Mindful Touch

Mindful Touch is the ability to palpate, relax into the tissue and react to what your hands are feeling. It is a response to an experience. It might be deep, it might be very superficial, the skill is to be able to reach a comfortable depth that feels as if you have reached that ‘satisfying and connected’ depth.  It requires the ability to react to the feedback being felt within the connective tissue, developing the skill to move at a suitably rhythmic speed, choosing techniques that would benefit the situation, and responding to what your hands are feeling.

Mindful Touch is about melting, sinking, softly engaging, being tissue lead.  Practice, practice & practice, is essential for improving the hands on skills in a mindful way. The more practice the clearer and stronger the messages get, which enables the action to be performed with less effort and greater co-ordination. Over time, the neuronal pathway is strengthening. A Mindful Touch approach has many benefits which can be used in all therapy.

Without any expectations, time limits or intentions allow your hands to be your eyes and experience what they are ‘seeing’.  Eventually the tissue will melt under your hands, your hands will sink and when you feel you’ve reached a comfortable depth start to move your hands. Start off slowly and if the tissue tightens up pull back and slow down.  Allow yourself the opportunity to feel and be ‘tissue led’.  You can practice this approach using all your soft tissue skills, the tissue has a story to tell and it is waiting for someone to listen.

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