We are working to change the way people experience healthcare. ITK supports families whose children have any type of special health or medical need. This includes kids with cancers, genetic conditions, autism, cerebral palsy, traumatic stress, and other serious health issues.
We have pioneered a new therapy called Integrative Touch™ and reach 3500 people each year in both the hospital and community settings. We engage communities in support of families struggling with special medical needs, improving the quality of life for all. Thanks to the incredible support of our volunteers and contributors, families receive our healing services free of charge.
Shay Beider, Founder and CEO, has been a pioneer in the field of Integrative Medicine for 19 years. She is the founder and Executive Director of Integrative Touch for Kids (ITK), a non-profit organization that enhances well-being, minimizes suffering and facilitates healing for children with special medical needs and their families (www.integrativetouch.org).
Shay is a frequent public speaker on wellness topics and has presented at numerous medical conferences. She originated Integrative Touch™ therapy and teaches internationally. In 2003, Shay was awarded the Women’s Studies Achievement Award from UCLA and is recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a Pioneer for Children’s Wellbeing.
Integrative Touch for Kids (ITK) was created when Shay Beider’s life was forever changed by one little girl in the hospital, who was frightened and alone as she was about to undergo surgery. As a pre-med student, Shay witnessed this little girl go under anesthesia in a state of intense fear and in that moment something inside of her said, “No. It doesn’t have to be this way.” Shay understood the profound importance of caring for the whole child in body, mind, heart and spirit. Integrative Touch for Kids was founded to honor that little girl, to protect children from unnecessary suffering, and to address all aspects of the healing process. ITK’s founder went on to create a new therapeutic approach called Integrative Touch™ to facilitate healing for thousands of children and families in need. Since it’s inception in 2005, ITK has grown to be a leader in the field of pediatric integrative medicine, developing a first of its kind Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community wellness model called “Health-Caring.”
Providing integrative healing therapies such as massage, reflexology, energy, equine, play and music therapies through our many programs, we are able to work in the hospital and in the community to change the way people view healthcare. Healthcare is evolving to incorporate integrative healing techniques to achieve new levels of well-being. ITK is pioneering new models of wellness in the community and hospital settings that are maps for our future.
ITK’s vision is to expand its existing programs, creating new wellness models that can be replicated nationally, and to create a first of its kind Healing Center in Tucson, Arizona, that will serve children with special medical needs and their families in the community.
The Healing Center will include educational facilities and therapy rooms to provide workshops, support groups, childcare and more than 100 different integrative healing therapies.
The creation of a Healing Center will allow ITK to facilitate its unique wellness model called, “Health-Caring,” on a consistent, on-going basis. The center will serve as a healing space and an educational hub for families, community participants, healing arts practitioners and the medical community. Together, we can create a future that is defined by wellness, includes families with children of all abilities, and embraces the generous spirit of giving that each community has to offer the most vulnerable among us.
https://www.integrativetouch.org
[email protected]
5675 North Oracle Road #3201
Tucson, Arizona
520 308 4665
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