2008-07-09 23:55:51 - Tellington TTouch® (pronounced tee-touch), a gentle form of touch first developed for the care and training of animals, has been used as a complementary treatment for humans for more than two decades. Nurses, physicians, physical therapists, massage therapists and other providers worldwide have integrated TTouch to relieve a multitude of symptoms. TTouch for Healthcare book and instructional DVD provide the health care professional an introduction to the application and techniques of TTouch as a healing modality and as an important form of caring communication.

(July 10, 2008), Santa Fe, NM-The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched a campaign to encourage patients and healthcare providers to openly discuss the use of complementary and alternative medicine. The emerging importance of patient involvement is the focus of a new book, TTouch for Healthcare: The Health Professional's Guide to Tellington TTouch®, by M. Cecilia Wendler, RN, PhD, CCRN, and Linda Tellington-Jones, PhD. The book teaches healthcare professionals how to integrate this touch into every aspect of patient care.

Anecdotal evidence has been collected for more than 20 years indicating TTouch reduces stress, relieves pain, reduces inflammation, accelerates healing after surgery or injury, improves brain function, releases fear and awakens the body's cellular intelligence for overall well-being. The publication

of TTouch For Healthcare is a to encourage clinical research opportunities on the efficacy of TTouch as a complementary treatment.

In the foreword, Mary Jo Kreitzer PhD, RN, FAAN, founder and director of Center for Spirituality and Healing, and an associate professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota, states: .there just might be something unique and powerful about this gentle form of caring touch and that it behooves the health care and scientific community to take a hard look at what it might offerIt is my hope and expectation that the book will generate interest and curiosity that will in turn stimulate scientific inquiry.'

Dr. Tellington-Jones, a world-renowned equestrian master and teacher, first developed TTouch for animals and discovered the value of the TTouch on humans in 1983. During workshops for animal owners, TTouch was practiced by animal owners on each other in order to understand what their animals were experiencing. Effectiveness for people quickly became apparent in the countless stories of individual responses to these TTouches. Dr. Wendler serves as director of nursing research and academic partnerships at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, Illinois, and the first health professional to publish research on TTouch with humans.

The methodology of TTouch is provided in the book along with a 240-minute instructional DVD. Chapters demonstrate the methods and benefits to integrating TTouch into nursing, physical therapy, massage therapy, CranioSacral therapy, addiction rehabilitation, mental health care and Feldenkrais therapy.

Contributing authors include: Madeleine S. Hengel, PhD; Kathy Cascade, MPT; Sally Morgan, PT, CST; Molly Deprekel, MA, LP; Tanya Welsch, MSW, LGSW; Tina Hutton, CMT, GCFP; Relana Wachowiak, MA; Elinor B. Silverstein, GCFP

TTouch for Healthcare: The Health Professional's Guide to Tellington TTouch is available at www.ttouch.com, www.amazon.com or by calling 866-488-6824.
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