Shawnee Smith and Patrick Callahan recently presented an all-day training to twenty staff members of Vitas Hospice. The training introduced them to the importance of touch as an avenue of communication. Participants also discovered ways to use the Heart Touch approach to providing mindful, compassionate touch with their clients. Feedback from the participants was very positive. One felt that the workshop exercises were “a great to learn by experience.” Another commented that she discovered “very meaningful ways to touch patients, especially the elderly and non-responsive.” The Vitas office of Los Angeles/Ventura County hosted the training.

The next Heart Touch Training in Compassionate Touch is on April 26-28, 2013. Registration is now open. The Heart Touch Training in Compassionate Touch empowers participants to use their gift of touch in the most powerful way possible: to help alleviate the pain and isolation of the most ill and isolated individuals in our community. If you would like to share and nurture your gift of touch, please consider joining us at the next Heart Touch Training. Volunteering is optional and not a requirement to take the training. Upon completion of the training, participants can choose to be assigned to one our partner hospices. Volunteer opportunities are available in the Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County. The training fee is $250. Financial assistance is available. Twenty continuing education hours available for Massage Therapists, Registered Nurses and Chaplains. For more information or to register, please contact the Heart Touch Office at (310) 391-2558 extension 104 or by email at training@hearttouch.org

The Heart Touch Project collaborated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in a clinical trial that measured the effects of massage for the treatment of depression in individuals with HIV. The study was funded by the National Institute of Health and the results have recently been published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. We are excited and proud of this collaboration and invite you to take a moment to read more about the article here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23098696

Five volunteers participated in the Heart Touch Project’s 2012 International Outreach Program in Cambodia. The volunteers spent two weeks providing compassionate touch to children at New Hope for Cambodian Children as well as adults in local clinics and hospitals. Pictured above are the Heart Touch volunteers along with their driver, Samphors Sok. The Heart Touch Project’s International Program will be returning to Cambodia in early 2014. For more information on our International Program, please contact Patrick at Patrick@hearttouch.org

Top row – Valerie Steinken, Patrick Callahan and Mike Norman. Bottom row – Louisa Callery, Samphors Sok (Driver) and Kelsey Lyons

The 2013 schedule for Heart Touch trainings is now available. Click on the Calendar tab at the top of this screen. The dates for the International Outreach Program trip are also listed in the Calendar. There will be a trip to India beginning in late December 2013. The next trip to Cambodia begins in early January 2014.