Book and
Blog
What
Obituaries Don't Tell You: Conversatons About Life and
Death
Kathryn F. Weymouth, PhD
Foreword by Robert Lyman Potter, MD, PhD
My latest research project is a compilation of 30
interviews with individuals about their experiences of
going through the death of a loved one from illness,
accident, suicide, or murder, and five interviews with
professionals who work with terminally ill patients and
their families both prior to and after a death.
The book,
What Obituaries Don't Tell You: Conversations about Life
and Death,
(2013, Balboa Press) is available through me if you would
like a signed copy, or through Balboa Press, Barnes and
Nobel, and Amazon.com.
Contact me at
kfweymouthphd@gmail.com
for information, to book appointments, and to schedule
speaking events, or telephone 503-771-4226.
The blog address is
conversationsaboutlifeanddeath.com
Research
Comparing
the Efficacy of Healing Touch and Chiropractic
Adjustment in Treating Chronic Low Back Pain: A Pilot
Study
Kathryn F. Weymouth, BA, CHTP
1999
Master's Thesis
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
San Francisco, CA
Co-Investigator, Steven Sandberg Lewis, ND
National College of naturopathic Medicine
Portland, OR
Thesis committee: Jeannette Diaz Veizades, Ph.D., Chair
Ilene Serlin, Ph.D., Member
This study was undertaken to get an idea of the
effectiveness of both Healing Touch (HT) and chiropractic
treatment in treating chronic low back pain. Chronic pain
was defined as lasting for six months or longer. There is
some research on the efficacy of chiropractic treatment for
chronic low back pain, but none prior to this study using
Healing Touch. Ten chiropractors were recruited to give his
or her assigned research participant eight treatments.
Homogeneity of treatment was established in three ways. (1)
Each of the chiropractors had been educated at the same
college, (2) their standard treatment for low back pain was
chiropractic adjustment, and (3) agreement was obtained
prior to the study that chiropractic adjustment would be
the primary intervention. Eight HT treatments were given to
each of the ten participants in the HT group by the student
researcher, Kathryn F. Weymouth, BA, Certified Healing
Touch Practitioner (CHTP).
After a preliminary telephone screening, followed by a
physical examination at the National College of
Naturopathic Medicine, twenty people were accepted into the
study, ten of whom were placed in the HT group and ten in
the chiropractic group. Four of the twenty people did not
complete the study, one from the HT group and three from
the chiropractic group. These low numbers on which final
analyses were done provide a suggestion of the
effectiveness of treatments rather than a robust
conclusion.
A pre-treatment statistical analysis was done on each group
to see if they were equivalent on the dependent variables
of pain, quality of life scores, orthopedic measurements,
and range of motion. The groups were equivalent on each of
the four measurements at the p<.05 level. There were two
important areas in which the groups were not equivalent:
The number of years of pain suffered, and the types of jobs
which individuals had. These confounding variables are
discussed below, may have contributed to treatment
outcomes, and need to be controlled for in future research.
The average number of years of pain for the HT group was
11.72 as compared to the average of the chiropractic broup
at 3.45 years. This is, obviously, a very large difference.
In regard to employment, each participant was given a
rating for the degree of physical stress demanded by his or
her job. Low stress was shown as +, moderate as ++, and
high as +++. In the ht group there were three participants
rated as +++ but none in the chiropractic group. The two
leading causes of low back pain were automobile accidents
(n=4) and falling (n=4), followed by lifting (n=2), sports
injury (n=2), unknown etiology (n=2), stroke (n=1), and
plane trip (n=1). Previous treatments received for low back
pain were medical (n=15), physical therapy (n=10), massage
therapy (n=10), chiropractic (n=7), naturopathic (n=3),
Reiki (n=3), osteopathy (n=2), and reflexology/deep tissue
(n=1).
Each research participant experienced some degree of
improvement as a result of the treatments, from minimal to
dramatic. Pretest-posttest difference scores were computed
for each group and then analyzed using a one-tailed -test.
The original intent had been to perform and ANOVA on the
four dependent variables, but it proved impossible due to
the fact that analysis had to be done on unequal numbers of
participants. In analyzing the outcomes on the four
measurements of pain, quality of life, orthopedic
measurements, and range of motion, the groups were found to
be statitistically equivalent on all measurements (p
<.005). Since the other three measurements were
equivalent, one can only speculate about the reasons which
would explain the difference in the quality of life scores.
It may be due to the number of years over which pain was
suffered, with the result that there was more inherent fear
about trying things which had previously caused pain, and a
concommitant psychological anticipation that the pain would
return. there may be a body/mind physiological and
psychological learning curve commensurate with longevity of
pain. Differences in these scores may also have been
affected by the heavy manual labor to which three of the HT
participants returned daily, thereby retarding the speed at
which the body could integrate changes.
At the end of the study there were people in both groups
who were still experiencing pain. The student researcher
invited four people from the chiropractic group to receive
four HT treatments each to see if a combination of
treatments would bring further improvement. By the time of
this invitation one participant, who had continued as a
patient with her chiropractor, had achieved a pain rating
of 1 on the analog scale of 0-10. The effects of HT were
noticeable, primarily in the relaxation response, but not
significantly measurable in pain reduction. One participant
who had achieved 1.29 points of pain reduction with
chiropractic achieved slightly less than 1 point of pain
reduction with HT. The other two participants received
further pain reduction of 1.71 points and 2.68 points. Had
money been available to reimburse chiropractors, each of
whom had donated his or her time for this study, interested
participants from the HT group who had not achieved
pain-free status would have been sent for chiropractic
treatment to further research the effects of combined
treatments.
The conclusions drawn by the student researcher are
two-fold. First, Healing Touch stood up well as a treatment
modality for chronic low back pain, especially considering
the large difference in the length of time of pain suffered
between the HT and chiropractic groups, and the difference
in the physiological demands of the jobs. Second, it
appears likely that for a percentage of chronic low back
pain sufferers, a combination of treatments would be more
beneficial than a single type of treatment. The results of
this pilot study show that further research using HT as a
treatment modality for low back pain, either by itself or
in combination with other modalities, is warranted.
Healing Touch Program, Research, and Literature
Review
Kathryn F. Weymouth, MA, CHTP
2001
Research Essay
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
San Francisco, CA
Jeanne Achterberg, Ph.D., Essay Reader/Advisor
This research essay give (1) a brief historical overview of
hands-on-energy healing; (2) discusses the controversy over
the terms energy, energy healing, and human energy field;
(3) describes the multiple uses of the terms energy, energy
healing, and energy medicine in current literature; (4)
covers the theoretical framework of hands-on-healing; and
(5) describes the Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch
programs, including descriptions of selected interventions.
The remainder of the essay is devoted to a presentation and
discussion of Healing Touch research.
The research is divided into three categories. The first
category pertains broadly to diagnostic categories and
includes cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, mental health,
post surgical infection, and spasticity in children. The
second category covers groups, and includes the elderly,
hospital inpatients, Healing Touch practitioners, and
undefined populations. The third category includes a
validation study and an attitude survey. The conclusions
that were drawn from the research are as follows.
First, it is obvious that Healing Touch is a much more
extensive system than Therapeutic Touch and, unlike
Therapeutic Touch in which the entirety of the modality can
be researched, only specified Healing Touch interventions
can be studied.
Second, the words energy, energy medicine, and energy
healing are entering our vocabulary, but they are being
used in a much broader sense than to simply mean
hands-on-healing. It may be that adopting the National
Health Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine
(NAAC)'s designation of biofield therapy will be the most
appropriate terminology to use in order to delineate this
work from acupuncture, homeopathy, prayer, biofeedback, and
the numerous other practices which are now being labeled
energy medicine.
Third, the existence of a human energy field, and the
theory that biofield therapy can manipulate it for healing,
still remains controversial, but laboratory studies using
sophisticated machines are, in fact, measuring a magnetic
field produced by the heart and brain, with ever-more
sensitive machines being developed.
In the twenty-eight Healing Touch studies reviewed for this
paper there is a tremendous variation in quality of design,
execution, and reporting. As inconsistent as the research
is, however, I believe we can draw some positive, albeit
tentative conclusions about the efficacy of interventions.
In the research summaries that included enough information
to offer a degree of confidence in the reported outcomes,
there were nine that showed stress and anxiety reduction,
relaxation, a feeling of calmness, and an increased sense
of wellbeing; seven that showed decreased pain; two that
showed improved interpersonal relationships; two that
showed improved range of motion and psychomotor
functioning; two that showed accelerated post-operative
healing; and one each that shoed an improved sense of
control, an increased energy level, a reduction in
depression, a decrease in need for psychotropic medication,
and decreased side effects from cancer treatments. In the
phenomenological studies Healing Touch interventions helped
cancer patients get through the ordeal of intravenous
chemotherapy treatments; recipients had a sense of being
cared for; and recipients experienced a changed perception
of time and a holistic experience with physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritual dimensions. There were no negative
outcomes reported in any of the studies.
Healing From A Personal Perspective:
Interviews with Certified Healing Touch Practitioners
Kathryn
F. Weymouth, MA, CHTP
2002
Ph.D. Dissertation
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center
San Francisco, CA
Committee: Jeanne Achterberg, Ph.D., Chair
Jeannette Diaz-Veizades, Ph.D., Member
Jay Wagener, Ph.D., Member
The purpose of this study was to find out about a specific
group of hands-on-healers and Healing Touch (HT), the
method in which each was trained. Little is known about
people who choose to become healers versus those who are
born with healing ability or designated as healers within
their tribe or community. With complementary and
alternative medicine a growing presence, but with
hands-on-healing, often referred to as energy healing,
underrepresented in the scientific literature, it is timely
that research be done on healers and healing methods.
This study gathered qualitative data through face-to-face
interviews with ten Certified Healing Touch Practitioners
(CHTPs), and quantitative data through a questionnaire
completed by 87 respondents, 77 of whom came from a group
of randomly selected CHTPs. Qualitative data analysis
showed a sense of being called to the work even if
initially reluctant, a commitment to working on oneself,
the transformational aspects of the work for both the
practitioners and recipients, multiple applications with
generally positive outcomes, meaningful relationships with
patients or clients, spiritual aspects of healing rarely
reported in the medical literature, a desire to integrate
energy healing with other types of medicine, and a belief
that the principles of energy healing have the potential to
positively impact the whole world. Quantitative data
analysis showed HT being used in multiple settings, with
the most common uses and findings of highest efficacy of
interventions to include stress and anxiety reduction,
promote relaxation and relieve pain, promote and maintain
wellness, accelerate healing, promote personal and
spiritual growth, and ease the dying process.
The dedication of the healers, the type of
practitioner-patient relationship, and the efficacy of the
method have multiple implications for health care consumers
who report dissatisfaction with allopathic medicine and
inadequate relief for chronic conditions. The research is
also valuable for people who may wish to seek energy
healing or to become a healer. The HT program is explained,
demographics on the research population are presented, and
necessary healer characteristics are given. Most
practitioners are highly trained professionals who sought
certification in HT in addition to their other credentials.
Out of the 87 CHTPs interviewed and surveyed, 61 are
nurses, 9 are other types of medical personnel, and 9 are
social workers or psychotherapists, accounting for 90% of
the group. Other professions represented are science,
education, and business.
The qualities and characteristics that a healer must have,
according to the practitioners themselves, include but are
not limited to, compassion; healing intention; persistence
and patience; the ability to be fully present; the ability
to create, embody, and hold sacred, safe space; the
willingness to work on one's own physical, mental, and
spiritual health; and to continue to develop one's healing
skills.
The findings point to many areas for future research, much
of which may be most fruitfully done cooperatively among HT
practitioners and others in medicine and science.