Dr. Daniel J. Benor           

I no longer see myself as a mechanic whose function it is to 'adjust' my patients to reality and to 'fix' what is wrong with them.  I see myself, rather, as a gardener whose task is to help each patient find out, so to speak, what kind of a flower he is and, if he is a rhododendron, to become the best rhododendron possible, and to hell with what is popular in the seed catalogs this year; similarly, if he or she is an iris or an oak tree.
                                                                                         Lawrence LeShan

Many people do not know that healing can alleviate anxieties and emotional problems.

  Anxiety is the most common symptom responding to healing.  Anxiety may begin with mild emotional tension, experienced as irritability, difficulties in concentrating and sleeping, and preoccupation with problems  It may progress to moderate disruptions of routines, such as interfering in work performance, taking the edge out of pleasurable activities and producing frictions with family, friends and fellow workers.  Headaches, backaches, stomach cramps, hypertension and the like may reflect in the body the tensions which originate in the emotions.  In severe cases emotional tensions may make it impossible to focus on a task at all, and lead to behaviours like obsessive rituals (such as washing one's hands frequently), or even to complete nervous breakdown requiring hospitialisation.  More severe physical problems may occur, including ulcers, migraines, asthma attacks or other disabling disorders.

  Healers report there are often modest benefits from the very first treatment, with relaxation and improved sleep.  Other symptoms may take weeks or months to improve, but progress is usually surprisingly rapid.  A psychiatrist who uses healing reported that a severely paranoid patient who was cringing on her bed in fear relaxed and was able to converse about her problems within an hour of receiving healing.  Without the healing she would have almost certainly required forced tranquillising medication by injection.

  People often report marked benefits in their physical problems when their emotional problems are addressed along with the healing.
 

   'Jean' is a 55 year-old woman who suffered for many years from progressively debilitating arthritis in her knees, hands and shoulders.  This kept her from doing more than the lightest labours and prevented her participation in many activities she enjoyed, like gardening and rambling in the country.
  When she came for healing the healer pointed out to Jean that she was clenching her fists when she talked about her husband.  This led to discussions of her anger over difficulties in their relationship.  "I've talked with friends about this before, but somehow it was different when I was getting the healing.  The healer told me just to release whatever it was and to take in the love she was giving me along with the laying-on of hands.  I felt warm and relaxed all over.  It was only then I realised how tense I had been for a long, long time."

  'Bill' is a 45 year-old businessman who suffered from ulcers, with bouts of pain and bleeding over several years.  "I was surprised when I came to healing and the healer put on me on his treatment table and put his hands on my belly.  I felt warmth from his hands and my whole body relaxed.  The healer said he felt I had some anger I was swallowing down.  I had to acknowledge this was right.  There were lots of tensions on the job and at home because I was working long hours and coming home late.  The healer told me he was going to help me work on this anger, and he did.  It wasn't just talking about it.  His hands on my stomach made me feel something let go inside."

  Doctors are often sceptical about the efficacy of healing, believing that it is no more than suggestion or attention from the healer which is of benefit.  They point out that a sympathetic hairdresser, bartender or psychotherapist might help just as well.  Until recently there was no scientific evidence to prove otherwise.

   Now there is research proceeding to see whether healers' and healees' reports can be verified or not.

  Therapeutic Touch healers studied its effects on anxiety.  TT is administered mostly by nurses in the United States.  It includes a brief period of 'centering' in which the healer enters a focused, meditative state.  This is followed by a series of screening passes of the hands around the body to identify by sensations in the hands where there are energy imbalances related to physical or emotional disorders.  Then a laying-on of hands is given, with the hands lightly placed over points which are assessed to need healing, sometimes touching the healee and sometimes with the hands several inches away from the body.

  Patricia Heidt, PhD, RN, explored the effects of TT in alleviating anxiety in patients hospitalized for cardiovascular problems at a major medical centre in New York City.  The research formed the basis of her doctoral dissertation.  A cardiac unit is a setting in which the threat of consequences of severe heart disease, combined with noisy electronic monitoring equipment and clusters of other patients with severe cardiac problems undergoing their tribulations all combine to produce a most stressful experience.

  Heidt found 90 volunteers, ranging from 21 to 65 years of age.  All agreed to assess their levels of anxiety on a pencil and paper Self-Evaluation Questionnaire before and after treatment.

  The ninety patients were divided into three groups. One group received TT.  The second received 'casual touch', administered in a manner as near as possible to TT but without the mental centering and healing intent.  The third group received no treatment and was used as a baseline for comparison with the others.  The interventions were given for five minutes.

  Scores on the anxiety questionnaire after the interventions were compared with initial scores.  Patients who had TT experienced significant reductions in anxiety scores, which statistical analyses showed could have occurred by chance less than once in 1,000 trials.  Their anxiety scores were also significantly less than those of either of the two other groups, statistically possible less than once in 100 trials.

  Janet Quinn, PhD, RN, is also a practitioner of TT.  For her doctoral dissertation she focused on whether TT administered with hands near the body would be as effective as TT given with physical contact.

  Quinn had 60 volunteers between 36 and 81 years-old, hospitalized on a cardiovascular unit of a metropolitan medical centre, divided into two groups.  One received Non-contact TT and the other had Non-contact (in which nurses untrained in TT mimed TT while doing mental arithmetic silently in their minds).  Observers who were unfamiliar with TT could not distinguish between the two interventions.

  The same anxiety questionnaire was used before and after the interventions for each patient.  Those receiving TT had significantly greater decreases in anxiety scores than the Non-contact group.  Statistical analyses showed that these results could have occurred less than once in 1,000 trials.

  Rosalie B Fedoruk, RN also practices TT in the US.  For her doctoral dissertation she studied effects of TT on 17 premature babies.  Such infants are easily agitated by routine handling because of the immaturity of their nervous systems.  The effects of TT were measured in three ways.  First, assessments of blood pressure were taken, as index of physical tension.  Second, transcutaneous oxygen pressure was measured, assuming that tension would produce irregular breathing, which would reduce the amount of oxygen in the blood.  Third, each baby was evaluated with the Assessment of Premature Infant Behaviour (APIB) scale, which reflects levels of tension and agitation.

  Since few infants were available, each was given periods of TT; periods of mock-TT (nurses mimicking TT but doing arithmetic out loud); and no TT.  All interventions lasted 23-25 minutes.

  A significant decrease in stress scores was found on the APIB measures of the TT group, while an increase was noted on the APIB scores of the mock-TT group.

  Several studies of TT for anxiety in people who were not under stress produced no significant results.

  Jan Gulak is a 'bioenergotherapist' (healer) in Eastern Europe who studied anxiety levels of his patients before and after his 15-minute treatments.  He administered an anxiety questionnaire to 76 patients fourteen days prior to and twenty-one days after his treatment.  Various statistical analyses showed the results of treatment could occur by chance less than once in 100 or 1,000 trials (depending on the particular assessment method and analysis).  Accompanying the decreases in anxiety were cessations of migraines and sleeplessness, improvement of circulatory insufficiency and relief of digestive and reproductive organ pains.

  With this evidence, and considering that healing has no known harmful effects, it would seem well worth while to give healing for symptoms of anxiety.  This is in contrast with tranquillisers, which may produce drowiness, cloudy thinking, incocordination, allergies and more.

  People ask whether healing is better than psychotherapy or should be sought instead of psychotherapy.  There are no studies to answer this question.  My impression is that healing can sometimes relieve anxiety entirely on its own (without counselling/psychotherapy per se), but that psychotherapy may be advisable to get to the roots of persistent of recurrent problems.  I am impressed that the combination of the two is more potent than either alone.  In my clinical practice of psychotherapy I have found that healing helps people to tolerate the anxieties and emotional upsets entailed in delving into unconscious problems, as well as alleviating the original symptoms.  It also facilitates development of trust between therapist and healee.
 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1992 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099
www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com 

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