Massage - Touch Without Movement

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Touch without movement Touch is broadly defined as bringing a bodily part into contact with another part especially to perceive through the tactile sense or to handle or feel gently, usually with the intent to understand or appreciate. Many of our texts describe Touch Without Movement as a unique massage technique – Very simply the touch of the therapists hand without moving – so obviously different than all of the other moving strokes used in contemporary massage- One of these techniques for example is Passive Touch. Very simply the practitioner places their fingers, hands or even both hands on a client with the intent to give heat to a particular area, or have a calming influence on the nervous system. It is frequently used to begin the therapeutic relationship at the start of a massage session or to end a session – In the current history of Western massage it also has an effect of ”magnetism”, a “peculiar softness of the hand” or a “subtle quality of manner” noted as far back as the mid-1900’s in the Battle Creek Sanitarium directed by John Harvey Kellogg. Another method, called Direct Pressure or Direct Static Pressure, is usually applied with a thumb, finger, knuckle or elbow for 5 to 30 seconds and there is no movement after the initial contact and compression though it is begun with a solid effleurage to warm the area and then flowed up by smooth, soothing effleurage to finish. This method was my introduction to the effect of touch without movement in 1985 and I became a believer – The pain that had existed in my shoulder for as long as I could remember was gone in a couple of minutes! But this act of touching is much more complex than that and in many ways even more simple. The complexity arises because we need to understand; first and foremost this touch is not a casual or social touch – Not a pat on the back, nor a handshake – But truly

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