Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 7-2-1997 The lived experience of healing touch with cancer patients Charlene Ann Christiano Florida International University DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI14060824 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Nursing Commons Recommended Citation Christiano, Charlene Ann, "The lived experience of healing touch with cancer patients" (1997). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2354. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2354 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF HEALING TOUCH WITH CANCER PATIENTS A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN NURSING by Charlene Ann Christiano 1997 To: Linda A. Simunek School of Nursing This thesis, written by Charlene Ann Christiano, and entitled THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF HEALING TOUCH WITH CANCER PATIENTS, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgement. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. Cynthia Fletcher Marilyn A. Ray Jacquelyn Hartley Major Professor Date of Defense: July 22, 1997 The thesis of Charlene Ann Christiano is approved. Dean Linda A. Simunek School of Nursing Dr. Richard L. Campoell Dean of Graduate Studies Florida International University, 1997 ii COPYRIGHT 1997 by Charlene Ann Christano All rights reserved iii I dedicate this thesis to my husband, Charles, and my son, Daniel. If not for their love, understanding and patience, this work could not have been completed. In addition, I dedicate this to all the healers of the world. May they continue their works for the benefit of all. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the members of my committee for their guidance, wisdom, and patience. A very special thank you must go to Dr. Ray, for without her method, support, compassion, and encouragement, this thesis would not have the depth that it does. I will cherish her assistance, mentoring, and friendship always. I would like to thank Dr. Fletcher for her persistence when my patience was running thin. She helped me see what others may not. And to my major professor, Dr. Hartley, I thank her for her support and confidence in my completing this thesis. I also would like to thank Dolores Krieger and Janet Mentgen for their pioneering work in energy healing. If not for them, this ancient healing modality would still be virtually unknown to us. v ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF HEALING TOUCH WITH CANCER PATIENTS by Charlene Ann Christiano Florida International University, 1997 Miami, Florida Professor Jacquelyn Hartley, Major Professor The recent use of complementary therapies by cancer patients has prompted the study of the use of Healing Touch, an energy based therapy, to learn the meaning of the experience. By using Ray's Caring Inquiry, a phenomenologic- hermeneutic process, the lived experience of receiving Healing Touch was elicited from three cancer patients. Through the interactions of the Healing Touch practitioners, the cancer patient participants, and the energy in and around them, specific themes were expressed: body-physical, emotion-feeling, mental-knowing, and spirit-essence. Further abstracting lead to the metathemes sensation and perception. Through a change in consciousness, a oneness/wholeness was experienced. The unity of meaning elicited was the Rhythm of Oneness Through Energy which is the connecting, opening, and cocreating through caring, the wholeness of each to become one through rhythms of energy. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ..................................... 1 Healing Touch .................................. 2 Energy Fields ............................... 4 Layers of the Energy Fields ................. 6 Chakras ..................................... 7 Relationship Between Energy Layers and Chakras .............................. 9 Purpose ....................................... 11 Research Question ............................. 11 Significance .................................. 12 Definition of Terms ........................... 13 II. METHODOLOGY ..................................... 14 Philosophical Foundation of Caring Inquiry .... 14 Hermeneutics ............................... 16 Humanistic Caring .......................... 17 Caring Inquiry ................................ 19 The Caring Inquiry Process for the Study of Healing Touch ........................... 20 Data Generation ............................ 20 Sample and Setting ...................... 20 Ethics of the Research .................. 22 Compassionate "We" ...................... 23 vii Observational and Dialogical Generation of Data ......................... .25 Data Analysis .............................. 26 Theory of Meaning .......................... 28 Dialoguing with Written Texts .............. 28 Credibility and Significance ............... 28 III. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS OF THE DATA ................ 30 Data Analysis ................................. 30 Results of the Data ........................... 32 Interactions ............................... 32 Sensation .................................. 39 Perception ................................. 41 Change in Consciousness .................... 43 Rhythm of Oneness Through Energy ........... 44 IV. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................... 46 Nursing Literature ............................ 46 Nursing Theory ................................ 49 Philosophy .................................... 52 V. DISCUSSION ...................................... 56 Implications for Nursing ...................... 56 Conclusion .................................... 59 LIST OF REFERENCES ................................... 62 APPENDIXES ........................................... 67 A. Techniques Used in Healing Touch ................ 67 B. Informed Consent ................................ 79 C. General Information Sheets ...................... 82 viii D. Healing Touch Methods Used During the Encounter ................................ 85 ix LIST OF TABLJE TABLE PAGE 1. Healing Touch Methods Used ....................... 24 2. Sensation ........................................ 40 3. Perception ....................................... 42 X LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES PAGE I. Rhythm of Oneness Through Energy .................. 33 xi Chapter 1 Introduction Millions of people each year are diagnosed with some form of cancer (Parker, Tong, Bolden, & Wingo, 1996). Coping and living with this disease has been an important concern for health practitioners as well as for patients for many years (Ferrell, Dow, Leigh, Ly, & Gulasekaram 1995; Northouse, 1995; Stearns & Whedon, 1993; Zacharias, Gilg, & Foxall, 1994). To assist in coping and improving guality of life for cancer patients, different types of interventions have been attempted with varying degrees of success (Montbriand, 1993; Owens & Ehrenreich, 1991). Patients have begun turning to complementary treatment modalities, such as visual imagery, massage therapy, and music therapy as part of their therapeutic milieu (Beck, 1991; Ferrell-Torry & Glick, 1993; Johnston & Rohaly-Davis, 1996; Montbriand, 1993). According to Dossey (1995), alternative (complementary) therapies have probably existed throughout the history of humankind and that it is natural for humans to seek other methods of healing. Energy based therapies, such as Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch, have gained prominence in the last several years as complementary therapies and are now being taught, studied, or both at universities and institutions throughout the United States (Hover-Kramer, 1996c; Bronstein, 1996; Miller, 1996). In fact, the United States Congress 1 established the Office of Alternative Medicine within the National Institutes of Health to study nontraditional methods of healing (Hover-Kramer, 1996c; Dossey, 1995; Ernst, 1993). By lending credibility to the existence of nontraditional therapies and the current research in progress to ascertain the effectiveness of those in question, nursing research on Healing Touch is necessary to assist in adding to the body of knowledge which is forthcoming. Healing Touch Healing Touch, a program of energy therapy as well as a philosophy of care, was developed by Mentgen (Mentgen & Bulbrook, 1994) as an energy based approach to healing. It involves the use of a Higher Power or the Universal Energy Field around us to assist the individual in the self healing of the body-emotion-mind-spirit components. By attempting to restore the wholeness of the person, the Healing Touch practitioner hopes to facilitate harmony and balance. In doing so, the individual is able to utilize the energy to heal themselves. Mentgen had been utilizing this unique healing modality for many years prior to developing a formal program. Through her experience with other worldwide healers, as well as through meditation, she identified, modified, or both the specific techniques of Healing Touch. She affiliated with the American Holistic Nurses' Association to develop this 2 innovative program and philosophy to teach others in the national and international community (Mentgen & Bulbrook, 1994). The