Traditional Reiki for Our Times or Touch

Traditional Reiki for Our Times: Practical Methods for Personal and Planetary Healing

Author: Amy Zaffarano Rowland

A comprehensive training manual for the introductory levels of this popular healing therapy.

• Takes the reader step-by-step through traditional Reiki level I and II classes, with comprehensive instruction in the basic hand positions.

• Includes photographs and medical illustrations.

• Discusses Reiki's origin and purpose, the attunement process, and the many scenarios in which Reiki can provide appropriate healing support.

Reiki, a touch therapy used to recharge and rebalance the body's energy, is quickly joining other complementary therapies like acupuncture and massage in such conventional settings as hospitals, hospices, and psychotherapy practice. An ancient hands-on healing art with origins in the Tibetan sutras, Reiki is a means for both active self-care and administering to others. 

This comprehensive book takes the reader step by step through traditional Reiki level I and II classes, discussing Reiki's origins and purpose, describing the attunement process by which a student is imbued with the power to channel life-force energy, and illustrating the many scenarios in which Reiki is an appropriate support for healing. Comprehensive instruction in the basic hand positions and extra positions used in administering Reiki are accompanied by photographs and medical illustrations. Considerations for establishing a professional practice and opportunities for further learning in both traditional Reiki (level III) and nontraditional schools complete the discussion, making this the first book to serve as both an extensive training manual for students and compelling reading for those considering taking a Reiki class.

Book review: The Holford Low GL Diet or Bodystyling Beyond 40

Touch

Author: Tiffany Field

The first sensory input in life comes from the sense of touch while a baby is still in the womb, and touch continues to be the primary means of learning about the world throughout infancy, well into childhood. Touch is critical for children's growth, development, and health, as well as for adults' physical and mental well-being. Yet American society, claims Tiffany Field, is dangerously touch-deprived.

Field, a leading authority on touch and touch therapy, begins this accessible book with an overview of the sociology and anthropology of touching and the basic psychophysical properties of touch. She then reports recent research results on the value of touch therapies, such as massage therapy, for various conditions, including asthma, cancer, autism, and eating disorders. She emphasizes the need for a change in societal attitudes toward touching, particularly among those who work with children.

Library Journal

As director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Field has extensively studied and documented touch. In this book-length essay on the importance of touch, she argues that while skin is the largest sense organ of the body, it is taken for granted and overlooked in terms of research; it is also our most social sense in that it usually involves another person. Field discusses different kinds of touch e.g., tickling, inappropriate touching, touch that is relaxing as well as anthropological findings. For example, various studies show that Americans are some of the least tactile people in the world. Field goes on to suggest that many of the problem behaviors we see in this country might be traced to the absence of touch, or, as she characterizes it, to "touch hunger." In her enthusiasm for her subject, she offers a few observations that strain credulity, as when she suggests that a fetus may turn out to be a good swimmer because of being stimulated in the womb by massage. Descriptions of the results of touch deprivation, the mechanics of how touch operates in the body, and various touch therapies and their benefits, especially in terms of pain reduction, are detailed. An interesting, well-written book with an extensive bibliography; recommended for public and academic libraries. Margaret Cardwell, Christian Brothers Univ., Memphis, TN Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
1	Touch Hunger	1
2	Touch as Communication	19
3	Touch in Development	33
4	Touch Deprivation	59
5	Touch Messages to the Brain	75
6	Touch Therapies	91
7	Infant Massage	117
8	Massage Therapy for Children, Adolescents, and Adults	131
	Notes	155
	Index	175