Healing Touch Story from Katherine:
Touch Can Help Us To Release Our Sadness

by Katherine T Owen
(Wiltshire, UK)

I became severely ill with CFS/ME. The illness took a turn for the worse. I could now not only move very little but my speech became very limited. At the same time, I was finally facing up to the reality of being ill and to the reality of how some had been behaving badly towards me.

It was a horrible combination of needing to write out or speak out my feelings and yet being stuck in a body that could do very little of either. In addition, back then, I was not at ease with talking about problems, or with feeling feelings of sadness or anger.

I had been having shiatsu massage for a while and the lady was actually trained as a counsellor.

She adapted to my increased limitations. She would sit with me and gently push points on my feet, and I would cry. I don't think I could have cried without that touch. It was the touch and the gentle companionship which allowed me to release in that way.

And really, though it was horrible not to be able to speak, I think that the simplicity of being allowed to cry in that gentle space she created was probably as beneficial and as validating as speaking any words would have been.

Touch is so powerful. I am a huge fan of giving...and receiving...hugs.

Once, years later, I was still bedbound and by then unable to feed myself. A carer sat feeding me, and when I asked if she was married, she looked sad. I touched her arm and asked, "Are you OK?"

She ended up crying about the death of her husband 40 years before - shot dead before they even lived together. She said that in 40 years she had never cried. I know that my own vulnerable situation was a factor in her feeling able to open up, but I also wondered about my touch of her arm. Touch can communicate so much.

We hold so many emotions in our bodies. Touch can help us to believe that there is another who can allow us to feel and release our sadness.

I am now walking and talking again. SMILE! Read more about my journey of healing on my website: www.a-spiritual-journey-of-healing.com


Blessings to all,

Katherine


NOTE FROM BARBARA HELYNN: I have been deeply inspired by Katherine's story as she shares in on her website, as well as her wonderful poetry. Please visit her site!!!