Therapeutic Touch

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Specializes in School Nurse.

I was just wondering if anyone has an experience with therapeutic touch in the nursing world? I am doing a group presentation on it and would love to hear experiences or how it is received in the healthcare community.

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TT is v. controversial within nursing (and the larger mainstream healthcare community). There has been at least one study that appeared to completely debunk it, but complaints have been made about the validity of that study (guess which group thinks the study isn't valid???) I've never encountered anyone who takes it seriously.

I'm sure others will show up here with different opinions, however.

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Specializes in Infusion, Med/Surg/Tele, Outpatient.

Worked through school as a massage therapist. Gained much insight into the "alternative medicine" world. Lots and lots of charlatans and snake oil salesmen out in this world. The biggest issue I think is that Alternative therapies will give annecdotal evidence/case reports as evidence where the mainstream healthcare community wants actual scientific evidence. The other issue I've seen is one of ethics. Careers that hold one to a formal "code of ethics" tend to outline what is kosher and what is not - like selling a product in your office, vs. careers that make one a 'guru.'

That all being said, if the pt knows TT may or may not work and has little scientific evidence backing it up; and the pt agrees to continue on the agreed medical path with the doctor's consent - TT will not harm. Touching or "laying of hands" on a pt rarely has a side effect. The placebo effect may be more beneficial than anything else. The trick is the pt must continue regular medical care too, and not just give up on meds/chemo/check ups/etc. We can keep this kind of pt in the mainstream realm with education, risks/benefits, like anything else. I'd rather have an oncology pt supplementing the chemo/radiation plan with TT or Reiki than unregulated herbs/supplements/crazy diets/lotions et al.

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Touching or "laying of hands" on a pt rarely has a side effect. The placebo effect may be more beneficial than anything else.

I agree with everything you said, but just wanted to clarify that the technique of Therapeutic Touch does not involve actually touching the client -- the practitioner moves her/his hands around above the client without actually touching her/him in order to rearrange the client's "energy fields" (at least, that's my understanding from what I've read about it -- I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong). There have been a number of threads here over time where people have talked about TT as if we were talking about some generic concept of the benefits of touching/massage (which I certainly consider beneficial), but TT is a v. specific practice that is entirely different and separate from that.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

It seems you have alot of experience with TT. Can you tell me more about your clinical experience with TT?

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If you mean me, I do not have any clinical experience with TT. As I suggested in my first post, I'm not a fan. I read some articles about it (pro-TT articles as well as articles about the controversy) when it was the newest, latest thing, many years ago. I've not seen anything about any legitimate, double-blind, controlled studies that suggested it is effective (not that I've gone out of my way to look for them) -- as AggieNurse suggested, just impassioned anecdotal defenses from TT "true believers." The studies that have been done (that I'm aware of) appeared to discredit it completely (but that doesn't impress the true believers, of course). I've been in nursing for 25 years now and I've never encountered anyone who took TT seriously. They are certainly around, though.

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Specializes in IMCU.

I just wrote a paper on this. Make sure you define therapeutic touch properly. There is touch that may be therapeutic and then then is therapeutic touch (TT). TT is meant to be related to energy fields.

Personally, if you hover hands over me in order to "heal" me (or my energy field), I will likely end up with the giggles. I don't take it very seriously. Even more interesting is that there is a NANDA I approved ND that includes TT as an intervention. Go figure.

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Specializes in Infusion, Med/Surg/Tele, Outpatient.

I guess I was taught during massage training that TT actually involved touching. Reiki I've studied, and that involves no touching. "Energy stroking" as my MTI described it.

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Even more interesting is that there is a NANDA I approved ND that includes TT as an intervention. Go figure.

The "disturbed energy fields" dx made it into NANDA because one or more TT practitioners had friends on the NANDA board (or was on the NANDA board her/himself). It's there to lend legitimacy (and a rationale -- a problem for which TT is the answer) to TT practice. Go figure.

No wonder the other mainstream healthcare professions don't take nursing v. seriously ...

projectsarah, that reminds me that there is a whole long thread here about the "disturbed energy fields" nsg dx that, I think, discusses TT to some extent (I don't recall exactly how much) -- you may want to take a look at that:

Disturbed Energy Field? Yes or No? - Nursing for Nurses

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I am severely disappointed that my promised Jedi powers did not manifest upon my graduation from nursing school. I had a high GPA, passed NCLEX the first time, good recommendations, everything! What else does it take?

I guarantee you, if I could manipulate energy fields, I'd be doing it every day of my life.

"Energy stroking," lol.

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Specializes in Gerontology, nursing education.
That all being said, if the pt knows TT may or may not work and has little scientific evidence backing it up; and the pt agrees to continue on the agreed medical path with the doctor's consent - TT will not harm. Touching or "laying of hands" on a pt rarely has a side effect. The placebo effect may be more beneficial than anything else. The trick is the pt must continue regular medical care too, and not just give up on meds/chemo/check ups/etc. We can keep this kind of pt in the mainstream realm with education, risks/benefits, like anything else. I'd rather have an oncology pt supplementing the chemo/radiation plan with TT or Reiki than unregulated herbs/supplements/crazy diets/lotions et al.

I just read a study in which patients were divided into three groups: a treatment group that received TT, a group that received "fake" TT, and a control group in which no intervention beyond the norm was given. Both the treatment group and the group that received "fake" TT showed improvement of their symptoms. Like AggieNurse99 said, it is very likely that the improvement in both groups was due to the placebo effect. If there's no harm, no risk, and no (or VERY) minimal out-of-pocket costs, why not use this as an adjunct to conventional therapy? On the other hand, if TT would be the ONLY therapy used or if there are tremendous financial costs, then, no.

Psychonaut, I share your bitter disappointment. Maybe if we'd listened a bit more to Professor Yoda...

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Specializes in IMCU.

Ah Yoda..."Do or do not. There is no try." That is a bit like nursing school!

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