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Saturday, April 12, 2014

Japanese ‘touch therapy’ – Jin Shin Jyutsu – helps Markey cancer patients find calm place

Jin Shin Jyutus, an ancient art form of touching key points on the body to increase energy flow and return the natural harmony within, is part of an integrated medical plan at UK’s Markey Cancer Center. Here, Jennifer Bradley practices Jin Shin Jyutus with a patient. (Photo by Shaun Ring/Kentucky Alumni magazine)

 

By Beverly Bell
Special to KyForward
 

The patients enter Jennifer Bradley’s treatment room at the UK Markey Cancer Center in widely different states of emotion — worried, angry, exhausted, scared, and yes, skeptical. After all, what can she give them with her Japanese touch therapy that traditional cancer treatments can’t already address?
 

Turns out, more than anyone could have realized.
 

Bradley practices Jin Shin Jyutsu, an ancient art form of touching key points on the body to increase energy flow and return the natural harmony within. Five years ago, Bradley offered it at no charge to cancer patients at the center as a way to give back to the facility, which had provided care to her late mother-in-law. Now, through a grant from the Lexington Cancer Foundation, patients can receive up to five free sessions from Bradley. Jin Shin Jyutsu has become part of an integrated medical plan, one that includes chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and yes, this Eastern-based approach that can help to reduce the pain, stress and nausea many patients face as a result of their illness.
 

Back in 2009, when Bradley began volunteering at the center’s chemotherapy clinic, she had to seek out patients. She conducted short, 20-minute sessions, mainly as a relaxation tool. As patients started reporting back to their doctors about feeling better, Bradley received a call from the office of Dr. Mark Evers, the director of the Markey Cancer Center. He wanted to meet with her and better understand what she was doing. After that conversation, he talked with some of the patients and their doctors. “I was amazed at what I was hearing,” he says. JSJ was providing relief, in some cases as a complement to traditional medicine and in others, where conventional treatments had come up short.
 

That resulted in the Markey Cancer Center receiving the first grant from the Lexington Cancer Foundation in 2011 for JSJ and a formal referral system was developed. The ongoing support from the Lexington Cancer Foundation
allowed Bradley to take care of 160 patients last year.
 

Developed in Japan, JSJ traces its roots to thousands of years ago. Jiro Murai, a young philosopher from a medical family, rediscovered the art form in the early 1900s. One of his students, Mary Burmeister, brought it to the United States 50 years later.
 

Jennifer Bradley said Jin Shin Jyutsu is more about giving people a calm place to put their restless minds. (Photo from Markey Cancer Center)

During a session, patients lay fully clothed — with the exception of their shoes — on a padded massage table. Other than the soothing, spa-like music playing in the background, the sessions are quiet. This isn’t a communicative therapy, Bradley says. It’s more about giving people a calm place to put their restless minds.
 

Treatments — radiation, chemo and other medicines — can wreak havoc on patients. They often feel overwhelmed and conflicted about their own bodies, which simultaneously hold both the illness and the possibility of remission. Bradley understands this. “The body is doing the best it can to keep you on this planet,” she says.
 

Adding to the complexity of experiencing cancer, some patients undergo post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, similar to those found in soldiers returning from war. “It’s that moment of diagnosis for some,” says Bradley. “The moment you found the lump. For others it may be the difficult treatments or reoccurrence that is a trigger.” People can walk around like that for months, even years. Their bodies remain in a constant flight/fight condition, and that makes them unable to be a full partner in their healing.
 

“They don’t understand what the doctors are telling them. They can’t eat. They can’t sleep. The thinking mind shuts down,” Bradley says, noting that the National Cancer Institute recognizes PTSD as a serious effect of cancer diagnosis and treatment that needs to be addressed.
 

It’s up to her to try to address this disharmony. She uses both hands and gently touches some of the 52 energy pathways, 26 on each side of the body. In the medical world, these might be called trigger points. Bradley refers to them as “little spheres of energy.”
 

Through the thousands of nerve endings in her fingertips, Bradley “listens” to the pulses. They tell her where areas are blocked. She compares it to stones in a stream, preventing the water’s natural current. “We take those stones out and now the stream is back on its normal path,” she says. The areas she touches and the order in which she does it, called flows in JSJ, is determined by what her fingers “hear” and what Bradley picks up from observing and talking with the patient. The concerted process leads to a more relaxed pulsation and a restored balance.
 

Mary Gay Lake is one of those patients who has benefited from JSJ. “When you’re taking chemotherapy, you are given a steroid,” she says. “This … opened up a world of anxiety, sleeplessness, feeling very hyped up. JSJ was very instrumental in keeping me calm and centered, focused.”
 

Lake isn’t alone. Prior to each session, Bradley’s patients fill out a form, reporting levels of nausea, pain and stress on a scale to 10, with zero representing no symptoms. They complete the same paperwork afterward. In every case, all levels improved after the treatment.
 

While her work at the center is with cancer patients, Bradley also has a private practice and can use the technique on anyone of any age — head trauma victims, the elderly, those in hospice care, etc. When she can, Bradley enjoys volunteering to work with the addicted babies at the UK Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Born into the world as users of various narcotics because of their mother’s substance abuse, these small babies represent some of the most compelling patients. They can’t make eye contact. They can’t tolerate touch. Every motion and sound over-stimulates them. They cry constantly.
 

Bradley wanted to help. She showed one of the doctors three particular ways to hold the babies, she says. The physician found the most miserable infant in the unit and gave it a try. After about a minute, the little boy relaxed, stopped crying, turned his head, looked up at the doctor and smiled. “If you can work with someone in the beginning of their life, imagine how everything’s going to be different,” Bradley says.
 

The California native and licensed JSJ practitioner now teaches self-help classes and is developing online videos so that a greater number of people can access the therapy. Evers joins Bradley in wanting to reach a larger audience. “I’ve seen the great benefits that it’s had on our patients, and it’s truly remarkable,” he says. With additional funding, his hope is that they can expand the program, by making Bradley full-time and adding other professionals so that more patients can participate in sessions. “I’m really sold,” Evers says.
 

Beverly Bell writes for Kentucky Alumni magazine, where this story first appeared. It is reprinted with permission.

Self Help to Beat Fatigue and the Heat

by FlowsforLife on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 | Comments Off

Fatigue colours our world and affects how we feel, and Jin Shin Jyutsu is one of the most powerful ways to overcome fatigue.

Time after time, I have tried and tested these holds and it is absolutely amazing how my whole world can change in 20 minutes – purely because I have been able to energise myself. And if I can, you can too with this simple exercise.

The Spleen energy governs our energy levels and this exercise is very powerful for vitality and calm (one needs energy to stay calm, believe it or not!) – 20 minutes minimum every day.

The Spleen is the biggest lymphatic organ in the body and if kept happy, helps all the other organs.

In Jin Shin Jyutsu, a sequence of HOLDS is referred to as a FLOW. The following self-help flow can be used to revitalise and re-energise the whole system, and to be ‘happy and content where ever you are’. Use it to regulate the body’s temperature (to warm the body when it’s cold, to cool the body when it’s hot), and to balance the nervous system (to calm).

Hold each step for a few minutes or until you feel you want to move to the next position. Tip: put on a chill out CD and when the track changes, move the hands to the next position… The music can add a wonderful dimension to the session…

GENERAL ENERGY REVITALISING FLOW (Spleen Flow)
(Right energy pattern)
Step 1
Place Left hand on base of spine (coccyx)
Place Right hand on right inside of heel
Step 2
Move Right hand and place on left base of rib cage and hold
Step 3
Move Left hand and place on right above breast area
Step 4
Move Left hand and place on left center of collar bone

So to summarise: the Spleen flow helps beat fatigue, insomnia, headaches, anxiety and much more. It stimulates the immune system, helps the digestive system, helps regulate our body temperature (you can use it to warm and to cool the body – isn’t that great?) – this flow also helps the skin, helps beat the attitude of WORRY and well, it’s just a great general all round wonder flow – use it with HUMILITY AND GRATITUDE!

- See more at: http://www.flowsforlife.com/self-help-to-beat-fatigue-and-the-heat/#sthash.ouG1wfr3.dpuf

New Testimonial for JSJ

14-10-2013

Alex Sid
A few months ago I was moving home, my wife was 8 months pregnant, work was piling up like never before and my stress level was at a whole new level. I was completely drained but had to push on. 

I met Perizat offered me a coupe of Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions to help regain my balance and energy. 

After the first session I went home in the afternoon and slept better than I had slept in weeks. 
After the second session, I couldn't remember how stressed I was before. 

The 2 sessions package had to continue as it was working so well and I wanted to prepare for the coming months when I was to experience fatherhood for the first time.
After the 5th session, we hugged and said farewell.

A couple of days later I was in my living room and had a very strange sensation. I couldn't work out what it was until I realised I could smell soap fragrance on my hands. My sense of smell has always been very weak to inexistent. Somehow JSJ had opened up my nose that seemed to have been 'blocked' since I was a kid. Since then I have been able to smell things that were just not there for me before i.e. orange juice 1 meter away, a flower, cinnamon sticks, natural body aroma and even the smell of pine trees in the air. Before that everything was just a flat 'smelling-field'.

Perizat is a pleasure to work with and a source of positiveness. Would recommend her to all my close friends and family when help is needed.
Thank you again for your help. 
Alex

Hold a Toe, Ease a Pain? Yes! by Jennifer M. Bradley

 

Hold a Toe, Ease a Pain? Yes!

It hurts so much to know that someone you love is ill and in pain and yet feel powerless to help. That's why I was so pleased to learn about a unique hands-on technique that can bring significant comfort to patients—and to caregivers, too.
Called Jin Shin Jyutsu^© (pronounced jin shin jit-su), it's an ancient form of touch therapy that is simple and safe…often provides immediate relief…and can be performed at a basic level by people with no formal training. It's completely natural and noninvasive, involving only your hands—no pills, potions, side effects or equipment.
Jin Shin Jyutsu is an energy healing technique that utilizes the same principles of Eastern medicine as acupressure, except that little or no pressure is applied. It is based on the premise that energy flows through our bodies along certain pathways, and when that energy is blocked, we experience disharmony, including pain. Like jumper cables for a car, Jin Shin Jyutsu sparks the flow of energy to help restore proper functioning.
Exciting new research: A recent pilot study involved 159 cancer patients who ranked their pain, nausea and stress on a scale of zero (no symptoms) to 10 (extremely severe symptoms) before and after receiving Jin Shin Jyutsu therapy. Results: Participants reported an average two-point reduction in pain and nausea and three-point reduction in stress after their first and subsequent Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions. Benefits typically lasted for many hours or days, depending on the individual.
Though this was a preliminary study and has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, I was intrigued enough to contact study leader Jennifer Bradley, the Jin Shin Jyutsu integrative practitioner at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center in Lexington. She told me that she became interested in Jin Shin Jyutsu when she saw the profound relief it brought to her sister, a breast cancer survivor, while she was receiving chemotherapy. Bradley also used the technique to ease the suffering of her mother-in-law. "I was taught a simple toe hold that helped alleviate the breakthrough pain from a brain tumor up until the very end of her life," she said.
Bradley's study focused exclusively on cancer patients, but she said that the principles of Jin Shin Jyutsu can promote balance and healing in everyone, including people who are basically healthy but feel depleted. In fact, Jin Shin Jyutsu is something we all practice unconsciously. For instance, babies suck their thumbs because it's soothing…people put their hands behind their heads to relax themselves. Jin Shin Jyutsu is simply a way of doing such actions with intention to promote certain beneficial responses.
The technique also provides a means of maintaining a deep connection at the end of life, when a person is no longer able to communicate verbally. Bradley said, "Family members can be taught some simple Jin Shin Jyutsu holds, so they can bond with their loved ones in a profound way during what can often be a difficult transition for everyone."
What a Professional Practitioner Does. Jin Shin Jyutsu uses 52 energetic points, or safety energy locks, on the body (similar to acupressure points). These energy locks can be thought of as small breaker boxes that keep the energy system in check, like the fuse box in a home, Bradley explained. These points are stimulated in predetermined orders called flows. The specific hand and finger positions the practitioner uses are called holds, though this word applies only in the most passive sense because there is no gripping, grasping or manipulation at all—instead, a very light touch is used.
During the session, the patient lies comfortably on a padded surface, fully clothed except for shoes…watches and jewelry also may be removed from the wrist. First the practitioner places her hands on the patient's wrists in a technique called pulse listening, to sense the energetic pulse and determine which procedures are needed to promote balance. Then she works her way through various safety energy locks, moving from one to the next as she senses that harmony is being restored.
A session with a professional typically lasts about an hour. The cost is similar the charge for a massage, depending on the location, practitioner and years of experience. Sometimes the service is provided without charge—for instance, the Jin Shin Jyutsu program at Markey Cancer Center is offered free to patients through a grant from the Lexington Cancer Foundation. To find a practitioner near you, click here.
Techniques You Can Do for a Loved One. Here are some basic holds Bradley suggested that anyone can do to ease a loved one's suffering. You can do any or all of them, in any order. Use whichever holds feel good to your loved one—these are what will offer assistance, Bradley said.
The patient may sit in a chair or couch with feet propped up or may lie in bed, whatever is comfortable for her or him. For techniques that involve the toes, the patient's feet can be bare or in socks. In each case, maintain a gentle hold without squeezing or rubbing for several minutes per position or until you feel a gentle rhythmic pulsation. If possible, do the holds once or more daily—there is no limit on the amount of time or number of times the techniques can be performed. What to do…
To reduce fatigue: Wrap the fingers of your right hand around the patient's right thumb and the fingers of your left hand around her left thumb…hold…then reverse your hands and repeat.
To lessen anxiety: Place one hand under the back of the head just above the neck area. This can be done underneath the pillow if necessary. At the same time, gently wrap the fingers of your other hand around the patient's fingers, one by one. If it is not possible to hold the back of the head, gently hold the patient's palm with one of your hands while using your other hand to hold each finger individually. Then repeat for the patient's other hand.
To ease back pain and trauma (including spinal paralysis) or to relax the body overall: You will use one hand to hold each of her fingers (one after the other) while at the same time using the other hand to hold each of her toes. Going in the following order, hold her…

• Right pinkie at the same time as the left big toe

• Right ring finger at the same time as the left second toe

• Right middle finger at the same time as the left middle toe

• Right index finger at the same time as the left fourth toe

• Right thumb at the same time as the left pinkie toe.

When finished, repeat the same sequence, holding each left finger at the same time as each right toe. It is also fine to begin with the left fingers/right toes sequence first, followed by the right fingers/left toes sequence.
To help clear anesthesia from the body after surgery: Stand at the end of the bed or sit at either side of the bed. With your palms facing up, place your left palm under her right calf and your right palm under her left calf, gently cradling her legs…hold…then reverse so your right palm cradles her right calf and your left palm cradles her left calf.
To soothe radiation treatment side effects (burning pain, skin sensitivity, skin damage): This can be done any time after treatment. Place the palm of your left hand on or just above the irradiated area, then place your right hand atop the left…hold for 20 minutes, repeating as much as requested.
Easing Your Own Emotional Pain. A basic tenet of Jin Shin Jyutsu is that each finger corresponds to a specific emotion or attitude. So when you feel upset—whether about a loved one's condition or for any other reason—you can soothe yourself simply by holding the appropriate finger with the opposite hand for several minutes. (You can also teach your loved one to do this for herself.)
First, use your left hand to lightly hold a finger on your right hand, then switch hands. If you feel…

• Worried—hold your thumb.

• Fearful—hold your index finger.

• Angry—hold your middle finger.

• Sad—hold your ring finger

• Insecure or overwhelmed—hold your pinky finger.

Intrigued? For more information, watch Bradley's video here. Jin Shin Jyutsu is not a substitute for appropriate medical care, good nutrition and rest, Bradley noted. Rather, it is an integrative therapy that can help optimize quality of life for patients and caregivers, whatever the health challenges they face.
Source: Jennifer M. Bradley is the Jin Shin Jyutsu integrative practitioner at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center in Lexington. She has completed more than 475 hours of classroom training in Jin Shin Jyutsu. She also teaches Jin Shin Jyutsu self-help classes and maintains a private practice, Harmony, in Lexington. www.JSJHarmony.com

Beat Fatigue: Self help Holds for Crossing Energies

http://www.flowsforlife.com/beat-fatigue-self-help-hold-for-crossing-energies/

You are Energy flowing beings...

"You are Energy flowing beings, and yes, we know you like the experience of the exposure to the physical stuff of this time/space reality. And so, just for the next 30 days, whenever you are in a moment of perceiving, let your dominant intent be to find the thought that feels best. Say to yourself, again and again, 'Today, no matter where I am, no matter where I am going, no matter who I am with, no matter what I am doing, - it is my dominant intent to look for that which I am wanting to see. To look for that which feels good. I'm wanting to find a reason to allow the Energy that creates worlds to flow through me, now. Right now. I'm allowing or disallowing, right now. All of my power is right now. What visions am I using that are allowing the Energy to flow? What visions don't let it flow? What memories are allowing it to flow? What memories are not letting it flow? What conversations, what topics don't let it flow for me, and what topics do let if flow for me? I have this power moment of selective sifting, where if I choose the thought that lets the Energy flow, then all things that I've told the Universe that I want- from my moment of stepping forth into this body - I am now allowing to flow. Oh, what a powerful and important moment this is!" ~ Abraham ( Esther Hicks)

Jin Shin Jyutsu at the UK Markey Cancer Center

Published on 27 Nov 2012

The Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky offers Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ), an ancient form of touch therapy, free to its patients. JSJ practitioner Jennifer Bradley treats patients in a special therapy room or in their chair in the chemotherapy clinic. Research data from more than 450 sessions with 159 cancer patients revealed that all of these patients reported a decrease in stress, pain and nausea levels after JSJ. Based on this pilot data, Bradley's next study will examine if belief in JSJ, or spiritual beliefs in general, play a role in patient outcomes, as well as the therapy's impact on specific radiation side effects.

Produced by Research Communications at the University of Kentucky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99nrmCufq_c