Tiny Circles on the Skin
(an Article by Kathy Witkowski - TTouch International Newsletetter Volune No. 2 Summer 1995)
(22 years after this article was written people worldwide are still learning and being amazed at the difference that this wonderful modality can make both physically and emotionally and not just on animals, it impacts on humans as well)
A tribute to Linda on her 80th birthday 30.6.17 and to read more about her amazing life and achievements - read more
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I am obsessing so much about Linda Tellington-Jones hands the entire drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe that I barely notice the vastness of sparse and angry New Mexico landscape. Or that the flags of thirty-two nations ring the roof of her adobe office building testament to the global spread of her method that 'heals' animals with a mere touch.
I focus only on the hands, which are gaining slow but steady fame throughout the world of animal keepers. The hands that saved Louie, the San Diego Zoo's baby orangutan, where he was'nt able to nurse; that helped Joyce, the Burmese python, breathe properly; that, in front of a conference of 200 zoo keepers, calmed a seval cat so neurotic he spat and hissed at anyone who came near; that rehabilitated a black bear who'd been hit by a care in Montana and was suffering from severe neurological damage. Snow leopard or anteater; horse or cow; cat or dog or cockatoo; even the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. So far there hasn't been any type of animal that Tellington-Jones' hands could'nt reach. The list of endorsements for her technique of helping animals through touches is lengthy and impressive, and grows longer each year. The ASPCA in New York City; a zoo keeper at the San Diego Zoo; the head veterinarian at the Zurich Zoo. Aquarist Mark Verbin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore uses it to acclimate giant Pacific octopuses to their new lives in captivity. Scientists at the research facility of the Sloan-Kettering and Cornell University Medical College say it's making them rethink the way they handle their primates. It may not be an exaggeration to say that Tellington-Jones' hands are quietly revolutionizing the way humans interact with other species. Her work has so intrigued administrators at the Research Animal Resource Center of the Sloan-Kettering Institute and Cornell University Medical College in New York, that they had Telington-Jones show the technique to their staff. "I like the technique very much", says Dr. David Myers, the center's director "I think it has potential in assisting us both during research and afterwards, in reacquainting the primates with each other". TTouch, short for Tellington Touch, is a repertoire of a dozen specific strokes. (now well over 35 various TTouches ). First developed in 1983, it has been shown effective on more than 30 species (nowadays much more). The heart of the TTouch is a series of small, randomly placed circles 'drawn' on an animal. Imagine a clock face, and beginning at six, push the skin gently clockwise all the way around past six and finish at eight. No one, including Tellington-Jones, knows exactly why it works. But anecdotal evidence of its success is overwhelming. In tests on horses, Tellington-Jones discovered that as long as the practitioner closed each circle, the horses gener-ated all four brain patterns; alpha, beta, theta and delta. Tellington-Jones suspects the TTouch gets the cells "talking' to each other and "turns on the electrical lights in the body", so that the animal can overcome its instinctive fight, flight, or freeze response and begin to think. All animals, Tellington - Jones says, hold fear and tension in their bodies. It's easy to see. Dogs and horses tighten their hindquarters; people hunch their shoulders and clench their jaws. Traditionally we try to soothe the animal and expect the body to follow suit. TTouch works the other way around. |
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It starts by displacing the physical tension, so that the attendant emotions follow. Because aggression or neurotic habits are generally manifestations of fear, they go too.
However, inexplicable TTouch is, the fact that it sprang from Tellington-Jones is not surprising. She grew up outside Edmonton, Alberta, one of six children living every little girl's dream: riding her horse to school, training and showing it in the hours before and after. By the time she was sixteen, she had amassed some 400 ribbons and trophies. She went on to hold a world endurance ride record for seven straight years. At eighteen, she married Wentworth Tellington, and together they founded the Pacific Coast Equestrian Research Farm and School of Horsemanship, a renowned facility in Badger, California.
In 1978, she was finishing a four-year course in Feldenkruis holistic therapy for humans, which uses non-habitual movements to activate new neurological pathways to the brain. She wondered if the same principles could be applied to teaching horses, and found that it indeed turned uncooperative animals into willing partners. That in turn evolved into the TTouch.
To her great delight, Tellington-Jones soon discovered the TTouch worked just as well on humans. This makes nothing but sense to her. "At the cellular level," she says, "we are all the same". Just ask Arthur Hartman, former U.S Ambassador to the Soviet Union, who benefited from the TTouch when Tellington-Jones demonstrated on him during his tenure in Moscow. "I relaxed so much I fell asleep", he recalls.
However, inexplicable TTouch is, the fact that it sprang from Tellington-Jones is not surprising. She grew up outside Edmonton, Alberta, one of six children living every little girl's dream: riding her horse to school, training and showing it in the hours before and after. By the time she was sixteen, she had amassed some 400 ribbons and trophies. She went on to hold a world endurance ride record for seven straight years. At eighteen, she married Wentworth Tellington, and together they founded the Pacific Coast Equestrian Research Farm and School of Horsemanship, a renowned facility in Badger, California.
In 1978, she was finishing a four-year course in Feldenkruis holistic therapy for humans, which uses non-habitual movements to activate new neurological pathways to the brain. She wondered if the same principles could be applied to teaching horses, and found that it indeed turned uncooperative animals into willing partners. That in turn evolved into the TTouch.
To her great delight, Tellington-Jones soon discovered the TTouch worked just as well on humans. This makes nothing but sense to her. "At the cellular level," she says, "we are all the same". Just ask Arthur Hartman, former U.S Ambassador to the Soviet Union, who benefited from the TTouch when Tellington-Jones demonstrated on him during his tenure in Moscow. "I relaxed so much I fell asleep", he recalls.
Next, Tellington-Jones wants to bring TTouch to the world. She travels constantly explaining how to use the technique on animals and people. She has taught TTouch to counselors and therapists working with emotionally disturbed and handicapped people internationally. She envisions a day when there are public posters diagramming TTouch so it becomes accessible to the homeless and poor.
Months after researching this piece, I'm still obsessing with hands, but this time, they're not Tellington-Jones' hands, they're mine. Several weeks after I visited her and learned the rudiments of TTouch, I had a bicycle accident, landing on my chin, and severely torqued a previously injured knee. Afterward, as I agonized on my couch, I alternated between applying ice and TTouch to myself. The next day I walking, if humbly, and my chin, which I'd expected to be the size of a small grapefruit, was showing only a small bruise. Was it the ice? Maybe. Would I have recovered that quickly anyway? Perhaps. All I know is this: Now that I know TTouch, I don't see my hands as ordinary anymore.
If you would like to know more about this amazing modality, do visit www.ttouch.co.za or contact the TTouch offices at info@ttouch.co.za
Some other articles on TTouch you may enjoy.....
Aggression - Is TTouch of Value for Aggression? - Aggression can be such a difficult and often frigtening thing to deal with. Find out is there is help for this condition by including TTouch as a tool to modify the behaviour
...................................................................................................................
Supportive Care for Senior Dogs - as our dogs enter their senior years they are prone to various physical ailments and their behaviour can also change. Find out for yourself how you can help you dog to cope with this period in its life and improve the quality of life
..................................................................................................................
Can TTouch really impact on shelter dogs and improve their behaviour? - So many shelter dogs, due to their experiences exhibit fear behaviour which can be really extreme and find great difficulty in adjusting to life, either in the shelter or in their new homes.
Months after researching this piece, I'm still obsessing with hands, but this time, they're not Tellington-Jones' hands, they're mine. Several weeks after I visited her and learned the rudiments of TTouch, I had a bicycle accident, landing on my chin, and severely torqued a previously injured knee. Afterward, as I agonized on my couch, I alternated between applying ice and TTouch to myself. The next day I walking, if humbly, and my chin, which I'd expected to be the size of a small grapefruit, was showing only a small bruise. Was it the ice? Maybe. Would I have recovered that quickly anyway? Perhaps. All I know is this: Now that I know TTouch, I don't see my hands as ordinary anymore.
If you would like to know more about this amazing modality, do visit www.ttouch.co.za or contact the TTouch offices at info@ttouch.co.za
Some other articles on TTouch you may enjoy.....
Aggression - Is TTouch of Value for Aggression? - Aggression can be such a difficult and often frigtening thing to deal with. Find out is there is help for this condition by including TTouch as a tool to modify the behaviour
...................................................................................................................
Supportive Care for Senior Dogs - as our dogs enter their senior years they are prone to various physical ailments and their behaviour can also change. Find out for yourself how you can help you dog to cope with this period in its life and improve the quality of life
..................................................................................................................
Can TTouch really impact on shelter dogs and improve their behaviour? - So many shelter dogs, due to their experiences exhibit fear behaviour which can be really extreme and find great difficulty in adjusting to life, either in the shelter or in their new homes.