One branch of CAM is biofield therapies. Most biofield therapies share the same philosophy, but differ in the hand positions adopted during the birthing process (Anderson & Taylor, 2012). In TT, the practitioner's hands do not establish actual physical contact with the patient. Therapeutic touch was developed by Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz in the 1970s as a noninvasive nursing intervention (Kelly et al. 2004). Jackson and Keegan (2009, p.614) defined therapeutic touch as “a specific intention-centering technique used as the practitioner moves his or her hands through the recipient's energy field for the purpose of assessing and treating imbalance in the energy field.” . The original theory of the technique proposed by nursing theorist Rogers (1970) is that individuals as a unified whole have their own permeable energy fields that extend from the surface of the skin and flow smoothly when healthy. The energy field of the diseased physical body is disrupted, misaligned, obstructed, or “out of tune” (Huff et al. 2006). TT has the potential to reshape, reorganize, and restore the individual's unbalanced energy fields through the open system that extends from the surface of the body and constantly interacts with the environment (Krieger, 1979). The first studies on healing touch were conducted in the 1950s and 1960s: biochemist Bernard Grad (1965) collaborated with the famous healer Oskar Estebany to demonstrate the significantly accelerated healing effects of therapeutic touch on injured mice and damaged barley seeds. The central purpose of healing therapies is to relax and calm patients in order to activate patients' natural healing ability and does not include any religious activity (Lorenc et al. 2010).3. Literature reviewThe effectiveness of ta...... middle of the document ......professional variations. Environmental Influences: Nurses' ability to provide interpersonal and comforting touch may be compromised in the current fast-paced, high-acuity, and understaffed hospital setting (Connor & Howett, 2009). Nursing is one of the few roles in contemporary society where physical contact, including with intimate parts of the body, is accepted (Green, 2013). The frequent contact that nurses encounter in patient care, however, is not always intentional and with the intention of improving care (Connor & Howett, 2009). A stressful environment prevents nurses from reaching a state of inner balance typical of therapists to perform tactile touch in hospitals (Henricson et al. 2006). In the absence of a calm and independent environment, the positive outcomes of tactile touch are unlikely to be achieved and may even contribute to nurse fatigue (Homayouni et al.. 2012).