Keep in Touch

The recent pandemic has only highlighted our need for respectful and agreed upon skin-to-skin interaction and, beyond that, for the most varied tactile experiences. There are the reports many of us have heard, over and over, about babies whose most basic requirements for survival were met, but who were deprived of physical contact and the affection that might have come with this. They withered, developmentally speaking. One way we communicate with the world around us is through touch: a cat’s soft fur, a velvety mullein leaf or the rough surface of a clay brick. Without touch, we deprive ourselves of a valuable language.

As part of Keep in Touch, I guide you through a somatic exercise that uses your own hands to converse with different parts of your body, from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. Each of the stops you make on this journey is meant to allow you to enter in relationship with the areas being covered, giving them nurturance and listening to them attentively. We then move to write about or discuss a specific sojourn that you would like to further explore. We bring the session to closure with a tactile practice inspired by Lygia Clark’s Caminhando. Instead of paper and scissors, we employ an orange, a small, serrated knife and a pinch of sea salt. Please have these items at hand, as well as a light cover or sheet and a mat to rest on. This offering is meant for one person. 

Keep in Touch has evolved out of my studies on the subject of Therapeutic Touch with mentors like Dr. Vicky Biondy.