Intentions and Programs

Battling the effects of HIV requires a two-prong attack: stopping the virus and restoring the immune system it has damaged. Pharmaceuticals kill or slow the progress of the virus. They are required and prescribed by medical doctors who back their decisions with statistics from drug trials, in turn backed by the drug companies who profit from drug therapies.

However, these drugs do not restore the health of the immune system, except insofar as they halt the progress of the virus. Other important indications besides the drop in viral load present evidence that an immune system is rebuilding itself. Chief among these are CD4 and CD8 counts, and the percentages of these "fighter" cells. This grayer, less statistically quantifiable, area is just as important and it is towards improvement in this area that Positive Being programs come into play, along with a host of complimentary non-traditional therapies such as Qi gong, Tai Chi, chiropractic, acupuncture, etc. The theory behind these treatments considers energy flow, and these programs can be individualized to provide the kinds of flexibility and strength needed to help the immune system rebuild itself.

HIV can be a very individual affair. Some drugs or therapies work better in some individuals or populations than others. Stress, often seen as taxing the immune system's ability to effect repairs, can be reduced by the implementation of individualized plans to both bolster the immune system and minimize common side effects, such as neuropathy, liposdystrophy, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Missing from most of these therapies is, in Positive Being's point of view, the all-important element of touch. Too often those with HIV feel like "damaged goods." The heightened sense of isolation which leads to depression and other counter-productive attitudes (such as lack of humor and perspective, paranoia, and low self-esteem) can and should be countermanded by a proactive approach to touch. Positive Being's vital role lies in the restoration of touch as a healing tool that helps this otherwise unaddressed aspect of returning the body to a place of balance wherein the immune system can recover its potential.

Touch has been eradicated from both traditional and non-traditional practices in today's society. Psychotherapists are forbidden to touch their patients, teachers discouraged from touching their students. etc. A sensitivity to the trauma that improper or inappropriate touch can cause has prompted a uniformly widespread reluctance to use touch as a healing modality.

Finding safe ways to allow touch to effect healing is a primary goal of Positive Being programs. More than a mere pat on the back or a cool hand on a warm brow, these proposed programs incorporate non-threatening and safe touch as a way to fill in a dangerous gap created by treating symptoms of a disease, rather than taking into consideration the whole and wholly individual person who is immuno-compromised.

The first element of this Positive Being outlook on healing is massage. Our first program, up and running since January of 2001, is a low-cost donation clinic for massage. Our volunteers have all been trained as part of their certification to deal with the special kinds of touch required for those with HIV. Specifically, this constitutes a gentle, nurturing style of massage that helps the body cleanse itself of toxins from drug regimens and HIV.

In addition, medicines used both to treat HIV and prophylactics against opportunistic infections (e.g. Sulfa drugs to prevent PCP) can cause the skin to be sensitive, and an awareness and response to this condition characterizes the Positive Being approach to massage.

Nearly all have responded positively to being lovingly touched, and the ability to touch in this way is a hallmark of the Positive Being massage style. Feelings of unworthiness or of being "less than" make clients with HIV reluctant to ask for just this kind of touch which they need so badly.

Other proposed programs address these same concerns. In the planning stage now is an exercise/weight training program guided by a certified physical trainer specialized in working with HIV clients who are intimated by vigorous work-out routines. Through a buddy system these clients, under the direction of the trainer, will learn to support each other in ways that eliminate the sometimes "scary" component to weight training, e.g. "no pain, no gain" or "toughing it out" on one's own. Thought will given to matching clients not just at physical prowess levels, but in ways that encourage clients to form a caring bond that allows them to maximize their potential.

Yoga, long recognized to be beneficial for increasing balance, strength and flexibility will also be handled in this manner. The benefits of particular poses can be heightened by pairing up clients in this program who, through mutual touch, can get a better sense of how a yoga posture effects results, while also providing time to "take turns" that allows a gentler pace and cuts down on frustration at not being able to "get" a pose. A course in this special partner-pairing yoga is in the works. Preliminary experimentation has yielded remarkable results.

Touch therapies that work energetically, such as Reiki and Quantum Touch are also part of the Positive Being plan. Practitioners are being recruited to develop ways to train HIV peers to enable each other to raise, maintain and share the healing power of these age-old practices respected in circles where process, rather than goal-oriented, problem-solving progress, is the key to unlocking the immune system's renewal.

Finally, programs are being considered that will provide fun ways to honor touch between mixed sero-status couples, like partner dancing, to help break taboos against touch between healthy and so-called diseased populations. HIV, which cannot be communicated through casual touch, nevertheless creates an internalized, self-deprecating landscape historically akin to leprosy and other diseases that make its carriers feel untouchable, undesirable, or unlovable.

Fighting these unhealthy attitudes underlies all Positive Being programs and makes way for hope in the possibility to heal each other through touch. Fostering the ability to reach out and touch is fundamental to Positive Being's mission. Creating safe ways for this kind of presently undervalued healing to prosper is a priority of the agency, to which every volunteer or peer trainee is dedicated.