August/September 2009: Healing Touch ... - Energy Magazine

Featured
Healing Touch
Certified Practitioner
by Barb Dahl, BSN, RN, HTCP/I
Mary Duennes, MA, BSN, RN, HTCP/I
What brought you to Healing Touch We listen to the stories at every workshop and marvel at the variety of
paths that have led us to “the work.” When the workshops come to an end with Level 5 we “lose touch” with
many of our classmates and the rest of their stories – and especially lose touch with what follows after certification.
Certification, of course, is only the beginning. Healing Touch changes our lives and together we are
changing the world. This column will present profiles of these agents of change.
Mary Duennes, MA, BSN, RN, HTCP/I
Just do the work.
-Janet Mentgen
When Mary Duennes’ position as Holistic Health Nurse at one
Cincinnati hospital was eliminated, she found a natural fit as a
Parish Nurse within the same system. Parish Nursing is a part
of Good Samaritan Hospital’s outreach to the community, to
churches in underserved neighborhoods. “It really gives me the
opportunity to use Healing Touch and other modalities within
the context of my everyday responsibilities. The pastors agreed
to give us office space and other basic amenities in exchange
for working with the parishioners and also the people in the surrounding
neighborhoods and communities.
“I routinely do full Healing Touch sessions at the church with
clients struggling with a multitude of health problems including
cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. When I
am working in the soup kitchen or one of the weekly blood pressure
clinics, I frequently have the opportunity to do short Healing
Touch interventions and teach clients self-care techniques.
I also work in schools every week teaching teachers and
students holistic self-care including some basic Healing Touch
techniques. The work with children has been one of the biggest
changes in the past five years. It has been amazing to see how
open the younger children are to Healing Touch.”
Mary was hired as the first Holistic Health Nurse at Bethesda
North shortly after completing Level 3 because she was well
known by the nursing and medical staff having worked in the
hospital system for a number of years. Although her job title
was Holistic Health Nurse, she admits “to be honest, I was really
doing primarily Healing Touch since that was pretty much
all I knew at the time. I had no difficulty doing my 100 documented
sessions for Level 5 working 36 hours per week doing
Healing Touch.”
A Healing Touch Certified Instructor, Mary taught her first
Level 1 workshop in South Africa while traveling with a group
organized by Mary Jo Bulbrook, RN, PhD. “It was an amazing
opportunity.”
She made a second trip to South Africa where a young Zulu
woman struggled with Mary’s English at times during the workshop.
“She was such a wonderful healer. Her energy was wonderful
and she clearly understood what was being taught based
on how she did the techniques in the class. She had tears in
her eyes as I gave her the certificate – somehow she had worried
about having to pass a written test and was not sure she
could do it and didn’t think she’d get a certificate. She earned
that certificate and it was my privilege to hand it to her.”
Mary also completed year long training in Multicultural Wellness
Education with Capacitar International, a network connecting
people on five continents with an office in California and an
international team of trainers. The Capacitar International
continued on page 34
copyright © 2009 Healing Touch Program August/September 2009 | Energy Magazine 33