Free reiki and meditation for child cancer patients Hamilton Spectator A new Hamilton charity is offering free reiki, meditation and other holistic therapies for children with cancer to help them deal with anxiety and to relax. Catarino House offers the complementary therapies without referrals or charges every Saturday for children ages 4 to 18. Reiki and meditation are available now, and art and music therapies will be offered in 2015 if there is enough interest, said the charitys founder, Maria Catarino. She said the centre opened Sept. 20 and started providing its therapies this month. It has one reiki patient but Catarino, who is a reiki master and meditation teacher, expects more as the charity becomes known. Were creating awareness right now, she said. Catarino House, on the upper level of Olivet United Church at 40 Empress Ave., has the only service of its kind she knows of thats free. I founded the charity because I heard parents stories on how they were looking for holistic treatments to help their children — parents who had children who were ill and were paying out of pocket for these services. Often, one parent ends up staying home when a child gets cancer so there is no money for such relaxations for their children, she said. From talking to parents, it seems there is a need for it. Hamilton Health Sciences spokesperson Agnes Bongers said there are no objections from HHS medical community, including McMaster Childrens Hospital, on reiki and meditation as long as the family (or) child feels they are of benefit and they would not cause harm for the specific patients care. Bongers said there is some thought that they do help if the patient feels they help. She also said Macs child life specialists provide some relaxation techniques, but not these. Reiki is described in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as a system of hands-on touching based on the belief that such touching by an experienced practitioner produces beneficial effects by strengthening and normalizing certain vital energy fields held to exist within the body. thespec/news-story/4958671-free-reiki-and-meditation-for-child-cancer-patients/
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:37:07 +0000
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