Judith B. Andry’s ‘A Touching Good-Bye’

With Jin Shin Jyutsu becoming more widely known in the medical community at large, A Touching Good-Bye is filling a big gap, as much for the general public as for practitioners: how to help people in times of critical illness and death. Judith B. Andry recognized that there is a need for finding out what you can do, and how you can help your loved one when they are getting ready to depart. Her book offers rich accounts of her own and many other practitioners’ and students’ experiences, told in first person. It is empowering and soothing for the caregiver to be able to do something helpful, to alleviate pain and fears, and to improve someone’s quality of life in the latter stages of life.

Through A Touching Good-Bye, anyone can learn simple, yet powerful tools to bring calmness, consolation, and peace, and the giver will benefit in many ways as well as the receiver. There are detailed instructions and illustrations. While many of the stories in the book do end in death and Jin Shin Jyutsu can’t offer an escape from the inevitable, those who do choose to make use of this art find either peace, calmness, reduced pain and agitation, improved sleep, serenity, and improved energy, or all of the above. We have nothing to lose in trying it, and so much to gain. But we have to go ahead and have the courage to do so.