Healing touch helps patients relieve pain and anxiety after medical procedures

TAMPA - Tammy Dragel is trying to help patient Ferdinando Acosta ease his pain and any anxiety he's feeling after knee replacement surgery.

She's not using traditional medicines but a mix of eastern and western non-invasive techniques called healing touch.  “I define it as a mind-body relaxation therapy that uses touch, but also non-contact touch in the energy field of the body to help relax the body and mind.  The whole concept is when your body and mind are most relaxed, your body can do its most recovery and its best repairing and healing."

After fifteen minutes of healing touch, Ferdinando was so relaxed he fell asleep.

When he woke up, we asked him what he'd been feeling. “I feel the energy. When she put her hands up here I felt the energy in different parts too."

“I was hospitalized unexpectedly at St. Joseph's Hospital for several days with excruciating pain.”  Shelly Olsson's doctor didn't know what to do next to help relieve her pain and nausea - he asked Tammy to try healing touch.  “She was so calm and she explained there was no right or wrong with this, I didn't have to do anything just to be present and just be open minded. At that point that was really all I could do!"

Shelly's pain decreased enough that she's still using healing touch techniques at home.

“The more my husband and I tried to use the resources Tammy gave us, I noticed on average the pain level would be a 7 and go down to a 4.  So I still continue to use it on a daily basis.”

Tammy says healing touch services are free to patients and if their doctors don't prescribe it they can simply ask. For more information to: http://www.healingtouchinternational.org/ , or email Tammy at: Tammy.Dragel@baycare.org .