Touching Matters

Touch is powerful. Our sense of self, ability to love, attractiveness to others, and sexual passion, often hinges upon the way we touch and respond to touch. Touching our self brings a profound sense of inner peace, self-acceptance and self-love. Touch connects us to the world and helps us to heal. Loving touch assists us to release painful memories, open our heart to others and know our self.

Touch teaches. Touch heals. Sometimes touch hurts. And certain genes can only be turned on through touch. Loving, accepting and listening touch allows us to become more aware of our body sensations and to release restrictions in the tissues, A skilled and caring therapeutic practitioner, can help your body return to state of alignment, comfort and ease.

In this book, you will learn about a vast array of healing methods that utilize touch to relieve body tension and to help you to begin to connect your physical sensations with the underlying emotional triggers and even traumatic memories. Many of these methods and modalities you may never have heard about or understood before. And you are offered some exercises to help you practice gentle touching techniques either directly on yourself or with an accepting companion.

Touch brings us close to our own inner thoughts, emotions, feelings and sensations and allows us to be fully present and intimate with a partner. Research at such places as The Touch Research Institute in Miami, Florida and the Craniosacral Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, have shown that touching and being touched has profound healing effects at all ages and for a wide variety of different physical and emotional problems.

When people talk about touch therapy, they usually think about only one method known as massage. In this type of treatment, a client undresses and is draped with a sheet. The practitioner uses oils and creams to rub the body with the goal of releasing muscular restrictions and assisting the person to relax. There are many different types of massage therapy, such as chair massage, medical massage, deep tissue massage, sensual massage. And that is only one type of body therapy. There are body therapies that work to alter the structure, function and movement of the body. There are body therapies that work on the meridians or the chakras. And there are body therapies that focus on the energy flow within and around the exterior of the body.

What you may not realize is that there are also somatic and expressive arts therapies that assist clients, often without words, to finally access memories and emotions to help them heal. There are also body mind therapies, such as the Rubenfeld Synergy Method, that combine talk with touch to bring about lasting understanding and profound healing, as well as various body psychotherapy methods that combine psychotherapy with a focus on the connection between mind and body, with or without actual touch.

Without touch, we do not thrive. Babies, adults, and the aged alike, become angry, depressed, despondent, and eventually get sick and die when deprived of touch and sensual stimulation. Humans are communal beings. We need, desire, and crave physical contact with each other.

This book reminds you about the importance of touch in our lives. That is why so many people thrive when they have a pet living with them. Research shows that petting an animal or hugging a human, even giving a massage to another person, can lower anxiety, lower blood pressure and decrease depression.

When we are touched, we often feel emotions we have not felt for a long time, as we become more aware of unresolved issues in our lives. When we express our emotions in the presence of a caring and skilled therapist or with a partner who loves and comforts us, painful memories emerge, are expressed, and lose their emotional charge. Only then can we begin to enjoy pleasurable experiences and sensations, creating new, positive and pleasant memories.