The Importance of Combining Touch and Verbal Communication in a Session
A Pantarei Approach session uses a combination of touch and verbal communication, but what does it mean and why is it of value? Every session you will receive from a practitioner will start with a conversation. This time allows you and your practitioner to better understand what the topics are that you wish to focus on, what your challenges might be, and most importantly, how your own uniqueness can help you to find solutions to face them. Your practitioner doesn’t look for the answers in a textbook, or in a list of instructions, but rather listens to you and explores with you the questions and the answers, working together with you to find your desired direction.
When clarity on these topics is achieved, the hands-on part can start. In this part you might be on a massage table, or sitting on a chair, or standing – according to the session’s specific goals. Your practitioner will place their hands on your body and will touch you, according to whatever intention your process carries. They might only place their hands on one area of your body – your shoulders, back, neck, forehead or legs. They might move their hands in slower or quicker rhythm, the touch might be deeper or more on the surface – all according to whatever intention you both declared in the conversation at the beginning of your session; also according to what your body reveals during the session. It might be that after placing the hands on the area of the neck, it becomes clear that it’s actually the legs that need more attention, it might be that your muscles will ask for a deeper touch or a softer one, and so on.
Whatever kind of touch your practitioner uses, whatever body areas the session will focus on, one of the intentions of any session will be to connect to your physical experience and find clarity there around the topics you verbally discussed. There is synergy between what you understand and what you experience, between what your heart desires, to the way it can be expressed in your life. One of the ways to discover this synergy is by connecting words to feelings, your physical sensations, and your sense of being.
We all know that sometimes a change in the way we think, what we wish, and how we talk about something changes our entire feelings and sensation of the experience. It is common when people are relating to positive thoughts, that their experiences also move in a more positive direction, but in fact this is not about positivity in a general sense. In our experience it is about sensing the true essence of ourselves – we might allow sadness to be experienced and with it open our heart and breath, we might agree to notice the challenges we had to go through and with it the strength of our legs and being.
In some ways, touch allows us to feel safe. We are not alone, as somebody is there with us in whatever experience we go through. They remind us to breathe even when it is painful, encourage us to notice the flow when we are happy, or helps us pay attention to the fact our legs are connected to our heart and our brain. Touch allows us to feel connected to somebody else, and therefore also to ourselves and our own life. Touch is a necessity not only for the first months of our life, where without it we would not survive, but throughout all the stages we go through.
In a session, your practitioner will use all of this wisdom when they touch you. They will show you how the experience of your body is connected to the experience of your life. For example, ‘feeling’ your back is about much more than having relaxed muscles. Being conscious of your back can serve you well in many situations – to feel that you have a back in life, is to know that you can lean on something, that you can allow yourself to rest a moment, or feel your own strength. What sensing your back would mean to you, is personal to you and your story and will be different for someone else. This process cannot be repeated with somebody else in the same way, but nevertheless touching your back would be for your practitioner about touching you – and the words you’ll use will be just as important, as the physical experience you will feel.
The combination of touch and words will allow you to connect your clarity with your experience and sensations. It will allow you to become clearer on your own uniqueness and the way it can be expressed in life. It allows your practitioner direct access to the wisdom you carry within yourself about your life’s challenges and wishes.