How crucial is the power of touch in developing a healthy sense of self-esteem . . .
. . . and what role do these play in how people respond to fear?
To answer these questions, Dr. Sander L. Koole and a team of researchers at VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands conducted a series of studies looking at whether interpersonal touch might help people who have low self-esteem when they’re reminded of their own mortality.
You see, Dr. Koole and his team had looked at a body of research called Terror Management Theory. Previous studies stemming from this theory suggested that people with low self-esteem often have little buffer against the fear of death because they have a lower sense of meaning in life than do people with high self-esteem.
And while touch triggers certain physiological processes by releasing endorphins and hormones (including oxytocin), researchers thought that the comfort of touch might, in part, be of particular benefit to people who struggled to find meaning in life.
To test this theory, Koole and his team designed a series of 4 experiments.
In the first experiment, participants were randomly assigned to either a touch or no-touch group. In the touch condition, researchers approached participants with a light touch on the shoulder blade.
The researchers then asked participants in both the touch and non-touch group to rate their anxiety about death using a 7 question, 5-point scale. They were also asked to complete the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES).
Among participants whose Rosenberg scores indicated low self-esteem, those who received a touch on the shoulder indicated lower anxiety when answering questions about death than those in the no-touch group.
In contrast, touch appeared to have no impact on participants within the high self-esteem group.
Because Koole and his team had more questions they wanted to investigate, they ran 3 similar experiments, but each time they introduced additional variables.
For example, they wanted to know if the presence (or absence) of touch made a difference when they asked participants about fears regarding dentists (in contrast to fears about death).
The researchers also looked at how touch could affect participants’ sense of social connectedness with others when responding to questions about death or dentistry. In other words, they wanted to know if touch could improve participants’ sense that they weren’t alone when thinking about greater or lesser fears.
Finally, Koole and his team wanted to find out if they would see similar results if they substituted a teddy bear for human touch. Their theory was that a cherished childhood toy might symbolically offer a measure of comfort to participants with low self-esteem.
In each of these variations, participants from the touch groups reported lower levels of anxiety, and a greater sense of comfort, than those in the non-touch groups. This held true whether the touch came from a human or a teddy bear.
Now these studies were all conducted with participants from a narrow range of age, (you guessed it – college students), so we can’t generalize the findings to a larger population.
Even so, I see the potential benefit in a study like this.
The ways people learn to cope when they’re struggling to find meaning in life can contribute to depression and anxiety. So research like this is important if it can further our understanding of how we can work with the body to enhance mental health.
If you’d like to read this study in its entirety, you can find it in the January 2014 issue of Psychological Science.
Interpersonal touch is just one example of how we can work with the brain and body to strengthen and promote health.
We have more courses pertaining to the brain on our website – just click here.
What are some ways you think the power of touch can be used to promote healing in our lives and relationships?
Please leave a comment below.
I got what you mean , saved to my bookmarks , very decent web site .
Touch provides love, nurturing, solace & comfort. It also conveys compassion & empathy for the person being touched. Just a simple gesture of a hand on a person’s shoulder may be all that they need to feel grounded & safe.
This is really interesting, and I love that there’s now some science behind the power of touch. My husband always says hugs help boost the immune system, and I totally believe it.
Thanks for sharing!
Julia Kristina
I am a preschool teacher and also work in daycare for 3 and 4 year olds. The children are without their moms and dads sometimes 9 hours a day, several days a week. I consider it part of my curriculum and my duty to touch the children any opportunity throughout the day. Even when busy. I hold a hand while they tell me their little story, usually one sits on my lap while I tell the morning’s story or circle time, I’ll take 5 minutes after the “work” is complete to sit silently on a chair with a child and I’ll cuddle a child in need and sit in peace on the sofa and ask my colleague to handle things on her own for a few minutes. The children feel relaxed and secure in this. It’s food for them, more important sometimes than what’s in their lunch boxes. Hug the children! For their sakes.
Sadly, the ” never touch your clients” rule is one of those legislated positions designed more to protect therapists from lawsuits and in some cases to protect clients from therapists who are not mindful of the other person’s reality, or who cannot put aside their own needs for the benefits of clients feeling safe. It can be perceived as cold and unrelational if the therapist never touches the client. However, the question of permission is Not a simple one. The client may not have good boundaries and give permission when they actually do not feel safe ( I.e., they gave not yet developed good boundaries around touch.). There is no easy answer here and, as in many areas of ethics, therapists must make judgement calls.
In an earlier phase of my career I worked both as a cognitive and emotional therapist ( Licensed LCPC) and a Trager (R) psychophysical integration therapist. In my experience and in the literature, I found that people who had experienced neglect and trauma had often become dissociated from physical sensation, as a protective mechanism. Since this was the body’s way of protecting them, I did not consider this a pathological state. However, with safe touch in the Trager and Feldenkreis methods, such people, including many elders who live alone and may be rarely touched in a nurturing way, may with bodywork come to feel more ‘grounded’ and in touch with their bodies and thus with the emotions that can help inform life decisions. The work may also release old memories held in certain areas, either emotional ones or holding patterns that are a legacy of physical trauma ( accidents, pain due to a variety of causes, etc). Thus, a new sense of safety and lightness may be part of that person’s new experience.
My colleague Beverley Star, wellness consultant and I, psychologist, wrote an article published in Health Science on the Importance of Touch (gentle touch when permitted by a recipient not traumatised by memories of abusiive touch). It can be accessed at our website. This study validates our own observations and experience both personal and professional as health service providers.
Last year I was taken to the hospital via ambulance. After monitoring my vital signs, I asked one of the technicians to just hold my hand. I knew intuitively that that would calm my nerves. I have been a massage therapist and touch is one of the most life giving thing you can do. I have been a Hospice volunteer and sitting with a person, asking her or him if I could hold their hand is very spirit lifting instead of making small talk which does not do much. It’s sad to me that touching has to be studied but I can understand that in this day where technology seems to be the most important thing, the human elements of connection are forgotten or dismissed.
This is a life-affirming study and the age group well-chosen, since this group often are hard -pressed to grapple with “meaning of life” and peer pressure.
As to touch, Healing Touch, Reiki, Renewal offer light touch, near or on the shoulder. There are numerous body meridians (ie acupressure/acupuncture) which run across the shoulder. A well intentioned touch can work wonders. I have numerous clients who can attest to the Energy flowing through my hands.
Will there be a study including this healing modality? Perhaps, someday.
Morning, Thanks for sharing this info. In my field, we have been warned not to touch clients as touches can be misconstrued, especially when there has been physical or sexual violence. What is known about touch with children, youth or adults who have experienced child sexual abuse, adult domestic violence or sexual assault? Jo
Please try laying on of hands in Jesus’ name, He wants to hear from you.
Jesus used touch in many healings, and there are stories of people who were healed when they touched Jesus, or touched his garments. In Eastern religions, there is a belief that powerful energy can be transferred from a particularly holy person to those who touch him or her. in Sidda Yoga, a guru touches favored followers with a feather. The teaching that we are all one is shared by those of many faiths, and touch can be seen as an expression of that oneness.
Thank you for the article…
I agreed very much about the importance of healthy and safe touch through out our lives…
Nevertheless, I have a question…
How do we put together, as clinicians, the Ethics Code and the regulations that we have to abide by in the different places where we live and work…? For example, in California, USA., there are clear guidelines about “not touching” our clients, children or adults… as a demonstration of respect and do not confuse our clients, with our specific role as mental health caregivers. Thank your very much.
Noris
AMERIICA is a touch starved, touch phobic society.
How about, LOVING TOUCH ROOMS, where people come for FREE loving touch and hugs or whatever kind of touch they find comforting?
Touch is sorely needed. Our people are stressed out.
Loving Touch Places on a love donation basis.
a few golden retrievers on hand would be great, too!
Yes, I agree that we are a “touch-deprived” society. It is no coincidence, that so many people have pets and some research already proves that those people who have them love longer and better. There are ethical issues and codes of conduct which serve a purpose, but it seems that your discretion must lead you in every case. There are risks if you touch, in a therapy/client setting.
People from nursing homes can have a great benefit.
I work as an activity coordinator for elderly people, and I can tell that gently touching their shoulders, they can have a feeling of belonging the group or the place, and also to feel acceptad the way that they are. I always did by intuition and it works.
The Rosen Bodywork is a massage-method with soft touch to loose deep musculartensions. Rosen Bodywork is a way to free yourself from “holding back” in your body and in your mind. You can more easy connect to others when you dont feel you have to protect yourself.
Marion Rosen was a physiotherapist who created this methode, a very special type of gentle touch.
Beautiful article! Full of meaning. In Bolivia mothers carry their babies all the time! And it is amazing how loving and respectful and close to the family they grow. It is sad to see young men and women in zuSA shy and timid and yet longing to have a human closeness with others. Hungry for the human touch. They never had when they were children , it may be not appropriate when they are young and so they grow old with something missing.
This lack of human touch also contributes to make it acceptable the wrong kind of touch – changing their sexual orientation. I have seen young women wanting to be hugged and touched by elder women without no desire of being a sexual touch. Look in other countries women help girls to comb their hair, to rubb their backs, to oil, etc without no sexual connotation but in USA it is not acceptable.
I think touch would bring couples closer together and bring healing. I think touch is important in any relationship. It shows the other person you care about them.
I think that is why ‘weighted’ items are so helpful for people with PTSD and anxiety. We sometimes use weighted scarves and weighted lap pads with our students with severe autism, and I have found it helps me so much too. It is not for everyone to have something so heavy on their shoulders, but apparently for those in fight/flight so much of the time, the weight is calming, comforting, helping to emotionally regulate. And it is not a person! My therapist has them on the couch for clients’ use. Too much too fast human touching will alienate us — just like the couple above who never came back to that therapist. I find myself even backing away when others get so close to me – so weird for me. The weighted scarf, however, effective!
I believe touch by my therapist would have felt reassuring during my recent therapy. I completed 63 therapy sessions over a 33 month time frame. I am no longer seeing this therapist. When I brought touch up with the therapist she suggested I see a massage therapist if I felt the need for nurturing touch.
This is a great discussion — gratifying to read so many divergent views. Brings to light the complicated workings and mixed messages that “touching” can carry.
Wow, we have such a greater power with ourselves and other, we just need to put it to use.
Think of what this means when children in school run to grab a hand or give a hug to a teacher who has been trained NOT to touch students. Work definitely needs done to bridge the problem between keeping kids safe and affirming them with (for example accepting a hand hold or touching a shoulder)
In my program we were taught to ask permission to touch. When I use EMDR(I tap hands or knees) I have the client sign a release form that I may touch them in this way. Most of my clients ask if they can hug me which seems to give them comfort as I am of a parent or grandmother’s age compared to them.
I went to a relationship counsellor with my husband and towards the end the woman got my husband’s hand in between her two hands and stared in his eyes saying: “i understand you”, and she simply wouldn’t let go! Until he felt so uncomfortable and uneasy that he stand up (i was already standing up too) and we left and never came back. If people in this forum don’t know, it takes 20 seconds of physical or eye contact to oxytocin, the so called love hormone, to kick in. Being a psychotherapist myself i understand that this is completely inappropriate to say the least and it took us weeks to decide whether we would report her or not. I don’t think touch is appropriated in a counselling room. I do agree touch is very healing, but it needs to occur in another context/environment. It can be very confusing and disturbing to be used by a therapist. Clients are often to vulnerable to process touch from a therapist in a clear neutral positive way, and less trained therapist may take advantage of this vulnerability.
Thanks, so true. I’m a body worker (Jin Shin Jyutsu and Zero Balancing) and also I have tactile defensiveness from growing up in a bad situation of being “touched.” I’m sorry that you and your husband were hurt in a so-called therapy session, meant to heal. As I sit here typing, I see right below a comment from a Human Sexuality Instructor in Santa Barbara. I had stopped reading when I got to the part about school kids and the touchy librarian. Now I see she addresses what “might not be true for… abusive touch.” Hey, thanks for thinking of us too — teaching human sexuality is a great idea but certainly deserves tons of consideration. A “touchy subject!” : ) Laurie Young, B.S.N., M.A. (Psych.)
I remember an experiment where one group of children were touched on the arm by the librarian while the second group was not touched. Those touched had a better feeling about how nice the library was. It seems to me that a physical touch makes most people feel better. This may not be true for individuals who have experienced abusive touch. I know I always felt warmly toward my orthopedist when he lightly held my knee in his hands
That counsellor’s action sounds very artificial. I would feel very uncomfortable if I was on the receiving end!
Again, so much depends on how it’s done! That librarian must have been, it seems to me, a naturally warm person.
This points up the inbuilt problem in this kind of experiments – it may not be the touch or no-touch that is important, but more, what the receiver feels they are receiving!
you nailed it, Johanna! wise woman!
who, how, and with what intention.
I am aware myself of the potential dangers of physical touch. That is why I started to train lay-people volunteers to be assistants with me in my sessions with sexual abuse survivors. This was a great help for the clients as well as for me. There would always be aa witness when I touched. (See “From Shame to Peace”, available by Amazon).
As a psychotherapist , who, against all “supervisioncounceling” uses touch often( because it is my nature i cant help it) , i have had many feedbacks of clients who said that the day their therapy made a huge bond forward was the day i took them into my arms when they were weeping; ..
Thats so often what lacked with their parents .
I have also found that when they call, in distress and i tell them to snuggle into a big comfortable chair at home with a teddybear (or something else soft )in their arms and that i shall think of them during these 10 or 15 minutes, they report great relief ;
I really cant imagine working without touch . Of course i am very respectful with abused clients, where touch can be retraumatising.
Psychotherapy without touch can be traumatising as it can increase a sense of isolation and abandonment when real contact is needed. In my view all therapists should be trained in the appropriate and boundaried use of touch as an basic intervention rather than the phobia that exists in most of the therapy world.
Yes, I agree, skill and a sense of appropriate boundaries are essential here. A sincere touch can be healing, but most clients will sense if it is sincere or not. It should only be done when it is fully felt, and this requires self-awareness on the part of the therapist.
For the client to be hugged only on an external level is alienating, and so is having an arm thrown over one in a casual manner, which , when it was done to me, felt like being ‘taken for granted’ or a lack of respect, so that I felt alienated.
All so true. In all energy healing ‘energy follows intention’.
The quality of genuine, sincere, empathetic touch, provided the therapist is both
fully self aware in this regard, and equally aware of the client’s approachability quotient,
can be invaluable at the right moment, for the right client.
As always, one-size-fits-all thinking fails to tailor therapy to any particular client.
Each is different from another, and the needs of each can change as therapy progresses, even from session to session, so the most valid response re. touch can only be
accurately formulated at the time the session is taking place.
Always touch? Never touch? Seems too limiting, either way.
Therapists differ as well, of course, as individuals. The warmth that a touch conveys
may come naturally to one, be entirely aversive or contrived effort to another. Touch is not a ‘technique’.
Therapist, know thyself, not only your client……………..
Really, I think we all CAN “help it” and not feel compelled to touch people unless it is clear and comfortable in both directions.
What does that mean to a psychotherapy practised – by dogma, law?- or rather fear of court claims… without touch. Very interesting indeed
best, annegret