Is Healing Touch Real? How a Skeptical Nurse-Chemist Found Unexpected Proof in Energy Healing

Energy healing often sparks questions - especially for those with a background in science or medicine. It's common to feel curious but cautious, intrigued yet hesitant. After all, how can something so intangible be taken seriously in clinical settings?

That’s where Patricia Briggs’ story offers a rare kind of validation - one rooted in science, experience, and transformation.

A trained chemist and long-time nurse, and natural skeptic, Patricia didn’t seek out energy healing because she “believed” in it. She signed up for a Healing Touch class to earn continuing education credits (CEUs) - nothing more.

What followed would radically shift her understanding of healing - from something physical and measurable… to something deeply energetic and life-changing, both in her clinical life and her personal healing journey.

From Skeptic to Believer: How Science Led a Nurse-Chemist to Healing Touch

Before discovering Healing Touch, Patricia had built a respected career in two evidence-based fields: nursing and chemistry. She worked in hospital leadership and held a master’s degree. Like many healthcare professionals, she trusted data, structure, and measurable outcomes.

So when she registered for a Healing Touch class offered at her hospital, she didn’t expect it to change her worldview. It was a scheduling convenience – simply a box to check.

Her first Healing Touch class felt… different. “Like a weekend out of time,” she said. But not enough to change her perspective.

But during Healing Touch Level 2, something happened that that caught her completely off guard.

The instructor took photos of the students during the practice energy sessions. When Patricia received hers, she noticed what appeared to be gold light coming from her hands.

“All of a sudden,” she recalled, “my brain said, this is real. What I’m feeling is real.”

That single moment disrupted everything she thought she understood about healing and the human energy system. It offered a visual, almost clinical, confirmation of what she had only sensed before.

Blending Science and Intuition: How Healing Touch Complemented Her Clinical Practice

Patricia describes that moment as the point where her left and right brain started working together.

For years, she tucked her intuitive side away - focusing instead on logic, protocols, and roles that made sense in a medical world. Healing Touch didn’t replace her clinical skills. It expanded them.

What once seemed "woo-woo" began to feel like a missing piece - a structured energy healing modality that complemented her nursing practice and helped patients feel seen, supported, and balanced.

As she deepened her training, Patricia brought Healing Touch into her hospital, introducing it to nurses, physicians, and care teams. Over time, she helped lay the foundation for Healing Touch to become an established part of care within the hospital.

“Healing Touch gave me a way to bring my full self into the room,” she said, “not just the professional title.”

When the Healer Needs Healing: Using Energy Work After a Career-Ending Injury

In 2015, Patricia suffered a devastating fall that required neck surgery and abruptly ended her bedside nursing career.

It left her asking a painful question:

“Who am I, if I’m not a nurse?”

That’s when Healing Touch and self-healing became deeply personal. No longer just a professional tool, it became the way she helped herself heal - not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

She applied the same energy techniques she once used with patients, now to her own recovery. She worked intentionally with her chakras, processed her grief and trauma, and reclaimed parts of herself long buried under years of caretaking and clinical identity.

“Healing Touch was my foundation,” she said. “It helped me not just recover - but evolve.”

What began as a CEU requirement became a pathway to self-discovery.

The Hidden Side of Healing: Why Self-Healing Can Be Stressful Without Energy Boundaries

What most people don’t talk about is this: healing can be stressful. When you go deep into energy work, you stir up emotions, memories, and trauma that the body has suppressed for years.

Patricia learned this firsthand.

“You're bringing things to the surface,” she said. “Healing and stress aren’t opposites - they go hand-in-hand.”

She and her daughter Leila (a co-teacher and intuitive practitioner) discovered that burnout can happen in self-healing, too - not just when treating others.

They now teach students how to pace their growth, process emotions, and use simple grounding practices, like intentional hand-washing rituals, to clear and reset energy between sessions.

Reclaiming Intuition: How Energy Work Helped Her Recover Suppressed Memories

One of the most surprising outcomes of Patricia’s self-healing?

She began reconnecting with parts of herself that had been tucked away since childhood.

Patricia had always been highly sensitive as a child, but growing up in the 1950s and '60s, sensitivity wasn’t encouraged - especially in science. She had learned to suppress her intuition.

Healing Touch helped her realize: she had been intuitive all along. She just didn’t have the language - or feel she had permission - to trust it.

Through energy work, she began teaching a chakra-based course focused on emotional healing, self-awareness, and energy boundaries. She explored how masculine and feminine energies relate to the left and right brain, and how healing requires both integration and balance.

“This wasn’t about becoming psychic,” she said. “It was about finding who I really was underneath.”

Healing Touch helped her develop not just as a practitioner - but as a whole person.

Still Skeptical? Why You Don’t Have to Choose Between Science and Energy Healing

Patricia is quick to clarify: she didn’t arrive at this work through blind faith or mystical revelation.

She got here by asking hard questions, by demanding validation, and by requiring a framework she could trust.

For anyone who feels skeptical - or who’s been quietly wondering if there’s more to healing than medication and protocols - Patricia offers this reassurance:

• You don’t have to be psychic.
• You don’t have to “feel energy” right away.
• And you don’t have to abandon science to believe in what you experience.

Healing Touch gave her a structured, evidence-informed way to explore energy work. It became a bridge - not a replacement - for everything she already knew. 

Final Thoughts: Is Healing Touch Real?

Patricia didn’t need faith. She needed proof.

She found the validation she was looking for - not just in a photo of gold light, but in hospital rooms, self-healing rituals, student breakthroughs, and the quiet clarity that came from reconnecting with her true self.

Healing Touch wasn’t just real. It became the foundation that allowed her to rebuild her life.

Maybe it's what you've been missing too.

 Curious About Energy Healing? Take Your First Step with Healing Touch

Whether you're a nurse, caregiver, holistic practitioner - or just someone longing for a more integrated, heart-centered approach to healing - Healing Touch offers a place to start.

It's especially powerful if you:

• Feel curious about energy work but want credible education
• Are skeptical, but open-minded
• Want to support your own healing - or help others on theirs
• Are interested in healing approaches that complement conventional healthcare
• Want to reclaim your intuition and sense of purpose

Explore Your First Step into Healing Touch

If you're wondering how to fit Healing Touch into your busy life, start with Can I Learn Healing Touch in a Way That Works with My Life? before exploring upcoming classes.

🎧 Listen to Patricia’s story on The Energy Healing Podcast
Hear her journey in her own words - from skepticism to transformation and how Healing Touch changed her life.  Also available on Spotify

➜ Find a certified Healing Touch practitioner near you  Experience what Healing Touch feels like in a safe, professional setting.