Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68005
ESSENTIAL SKILLS From heart rate to blood pressure to the efficiency of the digestive system, healthy touch can make the body work better. We all like to be touched by some people but not by others. While one person's touch makes us feel warm, cared for, and safe, another's may make us feel cold, queasy, and threatened. Most of us have had the experience of unexpectedly feeling violated by a person's touch. This holds true for friends, coworkers, acquaintances, healthcare providers, and touch practitioners. Thus, it is quite a complicated process that we each go through simply to determine if a touch is a positive or negative experience. Add to this equation the familial, ethnic, and even regional differences in norms regarding touch, and then combine prevailing cultural and gender differences, and it is easy to see how "touchy" this experience is for us. (In a future article, we'll look at how confusion about intimacy and sexuality creates even further complications.) FINDING THE RIGHT TOUCH Though it may sometimes be challenging for an individual to find the right type of touch to bring support, relaxation, and healing, the rewards are worth the effort. Study after study shows that receiving touch that is pleasurable, safe, and appropriate reduces sickness, depression, and aggressive behaviors. In fact, as time goes on, we may find that therapeutic touch and massage hold more answers than we ever imagined. Dr. James Prescott, a developmental neurophysiologist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says, "I am convinced that deprivation of sensory pleasure is the principal root cause of violence, and, further, that there exists a reciprocal relationship: the presence of one inhibits the existence of another ... I believe that the deprivation of body touch, contact, and movement are the basic causes of a number of emotional disturbances which include depressive and autistic behaviors, hyperactivity, sexual aberrations, drug abuse, violence, and aggression."3 As bodyworkers and massage therapists, we have a vital role to play in communicating the value of therapeutic touch and making it more widely available to those who could benefit from it. We can also use what we know to help the people we care about most— making sure that nurturing touch is an integral part of life for our infants, our children, our teenagers, our elders, and ourselves. With every step we take in this direction, we're advancing not just individual physical and psychological health, but the health and well-being of our society as a whole. education and sports medicine. He is founder of the Muscular Therapy Institute. Benjamin has been in private practice for more than 45 years and has taught communication skills as a trainer and coach for more than 25 years. He teaches extensively across the country on topics including SAVI communications, ethics, Ben E. Benjamin, PhD, holds a doctorate in and orthopedic massage, and is the author of Listen to Your Pain, Are You Tense? and Exercise Without Injury and coauthor of The Ethics of Touch. He can be contacted at bbby@mtti.com. teaches several courses at the Myotherapy College of Utah and is approved by the NCTMB as a provider of continuing education. She wrote A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009), now in its fourth edition, which is used in massage schools worldwide. Werner is available at www.ruthwerner.com or wernerworkshops@ruthwerner.com. Ruth Werner is a writer and educator who pioneer in the field of sexual ethics by the Bodywork Entrepreneur in 1991. She is a faculty member at Naropa University and has a psychotherapy practice in Boulder, Colorado. Daphne Chellos, MA, LPC, was named a NOTES 1. Deane Juhan, Job's Body: A Handbook for Bodyworkers (Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1971), 43. 2. Richard Heslin and Tari Alper, "Touch: A Bonding Gesture," in J.M. Wiemann & R.P. Harrison (eds.) Nonverbal Interaction (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1983), 47–75. 3. Ashley Montagu, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), 225. massagetherapy.com—for you and your clients 109