Energy Medicine for End-of-Life Support
by Melinda Chichester, HTCP, EOL doula
“Death is still a fearful, frightening happening for many people, and the fear of death is a universal fear even if we think we have mastered it on many levels.”
Jane Whitlock, a death educator, shares, “What if we treat death like birth? What if learning our loved one is dying and approaching death is met with a deep love with which we greet new life? What if we care for the dying just as we know how to care for a newborn?”
Energy medicine is a biofield therapy that supports the body in self-healing. A healthy biofield is a large field of energy that surrounds and extends from the body about 6 to 8 feet. No part of the energy system is visible to the human eye, but the biofield can be felt with the hands, often through pressure, temperature changes, and intuitive information. Energy medicine modalities such as Healing Touch, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, sound therapy, and aromatherapy directly affect the subtle energy field that surrounds the body.
The human energy system is often understood in energy medicine as comprising five components: meridians, chakras, biofield or aura, hara, and core star.
- Meridians are pathways in which energy travels within our tissues that run on each side of the body. There are 12 major meridians, and one side mirrors the other. Each meridian correlates to an internal organ.
- Chakras spin and draw in this energy so that the whole of our life issues are kept in balance—the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health of the body. The chakras are the issues system.
- The biofield, aura, or energy field includes both the chakras and their corresponding fields. They are not two separate systems but two aspects of one system. The biofield is our buffering system.
- Hara is the unique energetic presence that you chose to bring with you from divine source and is essential for the human’s complete spiritual and physical manifestation on the earthly plane. The hara is where we hold our lessons, traumas, contracts, and karma.
- Core star is the energetic expression of the individual’s core essence and is the expression of source through the individual’s personal experience. The core star is how we bring our light into the world.
The goal of energy medicine is to elicit a relaxation response. Introducing energy medicine modalities at end of life provides an opportunity for dying people and their families to transform their fear into thoughts and feelings of acceptance, peace, gratitude, or joy. Energy medicine techniques can stabilize the human energy system while the dying navigate their journey back to divine source.
Today we live in unprecedented times, causing many to be in a constant fight or flight response. The fight or flight response, or stress response, is triggered by a release of hormones either prompting us to stay and fight or run away and flee. Our life situations and stressors can show up in our energy system as congestion or blocked energy. Using energy medicine techniques during life transitions will help relax the individual, and when the physical and energetic bodies are relaxed, the transition phase especially at end of life becomes effortless and peaceful.
When I hear a medical professional, family member, or loved one say, “What is keeping them here?” or “Why are they hanging on?” I intuitively know the human energy system is expressing with an energetic compromise, whether that be pain and discomfort, past trauma, anxiety, or fear of the approaching death.
As an advanced energy medicine practitioner I assess, diagnose, and treat the human energy system. When nearing the time of death and the physical body is comfortable and supported, it is the spirit (energy body) that needs nurturing. This is the time when the dying must go inward to prepare for the courageous, lonesome, and sacred journey home.
Healing Touch is one energy modality that can help a person connect with the spiritual self. Healing Touch is a holistic energy medicine-based modality in which practitioners use gentle hand techniques thought to help repattern the patient’s energy field and accelerate healing of the body, mind, and spirit. Healing Touch is based on the belief that human beings are fields of energy that are in constant interaction with others and the environment.
My father is diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and he remains angry while his health declines. His final hours are quite challenging as he lingers and fights to stay in this lifetime. After a long night of physical struggles, I share with my mom that a Healing Touch technique, the chakra spread, may help him relax and support his transition. As I offer the technique—a full-body method gently opening the chakras and blending the fields supporting body, mind, and spirit—the lines on my father’s face begin to soften and disappear. The room fills with an essence of sacredness, his soul sanctuary, and soon Dad looks tranquil and peaceful. As Mom watches the process, she settles, and a calmness comes over her as well. While holding my father’s hand and heart, the last hand position for the chakra spread technique, he quietly takes his last breath.
Death is a natural part of the cycle of life. What if people were aware and knew how to create a “soul sanctuary”—a place of quiet voices, slow movement, and an atmosphere of the sacred as individuals moved into their final days? Knowledge of these energetic patterns may provide guidance to hospice and palliative care providers and identify supportive activities for the family of dying people as they interact with the transition of death.
REFERENCES
Adams-Ackerman, D. RN, HN-BC, CHPN, HTCP/I (2019). Integrating Healing Touch for Advanced Illness & End-of-Life Nursing Care. Sedona, AZ: AHNA Beginnings.
Hover-Kramer, D. (2011). Healing Touch: Essential Energy Medicine for Yourself and Others. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.
Kübler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing.
Moll, J. (2017) Advanced Chakra Diagnosis and Treatment. (Class workbook). Highlands Ranch, CO: Energy Medicine Specialists. (This work is self-published.)
Whitlock, J. (2018). What I Learned About Life from Death. Minneapolis: TEDx.
BIO
Melinda Chichester, HTCP, end-of-life doula
Melinda is a Healing Touch Certified Practitioner, mentor, and end-of-life doula. Her focus is on releasing trauma within the human energy system while supporting the life’s journey. Melinda is a death educator focusing on the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic aspects of death. She is a self-starter with high enthusiasm, and she strives to create an atmosphere for motivating people and maintaining high morale within her community. Melinda enjoys educating the community on the benefits of self-care. She is published in several e-periodicals.
Contact Melinda:
Phone: 484.643.3657 \\ Email: [email protected] \\ Web: Healing Touch Transitions
LinkedIn \\ Twitter: @grndiamond \\ Facebook