Touch Therapy Goes Mainstream

Touch Therapy Goes Mainstream

By Life Positive

October 2008

Several hospitals in the US have now incorporated reiki in their programmes. One of the first to include a reiki practitioner in his department at The Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City was Dr Mehmet Oz, one of the leading cardiovascular surgeons in the United States. The New York Times Magazine reported that Dr Oz has allowed the use of reiki during open heart surgeries and heart transplant operations. Says Dr Oz, “Reiki has become a sought-after healing art among patients and mainstream medical professionals.”Reiki is a simple hands-on healing modality that is becoming very popular in the world.

The healing touchSeveral other hospitals across the US have included reiki in their roster of patient services. Since 1998, the Columbia/HCA Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been giving their surgical patients the option of 15 minutes pre- and post-surgery reiki treatments. As a result of this, there has been less use of pain medication, shorter length of stay in the hospital and an increase in patient satisfaction.

Dr Nancy Eos of the University of Michigan Medical School is one of the increasing number of doctors who incorporate reiki in their medical practice. “I can’t imagine practising medicine without reiki,” Eos says. “With reiki all I have to do is touch a person. Things happen that don’t usually happen. Pain lessens in intensity. Rashes fade. Wheezing gives way to breathing clearly. Angry people joke with me.”

Reiki practitioners are also becoming mainstays in delivery rooms in hospitals where reiki is given to mothers and babies to help alleviate the trauma of the birthing process. Tests conducted at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, show that reiki used during pregnancy reduced anxiety by 94 per cent, nausea by 80 per cent, pain by 78 per cent and improved sleep by 86 per cent. Time India followed suit, clearly!