Healing Touch Makes Its Skylight TV Debut

Ellen Laffey, HTCP, Producer, Healing Touch Skylight Video
Ellen Laffey

In 2010, I was entering a hospital elevator when I met Allen Stasiewski, MS, RN, RRT, who works in the Office of Patient Experience at Aurora Health Care. (Aurora Health Care is a not-for-profit Wisconsin health care provider and home to Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center.) Allen also manages our system’s Skylight Access Interactive Television system. The Skylight system turns inpatient televisions into interactive computers and part of the system is an on-demand video library available to all inpatients.

Allen asked if I was still doing healing work and I replied that I was. We talked about the Healing Touch work I was doing with patients in Wound Care and discussed how important it is to increase awareness about Healing Touch. At the end of our conversation Allen suggested that we might place a Healing Touch video in our Skylight video library and make this information readily available to all inpatients and their families at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center. At a wonderful chance meeting, an idea was born!

HT PRACTITIONER: Shortly after that, I contacted Rosann Geiser, RN, HTCP/I, whom I met when I was her Level 1 helper. I spoke about the project and invited Rosie to be the practitioner who would perform the Self-Chakra Connection and the Chakra Connection for the video. Rosie was delighted to be a part of the project. Rosie said later, “I saw this as another opportunity to continue Janet’s vision of having Healing Touch in every hospital. In addition to all the latest technology and expert care available at this hospital, any patient or family member would have access to this modality to enhance their healing, increase their comfort, and feel calm and relaxed."

HT PLAN: During our planning conversations we selected the Self-Chakra Connection and the Chakra Connection. With the Self-Chakra Connection, the patient could either visualize hand placements or physically place the hands on themselves as they are able while sitting in a chair or lying in bed. Also, the SCC could be used by a loved one anxiously sitting by a patient’s bedside who might be in need of their own healing. The Chakra Connection would provide instructions in the treatment and healing for a loved one.

HT VIDEOGRAPHER: Wes Tank is the videographer who works for Jeffrey Niezgoda, M.D., the Medical Director of the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wes previously had taped the testimony of two wound care patients for a video I had presented to the president of St. Luke’s in order to request that Healing Touch be available at the medical center. Wes whole-heartedly supports energy medicine and agreed to be our videographer.

HT VENUE: Wes and I decided to tape inside the 8th floor Healing Garden, which has both outdoor and indoor gardens, with the skyline of Milwaukee supporting the backdrop of our video. However, our three schedules never seemed to coordinate for quite some time. Finally in spring, when we were able to meet, we decided to change the venue. Getting hospital equipment to the Healing Garden became a problem. We chose the bay area in the Hyperbaric Department, a section of our department where our inpatients receive care. Privacy screens, a patient bed, a patient end table and inpatient linens and scrubs were available to us here, thus simulating a patient’s hospital room. I brought plants, living and non-living, from my home for decoration. I ironed linens and scrubs for our patient, my son Michael Laffey. Thus, the venue was set.

HT SCRIPT: Rosie created an inspired script for the video, so when she arrived, we went to Wes’ office to voice record the script. While they recorded, Michael and I set up the bay area for the video. When Rosie and Wes came down to Wound Care, Wes contributed his creative touch, adding flowers and adjusting the angle of the chair and patient bed to set just right. While I read Rosie’s script from behind the camera (one can edit out a person’s voice I found out), Rosie sat in a patient lounge chair and followed along performing the SCC. Then, while Michael lay in the patient bed, I read the CC script. Rosie and Michael worked together; Rosie worked and Michael slept soundly.

HT MUSIC: At an HT conference that Rosie and I both attended, Rosie introduced me to Richard Shulman, the musician who inspires us with his music at our conferences. Rosie felt the music from his CD, First Rites, would fit our video perfectly. I spoke with Richard and he agreed to allow his music to be the background for the video.

HT SPECIAL EFFECTS: Jason Nanna, a videographer who works with Wes, blended the narration and the music to the video with a great idea for the SCC. When Rosie spoke about the root Chakra, a red film would close in around her outlining her sitting in the hospital chair, and then fade out. Next was an orange film, yellow, and so on as she moved up the Chakra system. Such a fun idea!

HT CREATION: The final video was mailed to Lisa Gordon, and she approved the video for Skylight TV.

HT THANKS: Heartfelt thanks go to Allen for his inspiration in always thinking of our patients first, to Rosie for bravely allowing herself to be videotaped, to Wes for his videography talent, to Richard for his gracious gift of music, to my handsome son Michael for being our patient, to Jason for his creativity, to our Wound Care department for allowing us to use their premises, and finally to Lisa for giving us the go ahead.

May our inpatients and their families receive this special gift of healing during their recovery!

About the author:
Ellen Laffey, HTCP, works as an Administrative Assistant in Wound Care at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has had many experiences working with patients who, sometimes, have wounds that would not heal with regular medical treatments. She has been able to show the amazing affects of HT in healing these wounds and in the pro¬cess, has been able to share this information with many doctors and nurses in her field.