I learned to associate caring touch with love and healing while living with my  custodial grandparents in Kentucky during the first few years of my life. Growing up in Kansas and as a young adult in Nebraska and Texas, I spent time in what were then called “Old Folks Homes” with various singing and visitation groups; and I have always felt comfortable with the elderly.
While earning my MFA degree at UC Davis, I took classes with Mukunda Stiles and Dr. Jim Polidora and taught relaxation and massage workshops at the Experimental College. After moving to the Bay Area, I received my massage certification by serving as a teaching assistant for Judith McKinnon for her first class in what would eventually became the McKinnon Institute of Massage and continued studying various forms of bodywork. I organized and produced a workshop series, “Bodywork Alternatives,” which allowed people to spend a day or evening with the originators or master teachers of modalities gaining popularity at that time: Michael Reed Gach's Acupressure Massage; Arthur Paul's Ortho-Bionomy; Feldenkrais, Rosen and Trager methods; "Touch for Health and others. I also began taking workshops from Stephen Levine and Helen Palmer.
In 1980, I was introduced to a residential retreat known as “The Enlightenment Intensive” and this unique form of contemplative inquiry resonated deeply with me. I trained with Lawrence Noyes to begin leading Enlightenment Intensives and eventually helped him train others to give them while continuing to deepen my own practice in this realm. What I experienced transformed my life and the way I relate to others in deep, profound and lasting ways; and those experiences became the ground on which COMPASSIONATE TOUCH for Those in Later Life Stages™ was built.
After completing a 540-hour Certification in working with the dying through the Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology, I founded COMPASSIONATE TOUCH for Those in Later Life Stages™ and began implementing the Program in care facilities in the Bay Area. I was fortunate to be part of the Care Team for Kaiser Hospice in Walnut Creek for over five years, eventually training three other massage therapists who joined me in providing touch sessions to about 40 individuals per week. I have also been privileged to speak and teach at a number of national and international conferences elucidating the power of touch for those in later life stages.
In July of 2002, I appointed a former student and Professional Level Practitioner, Ann Catlin, as Director of my Program in order to give priority to maintaining my health after treatment for ovarian cancer, to write my next book and to help care for my mother in the last few years of her life. In 2007, Ann chose to go forward in her own way using the name Compassionate Touch®.
My professional experience within elder care and nursing communities over the past 20 years and my personal experience in shepherding both my mother and my mother-in-law through transitions from independent to assisted living to nursing home to board and care to hospice care has given me a unique perspective on the weaknesses and strengths of extended health care systems and a keen awareness of the challenges that often face the elderly and those who care for them.
Since I first met her in the early 80’s, Dawn has had a true, divine inspiration that has motivated her to reach people at a spiritual level through touch. In the 90’s, Dawn co-led several training groups
with me and I have always appreciated her simple realness and compassion when working with people. Her work with the elderly and the dying comes from a place of service and it is intuitively true and so obviously healing. Dawn’s books are an extension of her experience and wisdom and many people are reached by her words and her art.
Lawrence Noyes, author: The Enlightenment Intensive...
Seminar Leader, US, Canada and Europe
Dawn's work has sparked the imagination and expanded the capacity for sincere connection with those of us who have been trained by her. She has provided a unique path for us to be of greater service in our professional and personal lives. I am deeply appreciative of Dawn’s continued support and advocacy over the years for each of us, as students and as individuals . . . the basic concepts of COMPASSIONATE TOUCH for Those in Later Life Stages™ permeate the touch that I give, and what I teach. Over time, these concepts have become part of how I communicate with everyone, and the depth of their influence is seen with each passing year.
Leah Anderson, LMT, Groton, Massachusetts
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