Guidelines for Healing Touch
Practice Groups

Jan Fennell, CHTP, has responded to one of the ‘wishes’ expressed at the HTAC AGM in April 2008 by com­pil­ing these suggestions

(Contributions from Betty Petersen, CHTPI,  Nancy Bates, HTP and Kim Polvi, HTCP).

Every group has its own ‘per­son­al­ity’ and is there­fore encour­aged to develop its own vari­a­tions of these guide­lines to meet the needs of its members.

• Try to find a church or sim­i­lar facil­ity where you do not have to pay rent. Some com­mu­ni­ties prac­tise in mem­bers’ homes, which is more cosy.
• Determine the num­ber of times per month your group wants to meet. Do you want after­noon or evening ses­sions, or both?
• Have par­tic­i­pants bring mas­sage tables. We have used church hall tables but clearly they are not as comfy as a mas­sage table! Rotate if pos­si­ble, so it is not always the same peo­ple lug­ging tables.
• Suggest one per­son facil­i­tates each evening. This is best done on a pre-determined rota­tional basis.
• Also decide on a sched­ule of tech­niques to be prac­tised, so the facilitator(s) can pre­pare. One sug­ges­tion is for the first Practice Group in the month to be review for Level 1 tech­niques only, and another time, per­haps, Level 2 or 3 tech­niques can be stud­ied and practised.
• Some groups begin by shar­ing heal­ing expe­ri­ences or ask­ing ques­tions that have arisen since the last meet­ing. Then dis­cuss and per­haps demon­strate the spe­cific tech­nique that has been cho­sen for that session.
• Review the process for the evening. For exam­ple, the impor­tance of ask­ing for the client’s per­mis­sion, mak­ing sure the client is grounded at the end of the ses­sion, hav­ing water ready for the client when she/he gets off the table.
• Divide the group so there is the same num­ber at each table. Remind every­one to respect a quiet, com­pas­sion­ate space for all.
• Decide on the time for each ses­sion, deter­mined by the num­ber of stu­dents and the time avail­able. Respect all stu­dents by start­ing and end­ing at the des­ig­nated time.
• Have a med­i­ta­tion to get every­one clear, grounded and present.
• Turn on the music and have it play­ing softly in the background.
• One way is for the facil­i­ta­tor to voice-guide the tech­nique so that every­one is doing the same thing at the same time. This is excel­lent for any­one who has just taken a course at any level and needs rein­force­ment of the tech­nique. Or, for a gen­eral prac­tice, each group can be free to choose the most appro­pri­ate tech­nique for the per­son on the table. This is a good sys­tem when there are expe­ri­enced heal­ers in the group.
• The facil­i­ta­tor can gen­tly remind every­one when there are only a few min­utes left for the ses­sion. After a short de-briefing for the client and prac­ti­tion­ers, some­one else gets on the table. Ensure that every­one gets a treat­ment dur­ing the Practice Group
• End with a gen­eral dis­cus­sion on how things went for every­one, as a client and as a practitioner.
• Perhaps a short med­i­ta­tion to end the evening and the facil­i­ta­tor can announce when you will meet again and who will be the facil­i­ta­tor for the next Practice Group Session
• Everyone shares in tidy­ing the room and return­ing it to the orig­i­nal con­di­tion. (Should go with­out say­ing, but…)