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Our 10th Anniversary Women of Distinction

Rauni Prittinen King, RN, MIH

HEALING THROUGH TOUCH

By Judith A. Habert

new life focus that wasn’t fully clear at the Rauni adds, " I knew I was on the right
beginning but ultimately brought her to a track and watched the significant effect I
global stage. She explains, "After attend- was having on patients.”
ing that first energy healing seminar I A coordinator and instructor of
knew I had discovered what was missing. Healing Touch® workshops at Scripps
In every study done on the subject, there Hospitals since 1993, Rauni also provides
HEN YOU HAVE SPENT OVER are similar findings. Compassion and classes at Pacific Pearl La Jolla and is the
W20 years in critical care nursing, intentional touch help to heal." lead instructor for the Greater Los Ange-
there isn't much you haven't seen. There Rauni was ecstatic when she found les VA Healthcare System. After creating
are certain events in life that bring us the missing piece to the puzzle. She Healing Touch® of Finland in 1998, she
to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). For knew her patients were getting the best has been teaching Healing Touch in Eu-
anyone who has spent any time in an that conventional medicine had to offer, rope and India as well as North America.
ICU, whether as a patient or a visitor, but now, she realized there was more In 1995, she was intrigued to follow
you know that the majority of what is to getting better than medical care and up after hearing rumors that Scripps was
found is not like the TV medical show prescription drugs. She says, “I knew going to do a Holistic lifestyle research
ailments like train and airplane wrecks, what they were missing – healing. When study for cardiac patients. She applied
gunshot wounds or impalement. What people are ill, they are in physical crisis, for the job and was hired since they were
brings most of us to the intensive care but they also are in an emotional, mental looking for someone with a strong cardi-
unit are diseases that finally get to the and spiritual crisis. We don't have a cure ac background.
point where our body can no longer for misery, so we give patients drugs like The program, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Pro-
handle what we have been doing to it for Valium to get over anxiety and emotional gram for Reversing Heart Disease trial,
the past 10, 20 or 30 years. pain. Once the patient is taken off the was exciting and groundbreaking. The
Rauni Prittinen King, RN, an accom- drug, they end up back in the same place. plan was to take very sick heart patients
plished business woman and foundation They are afraid of dying, they are afraid of and place them in this new research
president, a highly-sought consultant in disability, and they are most likely afraid program of lifestyle changes instead of
healthcare and the co-founder and ex- of the medical procedures they are about treating them with a stent, angioplasty, or
ecutive director of the Integrative health to endure." open-heart surgery. It included a specif-
and wellness center, Pacific Pearl La Jolla, “The practice of Healing Touch® and ic diet, yoga, meditation, exercise and
had seen it all as an ICU nurse. She loved energy healing was what I believed was support groups. Rauni says, “This was
her profession but was bothered with a missing from the nursing practice,” Rauni when I met Dr. Mimi Guarneri, who was
feeling that something was missing in says. “Once I realized this, I could not an Interventional Cardiologist at Scripps
her early days. She would watch patients get enough education on the subject. I Clinic and Scripps Green Hospital. In
come in and out of her unit, and many became a certified practitioner, and now I the spring of 1996, our first task was to
more, not as lucky wouldn't make it out. teach on all five levels of the curriculum. interview patients for the program."
She felt deeply for the suffering she saw, This was how I started on the path of It didn't take long for Rauni and Dr.
but especially when she would see ‘repeat holistic and Integrative Medicine." Guarneri to realize that this program
offenders,’ those who came in regularly Rauni continued learning more needed to be put in place for all patients.
with heart problems, strokes and other and more about Holistic Nursing and So, after much discussion, planning and
ailments. It wasn't until she attended went on with her education, earning her great determination, they wrote the pro-
a workshop in energy healing that she certification as a Holistic Nurse through posal for what is now known as Scripps
finally felt as if she had found help for the the American Holistic Nurse Associa- Center for Integrative Medicine. “Exter-
suffering. tion, and a Masters Degree in Integrative nal funding came from grateful patients
This workshop was just the begin- Health. She also became a Certified Heal- and donors, and Scripps gave us the
ning for Rauni. It was the beginning of a ing Touch® Practitioner and Instructor. go-ahead. This is how it all began, and it

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