Why TTouch-for-You®

Combining Tellington TTouch and Feldenkrais for extreme arthritis in knee due to poor posture. Client: female - 48 years old

This patient had her first surgery when she was 18 years old. When bending the knee at a certain angle she sometimes would loose control of her right knee and fall down. Repositioning the ligaments should have helped, but the surgery was not successful.

To avoid falling the patient developed the habit to straighten the knee instead of bending it while walking.  Due to many years of this poor way of moving a strong case of arthritis developed in her knee. In March 2006, she once again underwent surgery on her meniscus.  This surgery, followed by intense Physiotherapy also did not bring any relief and required weekly drainage.  A friend suggested she'd come to me for a Feldenkrais session.

I combined TTouch for You and Feldenkrais as follows:

With specific Feldenkrais exercises we searched for the "right" gait, the physiological movement of the walk. The ankle had "forgotten" that it had to move, there was no possibility of up or down movement. The leg was lifted by a swing of the hip, foot and knee remained stiff.

With the lightest impulses, we organized the body in a way that foot, knee and hip were able to "learn" to move properly. To heal the arthritis in her knee I treated the patient 20 minutes at the beginning and end of each session with TTouch on her right leg with the following TTouches:

Abalone pressure 1, two-second TTouches on the whole leg including knee starting at the hip down to the foot.

Lying Leopard pressure 1, one-second TTouches on the inside of the upper thigh down to the knee and then on the outside of the upper thigh.

Raccoon TTouch, pressure 1, one-second TTouches around the area of the knee and later directly on the knee.

At the end of the session Lying Leopard with pressure 1, one-second TTouches on the entire leg and ending with octopus on both legs.

After three weeks, the ankle has much more movement. The knee is starting to bend and the hip slowly leaned a new movement. we continued working on the movement of knee, foot and hip with Feldenkrais. I also use TTouch on the knee including in positions that are similar to a normal gait, with the patient standing with one leg ahead of the other, putting some pressure on the ligaments and tendons. I used the following TTouches:

Abalone, pressure 1, two-second TTouches on the right leg.

Raccoon TTouch, pressure 1, one-second TTouches around the knee and along the path of the tendons and ligaments going up to a pressure 3.

The fluid build-up in the knee has noticeably been reduced and the patient is using less pain medication.

After six weeks of therapy:

On flat ground and light incline the gait is normal. When the patient gets tired there is a slight unevenness in her rhythm. She puts more weight on the strongest leg and keeps it on the ground for two seconds while to injured leg stays on the ground for one second.  Only when she walks downhill is there a chance of the knee collapsing on her. There is no more access fluid in her knee and it no longer needs to be drained.  The patient is NOT using ANY pain mediation

The case study is not yet finished, but it showed very clearly how the combination of TTouch for You and Feldenkrais encouraged the healing of an old condition.

Marie-Jeane Dufour, Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and TTouch for You Practitioner

In October of 2008 I taught my first one-day TTouch for You and your Horse workshop at a therapeutic riding center on the outskirts of Vienna. The morning session with 100 participants was staged in a spectacular castle that reminded me of the Sound of Music and in the afternoon we were in a riding arena surrounded by green pastures and mature forests.

In the morning session I lead the group through of the basic TTouches and they practiced on their own bodies and paired up to explore TTouch pressure and tempo. Toward the end of the morning session one of the participants stood up and asked if she could tell her story to the group. Her name is Johanna Hershmann and her story was remarkable. Twenty years ago she attended a two-week TTouch training that I taught near Vienna. In the ensuing years she had TTouched her horses when they needed it, and occasionally her sheep and had kept up a little with some of the German TTouch newsletters published by Annegret Ast.

Last spring, her husband, Hermann was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of brain cancer that had spread to other parts of the body. One night in April he awoke in unbearable pain. The medication was no longer effective and he begged Johanna to help him. Miraculously the pain reduced with gentle TTouches and she had been TTouching him daily for the past five months. She drove two hours from Graz just to tell me that he has been off medication and pain-free since that time and asked if they could have a session with me to give them some additional tips.

The following day they drove from Graz and Tanja Lasser (a TTouch for You Practitioner) and I spent three hours with them; observing the TTouches Johanna had been administering, marveling at their story and their love, and amazed at Tanja’s cat, who spent much of the time on the table curled up against Hermann’s head, giving him much-appreciated comfort. I was amazed that after so long, with no further instruction, Johanna had TTouched Hermann beautifully and effectively, with two-pressure and two-second circles. The agreed to allow Martin Lasser to film the session thinking their experience could perhaps give help and hope to others.

Just as I was ready to send the last edit to Robyn I received this email from Tanja: “I just called Johanna. They are on a good way and something wonderful happened. Before they left our home in October, I got an inspiration for a herb for Hermann which could help and I told Johanna about it. Two weeks later Johanna received a present in the mail from a gril-friend from Germany with the same plant to make the tea I had recommended. Johanna was sure that these signs were from Hermann’s guardian angel. When she started to give him this tea for few days he had chemo-therapy symptoms. But then it changed. She also found a doctor who helps now to support his recovery with herbs. She still does a lot of TTouch on him and he does not need "Windeln” any more.

She also told me that their relationship changed a lot with TTouch and he trusts her and they have now a deep connection. When some pain starts and she has time to TTouch, soon then the pain reduces. She thinks he is on a good way and he also stopped smoking. We have a wonderful photo with Hermann and our cat. Johanna asked me if she could have one because Hermann loved Flecki so much

If you've done much work with Tellington TTouch^® Training, you have most likely discovered the benefits for animals - not only for horses, but also for dogs, cats, small critters, zoo animals and wildlife rescue. You may have discovered improvements in health and well-being, a reduction in stress, and often, miraculous changes in behavior. And in horses and dogs you will have been rewarded by enhanced performance and a more flexible, intelligent four-legged friend. Many, who work with the Tellington TTouch Method, report an unexpected deepening of relationship that gives you the feeling you are Dr. Doolittle with the ability to communicate without words, and understand each other in a way you didn't think possible.

However, what is often unrecognized or unspoken, are the effects on you! There is often experienced a transformation in the people using TTouch as well as their animals. We become more flexible and balanced mentally and physically, as well as emotionally. Many adults report a sense feeling of being smarter and more confident.

In classes of school children practicing TTouch on their companion animals, teachers and parents describe similar changes: improved ability to focus and concentrate (just like horses and dogs) with heightened confidence and more tolerance. Children with a tendency to lose their tempers or bully other kids increase self-control and another level of understanding that allows them to adapt and be less reactive. I believe TTouch teaches children what I call "compassionate empowerment®."

What causes these transformational changes in the two-leggeds? I believe the reasons are two-fold:

1. TTouch activates both hemispheres of the brain resulting in Whole Brain learning. The left side of the brain is commonly referred to as the logical side, and the right side is thought of as the creative or intuitive side, although in reality that is not so. The brain is actually an integrated whole. The left hemisphere is more linear and the right is oriented to spatial issues and understanding the big picture.

You wonder how TTouch affects the whole brain?

Each time you push the skin in a circle imagining the face of a clock, the intuitive side is engaged, because imagining or visualizing as well as the actual movement have to do with the intuitive. When you "see in your mind's eye" the numbers on the clock, the logical is activated because numbers have to do with logical thinking.

When you're practicing leading exercises imagining the "Elegant Elephant’s" trunk as the end of your "wand" or whip, the movement itself, and holding the wand and chain in both hands, affects the right brain. And the logical way of holding the wand and chain in two hands awakens the thinking side.

2. The second indication of this whole brain effect comes from the two studies I did in the summers of 1987 and 1988 in cooperation with Anna Wise of the Boulder Institute of Biofeedback. Working with a "Mind Mirror" developed by her mentor, British psycho biologist and biophysicist Maxwell Cade, produced some fascinating results. The Mind Mirror is an EEG that differs from the traditional EEG in that it used spectral analysis to simultaneously measure eleven different frequencies in each hemisphere of the brain. Unlike the normal EEG it has the unique ability to measure beta, alpha, theta and delta brain waves in both hemispheres of the brain.

We measured over a dozen students to determine their brain wave activity while being TTouched, rubbed, petted and massaged. Surprising was the fact that consistently, whether our students were being TTouched or TTouching a horse or a person, there was an activation of all four brain waves –beta, alpha, theta and delta – in both sides of the brain. When the person being measured was petted, stroked, rubbed or massaged, the relaxing alpha brainwave pattern was present, but never beta – the problem solving potential. Only with the circular touches were the beta brainwaves present.

So the next time you head out to the barn remember that TTouching your horse a few minutes a day can reduce your stress, clear your mind, deepen the connection with your horse and dog, and make you smarter. That's why the phrase "The Touch That Teaches" came into being.

Linda Tellington-Jones

By Robin Bernhard LCSW, MED

The universality of Linda’s methodology is unique to TTouch. Linda didn’t have to develop different techniques to teach horses, whales, snakes, parrots, cats, dogs or humans. TTouch works for all species. Through touches that are universally understood, Linda and her students of TTouch, invite their animals to participate in harmonious mutual communication; cell to cell and heart to heart. In her book, Tellington TTouch, Linda states: “Instead of seeing the TTouch as something that I do to animals, which would create separation between us, I view the circles as a way to come into cellular harmony with them, a way of allowing my cells to speak to theirs. At a cellular level, no living thing is alien to any other, and so the sense of connections remains the same whether I’m working with a gerbil or a lynx, a kitten or an elephant.” Both the practitioner and the animal benefit from the mutual communication.

Linda believes that the TTouch practitioner’s intention for healing is communicated from the person to the animal (or person to person) on many levels. These intuitive ideas are now being scientifically documented by The Institute of HeartMath with new research about mind-body communication and the heart. Research at The Institute of HeartMath has shown that we can regulate heart rhythm coherence by holding positive feelings and intentions. Increased heart rhythm coherence produces more alpha brainwaves, enhanced awareness and improved cognitive performance. Alpha frequencies induce a state of tranquility, not unlike the tranquility experienced during TTouch, and interestingly, alpha brainwaves are associated with peak performance. The results of the research at the institute of HeartMath supports the hypothesis “that the changes in brain activity that occur during states of increased psychophysiological coherence lead to changes in the brain’s information processing capabilities. Results suggest that by using heart-based interventions to self-generate coherent states, individuals can significantly enhance cognitive performance.” It would be very interesting to see if TTouch enhances heart rhythm coherence. I suspect that it does.

The heart produces an energy field that can be measured for five feet in all directions. It is quite possible that all species are able to perceive influences from another being’s heart from a short distance. When humans communicate and touch is involved, the brain registers the heartbeat of the other in the EEG, physiological evidence that we are influenced by another’s heart rhythm chaos or coherence. Research has shown that horses are sensitive to the heart energy fields produced by humans and that humans are sensitive to the fields produced by the horse’s heart. The practitioner of TTouch knows well the experience of peace that comes while engaged in the practice of TTouch. Scientific knowledge about the energetic communication from the heart suggests that TTouch practitioners are energetically engaging their animal partners at the deep level of the heart. When the TTouch practitioner consciously holds the intention of healing and a compassionate attitude to generate heart rate coherence within the self, the person or animal being touched benefits from the calming influence of the energy field created by the practitioner’s heart. The research at the Institute of Heart Math suggests that the heart to heart engagement is reciprocal and thus, we have the beginnings of scientific documentation for the experience of healing intention, compassion, respect and positive regard that is part of TTouch practice.

There are more neurons running from the heart to the brain than from the brain to the heart. Some research suggests that the heart directs brain regulation and not the other way around. Linda has stressed the importance of holding a compassionate attitude coupled with the desire to support healing as the correct mind-set for the TTouch practitioner to allow the heart to influence the work. The research on the power of the heart from The Institute of HeartMath documents the scientific basis for what Linda understood intuitively about the heart’s influence on TTouch outcome and the mutual benefit for the practitioner and the animal when the practitioner intentionally generates a genuinely positive heart felt connection between the self and the animal during a TTouch session.

On the other hand, forceful methods generate fear and impede “thinking” as the horse moves into its instinctual fight/flight survival mode. During fight/flight activation, thinking is shut-down in favor of split-second non-thinking reflexive reactions that the horse can’t control. It is often in this fear driven state that horses can’t meet the demands placed upon them, for which they are frequently punished and pushed further into fear, pain and freeze responses. Instinctual reactions may be activated through a dominating relationship, and animals can be managed through such training methods. TTouch does not elicit instinct driven behavior mediated by the limbic system, rather Linda seeks to calm the limbic system and stimulate learning that is mediated by the cortex through a relationship infused with a heart-felt connection.