4 minutes to read

Healing Touch For Babies: Benefits for All Ages

One of my favorite activities is to teach Healing Touch techniques to the whole family, especially when they are welcoming a new addition.

In a recent Healing Touch for Babies class, we studied 3 aspects of energy therapy that I find particularly compelling.

“Family Centered Care” puts the emphasis on the FAMILY, from conception through the first year of life.

Bringing a new child into the family is a huge change. Sure, baby might be the center of attention. Who can resist feeling pleasure and joy when a baby smiles? Who can resist reaching out to comfort them when in distress?

But new babies also can lead to sleep deprivation and exacerbate postpartum hormonal fluctuations, as well as less tangible mental and emotional stressors, like financial worries, a spouse’s desire for intimacy, or a sibling’s need for attention.

Healing Touch often helps with this time of transition so that their beautiful new child can integrate into the family smoothly and easily. By providing healing and support for each individual, we can create a dynamic within the family that nurtures balance. Each family member learns to care for each other’s needs as well as one’s self in equal measure.

“Core Energetics” describes the ways in which the core of our being can become wounded early in life, leading to pain, protection, and defense mechanisms.  

The birth process is arduous, both physically and psychologically. The womb, which has been a warm and nurturing place for many months, gradually becomes constricting. There is no choice but to enter the outside world! And yet, with the cutting of the cord there is sudden separation. It has been said that the root cause of every fear is either the fear of entrapment or the fear of abandonment. So from the very beginning, we all experience the paradox of the human condition.  

We can use Healing Touch to minimize birth trauma by promoting the relaxation response in mom and clearing side effects of any medicine that might be used. Of course this helps the baby, too. In high risk births, the benefits are even greater as Healing Touch helps the baby and family release pain and stress and build strength.

Whether you are dealing with an uneventful pregnancy, labor, and delivery, or spending months in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), Healing Touch can help prevent the impact that birth trauma can have years later, if left unaddressed.

When I work with adults, getting to the root cause of a health issue often takes my client back to an early childhood trauma. Examining this phase of life can provide helpful insights. Healing Touch facilitates the release of core wounding, old patterns and cellular memory, making the bound-up energy available for more productive and joyful living.

So the concept of “Core Energetics” helps us mitigate trauma, whether current or from years past, reuniting us with our core essence.

“The Remembrance Process” is based on HeartMath Institute research describing the magnetic field of the heart. 

Through a process of breathwork and visualization, we can eliminate erratic patterns and create coherent rhythms in the heart’s electromagnetic field. As a practitioner, I use this method to expand  the field of my own heart, which facilitates healing in others.

This is a wonderful method to use with the whole family when they are in the midst of beautiful, pure newborn energy. It is easily taught to parents and siblings and is one of healthiest energetic foundations we can provide.

Whatever your age or family role, everyone can benefit from these 3 approaches:

  • Family Centered Care
  • Core Energetics
  • The Remembrance Process

(Photo courtesy of healingtouchforbabies.com)

Katie Oberlin

A Healing Touch Certified Practitioner, Katie received advanced training in shamanic healing at The Power Path School of Shamanism in 2014. Her travels have taken her to power spots in the southwestern United States, as well as Mexico and Peru, where she has worked with shamans from the Q’ero and Shipibo indigenous healing traditions.