Other education and training includes: dietitian, doctor of homeopathy, reflexologist, Rosentherapist, aromatherapist, 3A of the Radiance Technique, dreamtherapist and accountant. Birkestad discovered Touch: The Tactile Stimulation Method in 1984. She developed a method and course, based on oxytocin research, to be used for mental retardation and autism, together with professor Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg. This course has been given in The Netherlands, Norway, Fairy Island, Iceland, Finland, Brazil, Portugal and Japan and is an accepted method for Touch in Sweden.