TTouch in the Canary islands

On September 22 & 23 we will be holding a two day TTouch workshop in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at Albergue Rural Brancosole. At this workshop we will be covering the basic concepts and practices of TTouch in all three fields: bodywork, wraps and groundwork.  For further information please go to the Events Diary on this blog.

Wraps enhance Proprioception and Calm Nociception

 Another extract from Robin Bernhard's article.  There are other translations of articles by Kathy Cascade in earlier blog posts.

"Kathy Cascade, a physical therapist and Tellington TTouch instructor, has described how the wraps stimulate the skin and proprioceptive system in such a way that the enhanced information can be used by the brain to make improvements in balance, coordination and movement.  Kathy was talking about the ability to know where our bodies are located in space based upon the feedback system coming from the skin, joints, ligaments and tendons. This feedback system allows the person wearing wraps to instlantly know where the wrapped part of the body is located in space and brings awareness to the relationship between this part of the body and the rest of the body during movement.

Some of the proprioceptive receptors in the skin adapt to sensation quickly and others adapt slowly. Rapidly adapting receptors allow for minute distinctions in the experience of pressure and vibration on the skin. The hair follicles, Meissner's and Pacinian corpuscles all respond to light brushing, light touch and gentle vibration, respectively, by sending immediate brief signals to the brain at the start and stop of each stimulation. This fast on-off information switch allows the body to respond quickly and freshly to each stimulus to the skin so that differentiation of slight changes in skin pressure and vibration can be detected. These fast adapting receptors happen to be associated with the release of oxytocin when stimulated by light touch.

The thermorepcetors in the skin detect warm and cold sensations. (...) There are no  receptors for very hot temperatures in the skin. In fact, the receptors that detect cold temperatures actually fire along with warm receptors when something is hot to create the sensation of extreme heat. This combination of warm and cold receptors firing at the same time is what causes the paradoxical hot/cold "Vick's Vapor Rub" feeling that Jessica described in her legs.

Pain reception also involves both quick acting and slow acting neurons. The quick acting neurons tend to detect sharp, shooting pain and the slow acting neurons tend to detect deep, throbbing or aching pain. (...)

It may be that soothing skin stimulation competes with the pain pathway or the memory of pain. It is reported in the TENS literature that gentle electrical stimulation actually blocks chronic pain receptors. Chronic pain perception is activated by the slow acting neurons. Because the fast adapting neurons bring the gentle stimulation of the TENS to the brain through a different route, it blocks the awareness of chronic pain. The wraps may be generating a similar type of gentle input that competes with and distracts someone from chronic pain.

As mentioned in the brain's rules for change, perhaps the gentle stimulation is new information that contradicts the circumstances under which the pain memory was created and instantly changes the memory. Could the gentle stimulation of the wraps cause a release of a chemical messenger, like oxytocin, that signals safety and suggests to the body that the pain is over? Maybe it is the interest generated from a different kind of stimulation that triggers an orienting response and then permits the completion of the orienting  response and the engagement of the calming ventral vagal system.

There is scientific evidence to support the hypothesis that the engagement of the polyvagal system is part of reducing the perception of pain. In fact, where the vagus nerve meets the heart is one place where pain is modulated. When the heart is pumping in a calm and rhythmic cycle it causes the vagus nerve to suppress pain perception in the spinothalamic tract which brings information about pain to the brain. With the spinothalamic tract suppressed the experience of pain coming from both the spine and from the skin will be reduced."

The Polyvagal Theory and the Completion of the Orienting Response

Another extract from Robin Bernhard.

I feel that this is quite relevant to the work that we do in TTouch. How often are animals prevented from displaying any reaction or feeling?  All the time!  They are inhibited from barking in case it disturbs the neighbours.  They can't jump because someone's clothes will get dirty.  When something frightening happens they can't run away because they are on lead and so on. Just finding a mechanism that will allow them to complete the orienting response, even during things as simple as daily walks, could contribute to make life less stressful for them on many levels. These mechanism could include ear work, Noah's March including our maxim of "Calm the tail, calm the dog".

"Light touching of the skin stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and provides a natural way for us to calm down. The vagus nerve makes up most of the parasympathetic nervous system and connects the heart, lungs, organs and intestines to the brain.  Light touch of the skin over the heart, lungs and gut triggers both the release of oxytocin and simnultaneously engages the vagus nerve. (...) 

The initial quietude and appearance of the soft eye seen in our group members when they were first wrapped may be a subtle sign of what is called the natural orienting response. When something changes in an animal's environment, certain innate behaviours, such as turning the head in the direction of the change and becoming erect and alert, are all part of this response. Trauma theory describes PSTD as the orienting response stuck in the freeze mode of the fight/flight/freeze/faint trauma response. Animals in the wild either run away or fight unless death is imminent at which point they will freeze and faint before they are killed. This part of the polyvagal system is the most ancient, the dorsal motor portion of the vagal system.

Humans and domesticated animals in modern society are often unable to release fear using this mechanism because fighting or fleeing is discouraged or prevented.  Instead, frozen states of fear and rage are held in body memory, in the cells and tissues. Without alternative ways to care for these reactions we develop the symptoms associated with chronic stress.  When Tellington TTouch Body Wraps stimulate and warm the skin they offer another pathway to care for our stress reactions which can be partially explained by the healthy engagement of the vagus nerve and the ventral portion of that system.

The polyvagal system is actually two systems which can function independently, the dorsal motor pathway and the ventral vagus pathway. The ventral vagus pathway offers the second pathway for handling a stress response. Stephen Porges labelled this pathway "the social nervous system" because it represents a solution to stress or fear that involves social engagement. Infants activate this system when they seek and obtain support and nurturance from parents who create safety through protective and loving actions towards them. The social engagement system includes the face and facial expressions, the neck for turning the head in the direction of seeking help, the chest, the back and the arms for reaching out. When this social nervous system is activated, the ancient fight/flight/freeze/faint reactions are inhibited.

(...)

It is believed that keeping the eyes open stimulates the ventral vagus complex and allows the orienting response to be completed in safety. As we mentioned earlier, the application of the wraps seems to trigger the orienting response in group members. Simply allowing the orienting response to complete rather than be disrupted, as it was at the time of the trauma, is one way of helping to release trauma holding patterns."

Light Touch Releases Oxytocin and Soothes the Polyvagal System

Here is another short extract from Robin Bernhard's article "Using Tellington TTouch Body Wraps with Traumatic Brain Injury"

"... A study designed to explore the benefits of massage was expected to demonstrate that massage supports the immune system by boosting the body's levels of oxytocin, "the trust hormone", and thereby indirectly reducing the body's secretion of cortisol, "the stress hormone". Both groups in the study, funded by the U.S.  National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, showed an increase of oxytocin, but the people in the control group who received "light touch" actually produced more oxytocin, and therefore less cortisol, than the people in the deep touch group. This news was interesting, since all Tellington TTouch falls into the category of light touch.

Since oxytocin is the neuropeptide of trust and safety, it would be the perfect antidote to the fight/flight/freeze response. (...) Just touching another person in a kind way or hugging a pet can release oxytocin. (...) Also of great interest, it has been shown in laboratory studies that oxytocin can completely erase old memory and is being studied as a new therapy for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Studies show that oxytocin produces the right attitude for learning. It reduces anxiety and improves social learning in autistic children by activating the right hemisphere of the brain associated with bonding and emotional recognition. It is believed to create an inner atmosphere of safety that promotes flexibility and openness to change. Maybe oxytocin plays a role in erasing or altering the old memory and providing a neuropeptide source for positive feeling. This neuropeptide could be released in an instant and the positive feeling would truly contradict a memory that was formed during fight/flight/freeze or faint. It would satisfy both conditions of the brain's rules for change."