toucher thérapeutique

CONT: Therapeutic touch ... is based on the belief that there is an energy field radiating outward almost five centimetres from the body. The flow of energy can be fast, slow, congested, pulsating, pounding, quiet or tangled. An experienced practitioner can feel and access [this] energy and ... use rhythmic hand strokes above the skin's surface to smooth the energy field to a rhythm of harmony. Therapeutic touch is being used in delivery rooms, palliative care units and AIDS hospices. The College of Nurses of Ontario has recognized it as a healing strategy. [It is] not a cure and is only used as a complement to traditional medical treatment. ...X-rays have shown that the callus tissue that forms around a bone fracture during the healing process is evident in two-and-a-half weeks rather than the usual six when therapeutic touch accompanies traditional treatment.