Touching the Victims of Disasters

Touch is one of the five senses that make our living experience meaningful. Reflexologists and massage therapists have been suing this particular sense to heal certain health problems, generally aiming at relieving physical and mental stress. But there is more to this wonderful sense of touch! It has been used successfully in recovering the mental/behavioral states of victims of disasters. In her recent paper titled The Importance of Touch and Non-Verbal Communication in the Recovery Process: An Intercultural Perspective, senior counselor Patricia Justice attributes a key role to the use of touch as a form of communication in quickening the process of recovery among disaster-affected individuals.

Published in the recent book Proceedings of the 6th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference (Rocky Mountain DMH Institute Press, 2008), Patricia Justice’s paper briefly recounts how and why she chose to break the psychoanalytic rule (against touching a patient/sufferer) in order to bring about a quicker and more effective recovery of tsunami-stricken people in Thailand and Sri Lanka. In these cultures, touching is allowed only among close friends or relatives. However, in time of distress or disaster, Patricia Justice found that appropriately touching stressed people equipped them better to overcome their fears of disaster and get over the behavioral effects of trauma.

Not only does appropriate ways of touching convey the healer’s empathy more effectively to the victim of a disaster but it also refutes the rigidity of racial or ethnic prejudices. In the words of the author, ‘it is not enough for a therapist to merely empathize with survivors.’ The silent language of touch is a greater force that has long been passively discouraged, both socially and intellectually, from ‘connecting’ people. It is not limited by linguistic barriers for making its effect. Perhaps it is time now for us to reconsider our social norms and broaden our sense of reaching out to those who need therapeutic healing beyond verbal empathy. The work of Patricia Justice is the one of first steps in that direction.

ISBN: 978-1932690569

Book Details: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932690565/ccusersgroup