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A B M P m e m b e r s e a r n F R E E C E a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e b y r e a d i n g M a s s a g e & B o d y w o r k m a g a z i n e 79 power; it is what continues, it's our soul. This is where it pushes you." And it's in this way, by working through your heart chakra, she says, "that you're able to bring through you the prana, the energy." The process, she says, is transpersonal healing. A Future to Unfold As a consultant for the Therapeutic Touch International Association today, Krieger continues to forward-think about the work she helped create. Her most recent musings, and subject of her next book, revolve around what happens within the healer during the healing act. "If you look back, healing has a history that predates civilization. In all that time, healing has been inarticulate. There is very little in the literature about what goes on in the healer." Understanding that the act of Therapeutic Touch extends beyond the outside experience is important, she says. "That interior experience is forcing people's consciousness toward transformation in a way that is at the frontier of where we're going—in a good way—as human beings." The future, Krieger says, is one filled with opportunities to utilize Therapeutic Touch and she feels confident her work will continue to find its value and legacy long after she's gone. "It's at the extreme opposite end to high tech; as such, Therapeutic Touch will have a great deal to offer … even if it only helps people remember to be compassionate." Karrie Osborn is an award-winning author and senior editor for Massage & Bodywork and ABMP. Contact her at karrie@abmp.com. took off." Soon, Krieger began teaching the work across the country, then around the world. In 1998, Therapeutic Touch again was challenged, this time by the famous case of Emily Rosa, the 9-year- old girl whose 4th grade science project on Therapeutic Touch made it into the Journal of the American Medical Association. How does Krieger address the naysayers and the people she says treat her with suspicion and distaste? "The first thing you do is develop a sense of humor," she says. "That is a requirement." But she also tries to dialog with people, in their terms. What you'll find, she says, is that there is a tremendous amount you can align with. "I have worked on a lot of people who are skeptics, and I have never turned anyone away, ever." While not everyone welcomed Krieger with open arms, she says the early acceptance from her colleagues was something she hadn't expected. "Surprise hardly encompasses what my feelings were at the time," Krieger says. "First of all, particularly with the National Enquirer interest, my own career was at stake, but I was determined. What we were doing, Dora and I, I learned how helpful it was. We weren't causing any miracles, but we had many instances of people walking out of a hospital who weren't expected to, and other instances of people dying peacefully who were originally very unhappy and ready to die a miserable death." Compassion and Energy Medicine Integral to Therapeutic Touch, and certainly integral to her own journey, Krieger says compassion is an important part of our humanity. "There is a neurological effect on the person who is enacting compassion. That surge of emotion coming from compassion, that's the lodestar the healer follows. Without compassion, you don't have Therapeutic Touch; you have merely a manipulation, so to speak, a power play." Krieger says just as massage and bodywork require grounded therapists who need to approach their work mindfully, the same is true for Therapeutic Touch practitioners. "Sustained centering is where you stay throughout the entire session. You try to be mindful and aware of the shifts in consciousness. The 5 Phases of Therapeutic Touch are really just shifts in consciousness," she says. With time and training, awareness and intuition sharpen for the Therapeutic Touch practitioner. "You begin to realize you're in a very different state. And it's not only that you're in an altered state, but you're being urged on by the psychic force of compassion. We call it the inner self, some might call it higher Dolores Krieger demonstrates the therapy she helped create. Photo by Bob Paulus.