“I loved this book and how it will be able to help people. I have been so fortunate in being able to receive Healing Touch every week and my doctors are amazed that I am doing so well after a heart attack and kidney problems. They predicted I would be dead within six months, and here I am over two years later with no pain and improved organ function. I feel very blessed that I found the right doctors and the wonderful Healing Touch practitioner, which has added up to the perfect treatment team” L.G., a client of Dr. Weymouth’s.
In the first book, What Obituaries Don’t Tell You, Conversation About Life and Death, the story of Anne and Betsy was such a beautiful account of how energy healing, in this case Healing Touch, can ease the pain and anxiety of a terminal illness and be of such tremendous benefit to the patient, the family, to friends and colleagues, as well as to the Healing Touch practitioner, that Dr. Weymouth knew there was the seed of a book there. As an experienced Healing Touch Certified Practitioner herself, Dr. Weymouth had seen with her own clients the results that are possible with energy healing and with other practices that fall under the umbrella term complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
What’s in the book? This book, The Gift of a Peaceful Death, is a compilation of interviews with professionals who use CAM methods in their practices, with the last two interviews with palliative care physicians who do not provide the methods themselves but support their patients’ and their families requests to use them.
Although the methods discussed in the book can be used under any circumstances when a client or patient wants to add CAM for an integrated treatment approach, the main theme of this book is how these methods are used for patients diagnosed with a terminal illness to ease pain, anxiety, and fear, and help ease them into a more peaceful death. The methods covered in the book are Healing Touch, massage therapy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, and music therapy. Each modality is introduced with an overview of the method which discusses the application, the history, the requirements for licensure or certification, and a summary.
How will it help me? Many people express less fear about death itself than about the dying process, fearing what they may have to endure for however long before that final passage is taken. They want a peaceful, easy death, and families and professionals want to help in facilitating that for them.
Often the fear, pain, anxiety, and restlessness during a terminal illness cannot be adequately controlled with standard medical care in spite of everyone’s best efforts. Including complementary modalities can solve some of these issues.
By knowing about these modalities, how and when they are used, and typical outcomes, the patient and family members can ask that they be added to their treatment protocol, with the distinct possibility that the days and hours leading to death are more comfortable, and the death itself is more peaceful. As you read the accounts by the professionals of how they use their modalities and the effects reported by the patients and family members, you will gain a deep appreciation for the role that these gentle, non-invasive methods have in providing comfort.
Author contact information: kfweymouthphd@gmail.com
Available for purchase at Amazon.com, Balboa Press, or by request at your local bookstore.
Special discounts are available through the publisher for some professionals. Please contact Dr. Weymouth for details.