The Only Useful Technique Was Touch for Health – Sharing from a Volunteer in Sichuan

Ms. Li Yan (Shenzhen), 20th July, 2008

On 1st July, a team of twenty people including myself went to Sichuan to do voluntary psychological relief work for earthquake victims. Through the channels established by the Psychological Institute of the Chinese Science Academy, some of us were sent to the villages and towns of Shefang County to visit the parents of the students who died in the earthquake.

In the five working days we were there, we as a group visited more than sixty families. Each family had lost a child of four years old to eighteen years old in the earthquake. After everyday旧 work, in the evening, we would hold an evaluation meeting to share our experiences. We often hear this sharing from volunteers: 荘he only useful technique was Touch for Health.�

My working partner and I visited nine families, and we also revisited one of the families. In every family, we basically just listened to what the clients had to say. Sometimes, the emotion of grief was so deep that they would just cry and cry wildly. Then, we would use some simple Touch for Health technique to calm down their emotions.

In one family, an old lady who had lost her grandson that she brought up single-handedly started crying once she started her conversation. At this moment, my partner touched her Emotional Stress Release Points, while I held her hands and continued to listen to her story. When she was crying and talking, she started to calm down slowly. When we felt that her grief had almost been relieved, then we stood up and said goodbye to her. The old lady walked with us until a far distance to see us off and she did not want us to leave.

In another visit, I met a mother who originally suffered from a condition in which there was not enough blood supply to the heart muscles. In the earthquake, she lost her daughter. After a month, her own mother died because of over-grieving for the loss of the grand-daughter. Her mother-in-law also died in the earthquake. This mother旧 heart conditions became worse and worse, and she could not even walk. Everyday, she felt heaviness and tiredness in her heart, and she had completely lost the ability to work. We used Touch for Health to help her set a positive goal, and we did a simple balance for her. Not long after, this mother smiled to us and said, 戦 feel much better now, my heart is not so heavy!�

Throughout all these visits, I tried using many counseling and therapy techniques, but I found that many were not so applicable. The only applicable technique was Touch for Health. Why was that the case? I think there were several reasons.

First, there was a language barrier. The clients spoke Sichuan dialect, and our volunteers mostly spoke Mandarin. So, it was challenging for us to understand each other through verbal communication. The other communication challenge was that the language that volunteers spoke was close to the written form and not so colloquial. In using Touch for Health, we could directly work on the body, and therefore, not affected by language barrier.

Second, what we faced was the pain for the loss of children. Perhaps it was the greatest and deepest pain that we humans could experience. In this great emotional pain, no teaching or verbal information would be useful. Through Touch for Health, we worked through the body. Feelings could be directly accessed without the filters or resistance of our thoughts. Changes started to happen in the body, and the states of the clients quickly changed.

Third, in such kind of conversation, touching itself is comforting to the individuals. Touching is the most effective means for the client to feel that they are in touch with the outside world. Touch for Health uses this as a foundation, and on top of it, balances the muscles and the meridians. This makes it more effective.

I did not bring along my Touch for Health book when I went to Sichuan. Somehow, I thought I could have done better if I had the book to remind me of the details of the techniques. I would like to practice and study more, so that in the future, I can do good balances with others without having to look at the book.