Have you ever felt "untouchable?" There is a HUGE difference
between not wanting to be touched (e.g., when you have a migraine
headache, have experienced trauma, or are angry at someone) versus feeling
no one wants to touch you. The latter emotional experience that some people
have of feeling “untouchable” is of particular interest to me—both as a
psychologist and now also as a massage therapist/bodyworker.
You may be familiar with the Indian social caste system,
which assigned the “lowest status” to that of the Dalits, also called the
“Untouchables.” The resource, Wikipedia, states the following about the
“Untouchables:”
“ [they have
been] historically associated with occupations regarded as ritually impure, such
as any involving leatherwork, butchering, or removal of rubbish, animal carcasses, and
waste. Dalits worked as manual labourers cleaning streets, latrines, and sewers.
Engaging in these activities was considered to be polluting to the individual,
and this pollution was considered contagious. As a result, Dalits werecommonly
segregated, and banned from full participation in Hindu social life. For example, they
could not enter a temple nor a school, and were required to stay outside the village.”
Powerful words….impure… polluting…considered contagious…
segregated… banned…outside the village…Hmmm. People can feel
psychologically like this. They may feel shame about their actual Self….feel impure, polluted, ...that there
is something wrong with them—something toxic about
themselves. And as a result, they may shy away from personal contact—actual
physical contact, and even social contact in general, for fear that they are in some way
“contagious” to others.
As you can imagine, bodywork by a gentle, sensitive
practitioner is a powerful intervention to “dilute” and reverse this sense of toxicity that
people may carry with them. In bodywork, you
have the opportunity to change someone’s thoughts (in this case particularly
negative ones) by working on their person. Touch the surface…you touch the
depths. And physiologically, one reason this occurs, is because the brain and the skin are part of the same sensory/perception system.
When someone who experiences themselves as "untouchable"
experiences loving, nurturing, caring touch--it has the potential to reverse the negative messages about the
self—and one can begin to experience themselves instead as Touchable, Lovable,
Pure, Clean, and Whole. Touch the surface...touch the depths.
