Why Use Touch in Somatic Sessions?

My Pantarei Approach bodywork teacher said something that always stuck with me. She said, when you touch someone, you help them to feel themselves more fully. When you touch someone’s hand or shoulder, your attention is immediately pulled into this part of their body. I’d like to extend this to say that when you touch yourself, place a hand on your heart, your knee, your arm, it also helps you to direct your awareness towards that part of yourself and to feel it more fully.

I encourage you to try, even for a second, because the proof is in the experience. If you place your hand right now on your cheek, you can see how your awareness moves towards this part of the body, almost like you are able to inhabit this part of yourself more fully.

When I touch my clients, I’m supporting them in this process of getting into contact with themselves. With clients online, I guide them to place a hand where sensation feels strongest. The dialogue portion of a Pantarei session is like playing different chords on a guitar and seeing which ones are the most resonant. When we speak about our lives and name certain experiences, sometimes there’s an intensity or sense that what we’re saying holds truth or weight to it, when something really strikes a chord.

Another way to think about it is that these are aspects of our current experience that have deeper root structures or psychological weight underneath them. When we speak, these are activated and supported to come to the surface. When we move onto the hands-on portion of the session, touch is a tool we have to fully meet what has been surfaced. By feeling what has roots and memories and infusing this with presence and awareness, the body can process what it has been holding.