Healing Touch International: Healing Touch Program

Background Information about Healing Touch Program and Healing Touch International

The purpose of this page is to make you aware of important distinctions about Healing Touch Program (HTP) and Healing Touch International education programs. We realize that you might not be aware that there is only one original twenty-one year old standardized program now owned and offered by Janet Mentgen's family. (Janet Mentgen is the founder of Healing Touch who developed the standardized curriculum in 1989) HTP's present CEO and Program Director were personally put in place by Janet Mentgen. Unfortunately, after Janet's passing a break-off group, Healing Touch International (HTI) that was originally part of Janet's organization began representing themselves as an educational "program" of HT when in fact they are supporting independent instructors who have developed individual UN-standardized courses that do not meet the standards or approval of Janet Mentgen's original Healing Touch Program.

Below is more explination so that you have a better understanding of this important distinction. The following points highlight why you should affiliate with HTP for your Healing Touch training.

Healing Touch Program (HTP) is the original curricular program, which was developed by our founder, a holistic nurse, Janet Mentgen. The Healing Touch program is in its 21st year of providing quality education for nurses and other interested health and lay people, including twenty years of providing continuing education contact hours through the American Nurses' Credentialing Center and the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.

It is important that you know that HTP owns the entire standardized curriculum and continues to spread the teaching of Healing Touch to the world. Each student in HTP classes, at every level of their training, receives an excellent manual (approximately 200 pages) to enhance their learning experience. Healing Touch Certification (HTC), has been established to replace Healing Touch International (HTI). Healing Touch Professional Association (HTPA) is the new professional membership association which now provides specific HT liability coverage for HT practitioners and instructors. This is a huge professional accomplishment.

HTP has been focused on upgrading and improving its policies and procedures as part of a significant investment in becoming an NCCA/ICE accredited program. When this NCCA process is complete, anticipated by late 2011, HTP will be the first nationally accredited energy-based integrative healing discipline.

HTP has also developed a new "Qualified Mentor" program to enhance the quality of apprenticeship mentoring. More consistent mentoring will improve the consistency and quality of our practitioners. The new mentoring program will bolster quality for the NCAA/ICE accreditation.

The HTP leadership team is Janet's chosen successors. Prior to Janet's passing, she arranged for the orderly long term legacy of her program. Janet's daughter, Lisa Mentgen Gordon, became HTP's CEO at Janet's request months before she died. She had mentored Cynthia Hutchison to carry on as the Program Director since 2003. When Janet passed away in September of 2005, she left stewardship of her organization and the intellectual property rights of (HTP) to her daughters and son, with her wish that it grow for seven generations. Her chosen successors were honored at the annual HT banquet and instructor meetings asking everyone for their support in her new, chosen leadership. Two HT instructors who were in leadership roles with HTI tried to buy HTP from Janet before she died but their request was declined by Janet.

Every Healing Touch Class prior to April 1, 2008 was a HTP/CCHT class, or was offered with the approval and under the direction of HTP and the Program Director.

The other faction, Healing Touch International (HTI), was established by Ms. Mentgen seven years after she created her curricular program through her business (HTP) in 1996. As the second certifying body for HT practitioners and instructors, its job was to maintain HT certification creditability and address the issue of certifying the growing number of non-nurses interested in HT certification. Janet also gave HTI the duty to serve as the professional membership organization for HT Program. Following Janet's death, with HTI having failed at buying HTP from Janet before she died, a few members of the HTI board of directors decided they wanted HTI to be the provider of Healing Touch instruction rather than just continuing in the role of certification and professional membership. In disregard of copyright and intellectual property laws, HTI now claims to be the "Original Healing Touch Certificate Program" encouraging people to think that "program" means curriculum and not its original intent of being a program that bestowed certificates to graduates of the HTP curricular program who met certification criteria.

HTI does not have a standardized curriculum and encourages instructors to put together their own collection of materials for each class taught. In addition to a myriad of ethical and legal breaches, HTI leaders are encouraging their instructors to use an outdated text, The Healing Touch Resource Guide by Delmar Press as the course manual, without having received permission from its author, Dr. Dorothea Hover-Kramer. Healing Touch Program has recently published a new guidebook Healing Touch Guidebook: Practicing the Art and Science of Human Caring by Dorothea Hover-Kramer, who also helped Janet Mentgen create the original course objectives 21 years ago. HTI has plans to create a curriculum; however, it would seem an impossible task to create curriculum materials that match the original program training without simultaneously creating ethical or legal issues related to intellectual property. The combination of no standardized curriculum and potential ethical issues related to copyright infringement should highlight a significant integrity concern for any groups, associated with the HTI offered classes.

Based on the limited information I have shared with you in this letter, we assure you that choosing to associate with Healing Touch Program is the best choice for a high quality, professional and consistent Healing Touch education. It is the only choice in terms of ethical and legal integrity.

If you are interested, Lisa Mentgen Gordon, CEO and owner of Healing Touch Program or Cynthia Hutchison, Healing Touch Program Director would be happy to provide more historical and legal detail to substantiate this letter.

More resources:

For a more in-depth explanation about the split between these two organizations and to see the letter sent to the HT community on Nov 9, 2009 go here: The History and Relationship of Healing Touch Program and Healing Touch International: A document written in letter format to the Worldwide Healing Touch Community

Students wishing to transfer to HTP after taking a HTI class
If you have mistakenly taken a class from someone who has created a competing program affiliated with HTI after April 1, 2008 and now wish to continue your Healing Touch education through Janet Mentgen's Healing Touch Program, the link below will answer your questions and allow you to easily continue through Healing Touch Program (HTP). Click here for more information.

For more information on the background of Healing Touch Program click here.

To read more about the history of the program go to: Healing Touch Program Timeline.