Why Nonjudgmental Touch is so Nurturing and so Needed
Touch can be soothing, healing and vital for our health, yet it is increasingly recognized that many Americans are starved for touch. Our lifestyles and cultural tendencies reduce the opportunities to receive safe and welcome touch, which can do a lot to calm the nervous system and regulate emotions, and blunt pain, stress and anxiety. For example, blood pressure and levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, can decrease as a result of touch.
Popular articles about touch deprivation often focus on the benefit of the kind of affectionate touch that friends and family share with each other, and suggest various ways people can help themselves like brushing the skin, receiving massages, doing certain kinds of exercise, or simply asking for touch.
There is another level to this deep human need, a kind of touch that doesn’t ask for anything back, that has no agenda, that establishes connection yet allows the recipient to be themselves fully and freely. In Breema we call this the nonjudgmental touch, and it is a cornerstone of the practice.
Several of the Breema principles help us become able to touch this way. First and foremost, No Judgment. Practicing No Judgment frees me to drop any ideas of changing or manipulating my recipient, allowing me as the practitioner to enter into the moment and touch without concepts.
Mutual Support guides me to experience the session as an exchange, where I benefit as much as my recipient. No Force is supported by No Judgment, because if I let go of all concepts of what my recipient “needs”, there is no need to use any force at all, and I can instead prioritize Body Comfortable for us both.
In the atmosphere that is created by giving and receiving nonjudgmental touch, both people receive support to let go of tension, anxiety and fear. Openness is created which increases the experience of connection and inclusion in a greater whole.
Denise Berezonsky has been practicing and instructing Breema bodywork for more than 30 years. She offers sessions at the Breema Clinic as part of a group of health and wellness professionals that recognized the need for a unique approach that supports you to address your health with confidence and clarity, rather than fear and worry. Based on a shared love of Breema and its ability to support real health, we also offer functional medicine, massage, and somatic psychotherapy.
The Breema Clinic
6201 Florio Street
www.breemaclinic.com
510-428-1234
