Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72195
A VISIT TO THE WEBSITE WWW.QUANTUMTOUCH.COM ILLUMINATES THE BASIC TENETS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND EXAMPLES OF THE SUCCESSES AND THE QUESTIONS OF PRACTITIONERS. is never an empty breath, so to speak." She says the response from clients has been highly positive. "I don't think I can ever go back to just breathing when I need to ... it's now always about the energy flowing for their well-being." INTENTIONAL ENERGY Alain Herriott, a certified Quantum- Touch practitioner, instructor, and developer of more advanced techniques, advises that there are good opportunities to apply this method within a bodywork session. He says that two good times for application are while scanning the body's energy before starting and when first laying hands on the client. Intentionally using energy can open tissues ahead of one's hands, stimulating greater allowance of the bodywork, Herriott says. Energy can work at a greater depth than the hands, especially if the recipient is sensitive or sore. He thinks it works well, for example, with the long strokes of Swedish, as well with the stillness of trigger point and with the slower, deeper movements of neuromuscular treatments. Allowing Quantum-Touch to carry some of the deep workload will save wear and stresses from the bodyworker's own joints, he says, thereby extending one's reach in the moment with clients and extending one's therapy career. In his book, Supercharging Quantum-Touch: Advanced Techniques, Herriott teaches amplification methods that are effective in environments such as massage therapy, because they are quieter than the rapid or loud breathing methods.5 ENHANCED PRACTICE People who combine Quantum- Touch with other modalities find that it strongly enhances their other work. Acupuncturists, chiropractors, healthcare workers, nurses, osteopaths, physicians, and many complementary and alternative health workers have reacted enthusiastically to adding Quantum-Touch to their toolbox. For reiki masters, the addition of Quantum- Touch constitutes an empowerment or "turbo-charging" of the reiki.6 Quantum-Touch can be employed for aches, burns, headaches, and pains, as well as more chronic conditions. Basic training covers working on both specific and general areas of the body, distance work, working with the chakras, and self-work. Quantum-Touch is evolving and now has advanced training and certification. As Herriott says, often people want to know what to do if a problem returns, how to best work on one's self, and how to get a better idea of what is happening with a client's problem. As a result of such questions, he developed advanced techniques that amplify the basic principles, as well as a complementary technique called core transformation. Herriott says the core transformation aspect of Quantum-Touch balances the basic work. The basic, to him, seems a yang expression of energy and the core transformation work the yin expression. The basic is the practitioner's energy reaching out and the core transformation is the client's energy coming to the practitioner. While the daily work goes on, there is also a lot of research taking place—some showing anecdotal results from private practitioners, some in controlled settings. In pain research Gordon did with Norman Shealy, MD, he practiced Quantum-Touch on people who did not know if they were receiving it or not. After some training, the doctor's staff used it as well. There was a 30–70 percent reduction in pain, with relief lasting at least two weeks after the treatment. As reported in his book, Gordon worked on one 90-year- old woman who could barely walk due to osteoporosis. After 45 minutes, she realized a complete alignment of her hips and was able to walk more freely and without pain. Shealy also measured brain waves and said that in more than 30 years he had not seen such a dramatic effect in quieting the wave pattern as Gordon had done with one gentleman. There are professional researchers in fields such as biology, neuropsychology, physics, and physiology who are looking at brain waves, consciousness affecting matter, effects and health benefits of meditation, and other areas we may have disregarded or not even thought of before. In fact, Gordon advocates a new branch of science in life-force energy. From this idea has sprung a nonprofit organization, The Life Force Project (www.thelifeforceproject.org). Quantum-Touch is a growing and dynamic healing approach. There are now classes in more than 40 countries around the world teaching this modality to hands-on therapists. Bodyworkers, according to their beliefs, regularly utilize forms of energy, presence, intention, and spiritual work with their chosen hands-on modality. Quantum-Touch offers another option that is readily accessible simply by breathing. And as Gordon, its founder, exhorts, Quantum-Touch is a "basic human skill!" therapist and Quantum-Touch practitioner in State College, Pennsylvania. She engages avidly in professional freelance research and writing, yoga, Argentine tango and Oriental dance, and studies the intersection of beliefs and healing. Barbara Newell is a certified massage NOTES 1. Richard Gordon, Quantum-Touch: The Power to Heal (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2002), 10. 2. Ibid, 11. 3. Ibid, 14. 4. "What is Quantum-Touch?" www.quantumtouch. com/. Accessed November 2007. 5. Alain Herriott, Supercharging Quantum-Touch (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2007), 26. 6. www.quantumtouch.com/index.php?p=special_ topic_reports&id=230. Accessed November 2007. 7. Gordon, Quantum-Touch, 167. 8. Ibid,12. massagetherapy.com—for you and your clients 87