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

Featured HT Certified Practitioner
program (www.capacitar.org) teaches body-mind-spirit practices
including Tai Chi meditation, Pal Dan Gum and body movement,
visualization and breath work, active listening and simple
psychotherapeutic skills, Emotional Freedom Technique, chakra
and energy work, and other wellness modalities.
For Mary Capacitar was a natural progression in terms of
holistic care. She was attracted to the simplicity of the approach,
thinking she could use it with some of the women’s
groups in her Parish Nursing. On a return trip to Africa, Mary
and Pat Cane, Capacitar founder, taught a weekend Capacitar
workshop for a group of about 65 Catholic sisters in Lesotho,
a small kingdom surrounded by South Africa. “I was struck by
how exhausted they were and how wonderfully they responded
to energy work.”
“I have found that the Capacitar approach, using popular education
methods, works well when you have limited time with
a group and you want to teach something that is useful and
simple enough to be easily taught to others. It also works when
there is a language barrier or people may not have the gift of literacy.”
Mary recalls a young man who had been part of a training
she did for a large group of lay community health workers in
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Asked how he thought he might
use what he had learned, he replied ‘I will teach my children.’
“And what greater gift for me as a teacher.”
Another endeavor to bring holistic health and wellness to
schools was birthed while Mary was completing her training
program. “While I was doing my Capacitar training, my Parish
Nurse Manager and I discussed the idea of trying to integrate
these practices into schools. We applied for and received a
three year grant to teach the Capacitar practices to teachers
in several pilot schools so they could integrate them into the
school day to help the children deal with the stress and trauma
of their young lives.” Mary and Pat Cane co-authored a teacher’s
manual and Mary produced a DVD training video of herself
with some of the children doing the practices.
“The work has continued since the grant ended. I continue to
visit one of the pilot schools monthly. I include simple Healing
Touch. Magnetic Passes: Hands-In-Motion, Hands Still, Pain
Drain, and Ultrasound are easy to teach people of any age, as
are the Capacitar practices.” Mary also just received a one year
planning grant (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010) to explore integrating
holistic practices such as Capacitar and Healing Touch
into already existing Violence Prevention programs offered by
the YWCA. The focus will be to work with YWCA staff involved
in programming and train them so they can use and teach the
practices with groups and individuals.
If that isn’t enough, Mary frequently facilitates a monthly
Healing Touch practice session that “is well attended and has
evolved over the years to the point where it happens pretty
much on its own with whoever comes through the door. When I
am there I make an effort to work with new Level 1 students to
reinforce their learning.” She is also involved with the planning
of the annual fall gathering for the local Healing Touch community
in the Greater Cincinnati area.
In 2007 she invited Lisa Gordon and Cynthia Hutchison to
come and discuss the Healing Touch Program and future
plans. She is currently mentoring two Level 4 students and just
finished co-mentoring an applicant for Healing Touch certification.
For the past several years she has coordinated the Levels
4 and 5 workshops in Cincinnati to help make this opportunity
available locally for students.
Healing Touch workshops are offered through TriHealth several
times a year and volunteers at both hospitals do Healing Touch
in the acute setting. Mary reports that Bethesda North Hospital
has a very strong volunteer program due to the efforts of Joan
Stouffer who orients all new Healing Touch volunteers and
continues to volunteer there on a regular basis. “Joan started
volunteering with me when I was working there as the Holistic
Health Nurse and she took on the added responsibility after my
position was eliminated.”
We can see why Barbara Litchfield nominated Mary Duennes
for Energy Magazine’s Practitioner Profile as a “leader of Healing
Touch in the Cincinnati area.” You can contact Mary at
mduennes@att.net.
Who would you like to see acknowledged in the Practitioner
Profile We want to honor the vast and varied contributions of
our Healing Touch Practitioners. It might be YOU! Please send
your recommendations to Barb at barbdahl@aol.com.
About the author:
Barbara Dahl, BSN, RN, HTCP/I. Barb is an Elder in the
Healing Touch Program. She studied with Janet Mentgen in
Denver in the ‘80’s and was in the first group of HT Instructors.
She has taught extensively in the U.S., Canada, and The
Netherlands, and presented twice at annual HT Conferences.
A graduate of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,
Barb lives in Seattle and is retired from a thirty year career in
acute care nursing.
copyright © 2009 Healing Touch Program August/September 2009 | Energy Magazine 34