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Today, it’s a different story. “Now they say to him, ‘Gee, you look like you could use some Peaceful Touch,’” says Clow. Even when the boy says no to Peaceful Touch, he quickly calms down. Most of his tantrums also immediately stop.
The center now implements Peaceful Touch as part of its normal day. Some of the children even bring it home, and offer it to their parents, which Clow admits he finds amazing.
The staff also benefited. Not only are they dealing with calmer students, but they bonded with each other during the training, too. “All this time, we were focusing on the kids,” says Derick, “but what I saw in training was the impact on the teachers—it was beautiful. When we start touching each other, it brings up trust, intimacy, vulnerability and kindness.”
The Research Agrees
According to Tiffany Field, PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute of the University of Miami School of Medicine, who traveled to Stockholm to see Peaceful Touch first-hand, this kind of touch is a win-win situation. First, Field says that research shows that it helps to give a massage as well as receive one—so all children involved benefit. Also, it helps the kids to connect with each other. “It’s very hard to be physically aggressive toward someone who you have physically touched in a positive way,” she says.
That was part of the idea behind the West Palm Beachbased Upledger Institute’s Compassionate Touch Helping Hands Program, which began in 1997 when a group of teens appealed to Upledger founder John Upledger for help after witnessing the murder of their friend.
Upledger wanted to connect them to each other, basing this idea on a simple philosophy: When we touch with compassion, we have no room for violence. He taught them how to help each other by using their “helping hands” to cradle hurt spots.
After success with the teens, the Upledger Foundation launched a pilot program in New Glarus, Wisconsin, for kindergarteners and first-graders. A clinical psychologist and certified Upledger Institute-trained CranioSacral® therapist taught the teachers (who filled out assessments pre- and post-program) to teach the kids to sandwich minor “owies” between their hands and think happy thoughts—whether about a pet, a favorite relative or snack. Any injury with blood was quickly referred to the teacher.
If the pain was emotional, the children were taught to place hands on either side of the heart. The process always started with a simple request: May I use my helping hands to help you?
The teachers worked with the students each day for 10 minutes for four months, and this included everything from songs to art projects to discussions. At the end of the pilot, the Upledger Institute gathered and analyzed the assessment data. The results were unmistakable:
“We were able to increase pro-social behaviors, including self-control, assertion, cooperation, and decrease aggressive and hostile behavior,” says Barb Richmond, vice president of communications for the Upledger Institute.
A nationwide research project involving 560 students in schools in Michigan, California, Massachusetts and Florida confirmed the original findings of significant increases in pro-social behaviors, and significant decreases in hostile and aggressive behavior.
“I heard from a school nurse who said that children who paid daily visits to her office didn’t show up anymore,” says Richmond. They were now able to feel better with the help of their classmates.
However, the last research program was over in 2004.
“Since then I have not had one successful program get off the ground, even though there’s been tremendous interest—I get e-mails and phone calls every week,” says Richmond. “They say, ‘We’re not allowed to touch.’”
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American Massage Therapy Association®
