful time of their lives.
I have used Healing Touch on cancer patients, people with chronic (rheumatoid) arthritis, Alzheimer/dementia cases, and with patients who are actively dying.
In all instances, despite whatever pain the person may have been experiencing (spiritual, emotional, mental or physical); the result of using Healing Touch placed them into a deep state of relaxation, inner peace and calm.
I have observed this occurring time and time again.
Here is my personal story of my own grandfather in hospice care.
HT gave us something to do along with the hand holds, foot massages and prayers.
It soothed him as much as us, the caregivers, especially his adult children.
My grandfather was dying from old age and Black Lung disease.
He moaned in pain and communicated with eye blinks.
His suffering tore at our hearts.
Though the morphine helped, we were helpless.
We held vigil and my entire family and I were naturally grieving.
I did the chakra spread, a technique for anyone in transition especially someone actively in the dying process.
During the session, he would stop moaning.
After chakra spread he would either fall asleep or be quieted.
He received respite from pain.
About 5 sessions of Healing Touch were given him.
On a quiet early evening, circled by the collective heart of us, his family, we witnessed his passing.
His last breath was taken moments after he received the chakra spread.
He wasn't moaning during that time, his last moments of life were quiet.
His presence was calm as he exhaled here and inhaled new life on the other side.
He left peacefully.
We were left with the comfort of that peace.
Healing Touch helps.
The beauty is in the humbling results seen in a face.
Anyone can learn this work.
Anyone who has a heart calling to help others.
Beautifully, too, HT also helps us, the caring person, to help our self.
What can you do? Help with your heart and, if you are called, learn Healing Touch.
It is heart-centered work that can help you to deliver the care of your heart.
