Tapping The Power Of Touch For Healing

By Jan Howard

The power of touch and the difference it can make in physical, emotional, and spiritual healing will be the topic of a presentation on Tuesday, November 14 at 7:30 pm in the meeting room of the C.H. Booth Library.

Linda Napier of Southbury, a registered nurse, will discuss the connection between touch, love, and health. She is the author of Tender Medicine, Touching the Heart, Healing the Hurt. She is a practitioner of touch, a therapeutic hands-on technique that accesses unconscious feelings and memories. She is a former resident of Newtown.

The book is a story of her personal healing as well as the healing of others. It is for medical professionals and patients and their families. In it she shares personal experiences, and follows up with concise summaries and practical guides for making life-changing choices.

“My book starts out with my experiences, how being touched and touching changed my perspective on living,” Ms Napier said.

“Touching is very important,” she said, as evidenced by babies who before being held and cared for had failed to thrive. “We all need that all of our lives.” When people hug, there is a positive response in some way, she noted.

 Ms Napier wrote the book for personal reasons, but “My ultimate goal was to bridge the gap for mainstream patients who are not happy with the system.

“I’m hoping to bring the idea of touch back into health care.

“The system is not changing. My goal is that I want people to realize how important touch is to healing. It’s desperately needed in hospitals, nursing homes, and homes. We all need it.

“People alone and in pain need to reach out and touch,” Ms Napier said.

“Health care will change as we change it. It must change from within,” she said. “When a person is feeling cared for, loved, and connected, it strengthens the immune system. It’s really the whole caring thing that medicine used to mean. It’s become too technological, and we put too much faith in technology. Why not have it all?

“I wrote the book for people who would not normally go for touch. They’re afraid to question their doctors,” Ms Napier said. “Doctors are human, but people expect their doctors to be gods. A patient that asks questions of their doctors always was labeled as difficult.

The technique of touch centers about an area of pain or stress, she noted. “That area is holding something. When you focus on that area, the pressure will bring up feelings. The person may re-experience old feelings that have had years of suppression. It is not about releasing, but of acceptance.

“Touch is about acknowledging, it’s integrating your feelings together. It’s saying I’m a human being and I’m not perfect, and that’s fine,” Ms Napier said.

Ms Napier came to the realization that health and wellbeing depend on nurturing human touch through her own personal experience. It was at a conference of Adult Children of Alcoholics that she first experienced touch. Among the exhibitors was a booth for the Rosen Method Bodywork. Thinking she was going to get a massage after being on the plane for hours, she decided to take advantage of their offer of a free 15-minute mini-demonstration.

Once on the massage table, the woman demonstrator asked Ms Napier if she had any pain and when she had first experienced it. She had replied that she often had neck and shoulder pain.

What occurred was a realization that much of her pain came from experiences she had as a child of about ten, when her mother had her first cancer surgery and her father was drinking again.

It was an emotional experience that released feelings of grief and rage, she said. It released feelings of grief and rage. “I started to cry.”

 Though the experience was scary, Ms Napier said she knew she had to explore it further.

“My big thing was rage that I was consciously not aware of. When my anger came out, it came out inappropriately. I would blame my anger on others instead of admitting it was my stuff. I called it my demon,” she said. “It was important to realize that so the physical pain was lessened.

“When I felt pain coming on, and I hurt, I would look at what was in my life. I would use tension and pain as an idiot light on the dashboard of life,” she said.

Touch turned her whole life around, she said, professionally and personally. “It was a new approach for me in nursing. When I visit patients, there is a mutual connection by touching or connecting on a spiritual level.”

She saw positive changes in her patients when they were in touch with feelings they were holding. “Their blood pressure would go down, the pain would go away.”

“I’ve seen it. When a person is feeling loved and cared for, their whole physical condition can turn around. You can see their vital signs improving. It’s neat to validate what is happening.”

During touch sessions there is a connection to other people. “In a very short time there is an intimacy,” she said.

“People who suffer from chronic pain are looking for relief, but medicine doesn’t cut it,” she said. “Physical pain is not just physical. There’s a level of emotion and spiritual feeling. They’re holding on to feelings. It could be pain from years ago.”

The body does store memories, Ms Napier said. “We feel with our physical being.”  However, there’s not always a story behind the pain, she added.

During her talk, Ms Napier will demonstrate the technique of touch. “It’s difficult to watch. It’s very subtle,” she said. “I may have the people pair up to get a sense of it.”

Ms Napier said she feels most effective during a touch session. “Hugging or touching is not just physical touching, but it’s really listening to the person. It’s knowing that someone is there, confirming you at that moment,” she said.

She said people in our society have a fear of intense feelings. “It’s a very interesting society, puritanical on the surface, pornographic undercover,” she said. “In Europe, people are more physical, they touch more.”

People in healthcare think in terms of saving lives, she said. “But death can be a healing. We need to affirm people in the end of their life.”

She told of a man who was angry because he was dying. There was a young grandson he was just beginning to know. She suggested he do a video for his grandson. It allowed him to take control, she noted. “It colored the quality of his remaining life. He started allowing his family to visit. He had been keeping them away. People need to say goodbye.

“It’s a scary thing for healthcare people. You’re looking at your own mortality. But you can save a life, and still have a person die.”

In addition to her 27 years as a nurse, Ms Napier founded the Living Arts Studio, a center for self-discovery and creative expression. She lectures and coordinates workshops on touch as an additional tool in the field of healthcare.

 She created and implemented programs of exercise, diet and stress management for high-risk cardiac patients, and “Chairobics”, a therapeutic exercise program for chair-bound seniors. She also has taught at Norwalk Community Technical College on “Touch in Healthcare” and as clinical instructor for Certified Nurse’s Aide Program.

She has facilitated women’s groups and codependency workshops using touch and other experiential methods. She volunteers touch and clowning visits to Bread and Roses, a residence for people with AIDS and is a member of the Stamford Hospital HAHA’s clowning troupe.

Ms Napier is also a freelance photographer and writer for brochures, advertising, portraits, events, and travel.

Ms Napier’s book will be available for purchase at the time of the presentation. It is also available through Amazon.com.

She maintains a private practice in Southbury and Danbury. “I work harder than when I worked for someone else, but I like to have flexibility,” she said.

Ms Napier continues to work as a nurse on a freelance basis because, she said, “I love patient contact but hate paperwork. I like to visit people.”