The Science of Touch
When we experience touch in massage therapy, a signal is sent to our brain, triggering the release of oxytocin – often called the ‘love hormone’ – along with serotonin and dopamine. These hormones promote feelings of happiness and well-being.
In a world where physical touch is becoming increasingly rare, we often miss out on its benefits, especially when it is as intentional and meaningful as in massage therapy. Physiologically, touch makes us feel good for specific reasons. Far from being a mere luxury, massage therapy can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression.
The healing power of touch is quantifiable. Laboratory tests, such as MRI scans, show significant changes in brain activity during physical contact. Endorphins released during touch help combat stress hormones and reduce anxiety. Massage therapy utilises this restorative power, offering profound relaxation and peace.
Why is Touch Important in Massage Therapy?
Touch stimulates the release of endorphins, which help to alleviate pain, reduce anxiety, and enhance relaxation. Massage increases blood circulation and relaxes muscles, promoting greater movement and flexibility.
The Impact of Touch
Research demonstrates that touch conveys cooperation and trust. It soothes and lowers stress in babies, comforts children, and provides reassurance to adults. A massage can have a deeply soothing effect, conveying peace and safety.
Can You Heal Someone by Touching Them?
Research indicates that physical touch can heal more than just a broken heart. Studies from the University of Miami show that safe, consensual skin-to-skin contact supports physical, emotional, and mental health. This healing power is central to therapeutic massages.
How Does a Massage Promote Healing?
Massage stimulates the lymphatic system, increasing the efficiency of waste removal from the body. This reduces swelling and enhances muscle strength and health, accelerating the healing process.
The Power of Touch
Gentle touch boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, decreases stress hormones, and has pain-relieving effects. For example, premature babies gain weight more rapidly when lightly massaged. Massage therapy harnesses this power to enhance overall well-being.
Why Does Touch Help Pain?
Experts suggest that massage reduces stress-related brain responses, softening the perception of pain. Massage therapy can relieve pain and restore well-being by stimulating somatosensory inputs that reduce pain intensity.
How is Healing Touch Performed?
Healing Touch involves gentle techniques on or around the body to balance or energise an individual’s energy field. This practice, believed to interact with our energy fields, promotes healing of the body, mind, and spirit.
Healing Touch Sessions
Healing Touch is an “energy therapy” that uses gentle hand techniques to re-pattern a patient’s energy field, accelerating healing of the body, mind, and spirit. Unlike massage, there is no tissue manipulation.
Does Massage Release Trauma from the Body?
Massage therapy, through the manual manipulation of soft body tissue, can provide relief from physical, emotional, and mental stress. It decreases symptoms associated with trauma, such as depression, anxiety, and irritability.
How Powerful is Human Touch?
Touch conveys a wide range of emotions – reassurance, empathy, comfort, love, compassion, and sadness. Clinical psychologist Amanda Gordon asserts that we can identify emotions through touch as effectively as through facial cues. The power of touch is immense, and massage therapy taps into this to improve physical and mental well-being.
Touch and Well-being
Touch is fundamental to human experience. A lack of connection, either emotional or physical, is often described in terms of touch: tactless, lost touch, out of touch. Massage therapy helps us reconnect with our need for physical contact, addressing unmet needs in relationships and overall well-being.
The Importance of Safe and Appropriate Touch
Touch, when done respectfully and appropriately, is vital to the human experience. It doesn’t need to be intimate or significant to have an effect. Simple gestures like a pat on the back, a shoulder rub, a handshake, or a professional massage stimulate the brain’s reward centres, making us feel happier, safer, more confident, and more connected.
Balancing the Need for Protection and Connection
Our personal histories and experiences shape how we interact with the world. While it is essential to protect ourselves from unsafe touch, it is equally important to allow for nurturing, healing, and connectedness through basic human touch. Massage therapy offers these benefits in a safe, professional environment.
Healing Touch Sessions
Healing Touch, an “energy therapy,” uses gentle hand techniques to re-pattern the patient’s energy field, promoting healing of the body, mind, and spirit. Unlike Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch does not involve physical contact but positions the hands above different parts of the body with the intention of facilitating healing.
Therapeutic Touch Benefits
Therapeutic touch can relieve tension headaches, reduce pain associated with burns and osteoarthritis, and speed up wound healing. It improves function in those with arthritis and promotes vascular health.
Releasing Trapped Emotions
Taking time to slow down and engage in activities like being in nature, creating art, listening to music, meditating, or enjoying a bubble bath can help release negative energy. Massage therapy is also a wonderful way to let go of trapped emotions.
In Conclusion
Touch is a powerful form of communication, the first language we learn. When performed appropriately, such as through therapeutic massage, it nurtures relationships and overall well-being. Safe and respectful touch, even in small gestures, can significantly enhance our mental and physical health. Massage therapy offers these benefits, providing a safe and comfortable environment for healing.
