Local nurse offers Angel Therapy workshops and Healing Touch services
by Linda Hawkins, Altoona Star, Oct. 15, 2004
Among the many untraditional tools available to physicians and other medical practitioners, healing touch therapy is seeing positive results to many suffering from any number of symptoms.
Registered nurse Judy Meinen, an Altoona resident, began learning the practice of Healing Touch Therapy in the fall of 1994, when she returned as a student to UW-Eau Claire to obtain her Master of Science degree in nursing.
Her instructor for the "Societal Dimensions of Nursing" class, Dr. Nola Schmitt, Ph.D. in prepared nursing instruction, who was also a certified healing touch practitioner, tweaked Judy's interest in healing touch as therapy, and encouraged her to pursue her education in this field. (Dr. Shmitt is now a certified instructor of healing touch therapy as well).
In Dr. Shmitt's class, Meinen and her classmates discussed therapeutic touch as an intervention. Therapeutic touch is just one of the segments or "pieces" included under the main umbrella of healing touch therapy, Meinen clarified. Therapeutic touch therapy was accepted by NANDA (North American Nursing Diagnostic Association, the government of nursing interventions, both legal and ethical), in 1995, after thirty years of research on the topic. Meinen explained that Reiki is a practice that is very similar to therapeutic touch. Neither method requires a nursing degree for certification, however.
Meinen further explained that relaxation is the biggest benefit expressed by students of healing touch/reiki. Touch therapy works with the spiritual, emotional, and all layers of people, in contrast to the usual teachings of our society, which are "above the neck," (strictly logical) approaches, she emphasized. Our intuitive feelings and gut instincts are not given validity in our "normal" daily lives, thereby ignoring other important layers of our senses.
Most recently, Meinen has been conducting workshops in angel care therapy, in which she is a certified practitioner, having graduated from Dr. Doreen Virtue's angel therapy practitioner course. Meinen is also the founder of Angel Care Healing Touch. Angel therapy is a way of learning to communicate with your body, mind and spirit for skill building and self-healing.
In these workshops, Meinen gives people the opportunity to work with their personal angels to integrate the angels' wisdom, knowledge and divine love into their daily lives. Clients explore definitions of angels, discuss personal experiences of "unexplained" sensations, define the various ways to sense angels and energy (the "clairs"), and develop spiritual intuitive abilities, discovering their own inner angels, among other techniques.
The most common results come in the forms of pain relief, increased relaxation, improved sleep, prevention of illness, reduced stress and anxiety, accelerated wound healing, stimulated immune system function, smoking cessation, weight loss, age and past life regressions, and increased spiritual awareness and well-being. Meinen showed photos, in which auras (people's energy fields) were visible, as well as others that included visible spirit orbs, a phenomenon for which there is no other explanation.
Meinen's brochure on Angel Care Healing Touch states that none of the techniques she offers are miracle cures but facilitate natural healing capacities, and are often combined with conventional nursing and medical treatments. They are not necessarily meant to replace usual treatments, though it is possible for them to affect healing without being combined with other types of treatment.
Meinen also works as a Healing Touch practitioner for a managed care agency in Eau Claire and is a frequent presenter at civic and community conferences.
The next workshop presented by Meinen will be the Angel Care Workshop: Intuitive Development, November 5 and 6, at Unity Christ Center, 1808 Folsom Street, Eau Claire.
For more information, you may call Judy Meinen at (715)832-7250, or contact her e-mail at judymeinen@yahoo.com, or online at www.angelcarehealingtouch.com. Registrations are due by October 25th to avoid a late fee.
