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She hopes that massage therapists, craniosacral practitioners and other body workers will continue to work to change the nation’s no-touch paradigm.
That’s what Santa Fe, New Mexico-based therapist Michele Herling is doing, one touch at a time. She launched her own program, called the Compassionate Touch Network, after working with Bosnian refugees in camps, performing craniosacral and other techniques on those suffering from stress disorders.
Although on a much lower scale, she sees stress affecting children here. “Children are growing up in very frenetic, stress-producing atmosphere, especially in our culture,” Herling says. “The touch piece really helps them to calm down, find their center and learn how to connect with others.”
She began with an elementary class taught by her sister, a teacher in Santa Fe, using simple massage strokes, and making it fun, such as naming the strokes after different animals: the baby giraffe when working the neck, the cat paw along the spinal column and the horses’ tail lightly trailing down the back.
Herling’s guidelines also start with permission. She tells the children to give feedback if it isn’t feeling good. “If the massager is not listening to you for any reasons and it doesn’t feel good stand up, turn around and look at your partner and say ‘I withdraw my permission.’”
Mostly, she’s seeing joyful participation—and positive results. She has a collage of a fifth-grade class that includes several class pictures. One girl usually stood apart. “Her body language was collapsed, and she was not looking at the camera or at the other children, and she was not touching the other children,” she says.
However, in two photos taken after compassionate touch, the girl stands with a huge smile on her face. “That smile spoke more clearly and beautifully than anything I could ever say about what touch can do for children,” says Herling.
Herling took the Peaceful Touch training when it came to Santa Fe last spring, and found herself surrounded by others who were pursuing a similar path. “I was so excited that there were other colleagues in this field interested in this,” she says. And she’s happy to be part of the vanguard. “People say to me, ‘You’re trying to work yourself out of a job—well, maybe I will, and I’m happy to do that,” she says. “But there will always be a place for the professional, therapeutic level of touch.”
Looking Ahead
Massage therapists play an essential role, agrees Carlson. “They have sensitivity, subtlety and professionalism to share touch in a healthy way,” she says. Her dream of the future is for communities that will have healthy touch trainers, including massage therapists, who will work with educators to teach them how to bring us all back in touch.
Frankly, she says, the stakes are too high not to. “If we don’t offer it, [children] will find a way to get it, because touch is necessary for life,” says Carlson. “It’s not a want. It’s a need—a valid, biological need.”
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For More Information. . .
If you’re interested in starting such a program, visit the Peaceful Touch website at www.peacefultouch.net. Here, you’ll find more resources as well as a list of upcoming training dates. The training is 12-hours and is for elementary and pre-school teachers, health professionals including massage therapists, and parents or professionals who are interested in the program.
Clare La Plante is a freelance writer based in Evanston, Illinois. She is a regular contributor to mtj, and her work has also appeared in a number of national business publications. Clare is also the author of Wall Street on a Shoestring (Avon Books, 1998).
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American Massage Therapy Association®
