After ten years living alone, I decided to go back to my parents’ house. But this decision seemed as a setback and was disturbing me.

 

When I got to the office of psychologist and body therapist Janos Andreas Geocze in São Paulo (SP), he told me I needed to have my spine aligned before we started with Calatonia. “You are projected forward as if you were carrying the world on your shoulders.” Indeed I was.

 

The Calatonia consists of a sequence of soft touches to the extremities of the body, feet or hands, preferably feet. Lying on a massage table, my only task was to keep my eyes closed and arms parallel to the body.

 

Meanwhile, Geocze began to subtly touch my toes. “The touch has to be very light, as if I were holding a soap bubble,” he explained. Still, my feeling was that my toes were being pulled, and a strong dizziness prevented me to keep my eyes closed continuously.

 

The sickness decreased when the touch moved from the toes to the soles of my feet, heels and ankles, and that made me a little more relaxed. A session of Calatonia is supposed to last 27 minutes, but anxious people (like me!) in their first session only receive nine minutes of treatment.

 

Still, it seemed to have lasted an eternity. I went for a second session (18 minutes) the following week. This time, I felt the left side of the body tingle. I could relax more and uncontrollable sleep overcame me at the end of the two sessions. My problems started to occupy less space in my mind and, on both occasions, even though I am an insomniac, I slept like a log.

 

The psychologist said that the reactions during and post-session are quite personal. “The tactile stimuli are delivered in a simple and gentle way. The intention is to let the patient gain self-awareness; that is why there are no distractions with external stimuli such as music,” he said.

 

These insights (from self-awareness) are used alongside psychotherapy, and they also help to decrease stress, anxiety, insomnia, and to ease the joints, as well.

 

I noticed that I began to reflect on how my emotions were numb. Although it sounds cliché, the Calatonia helped me to lighten up and to face the world, which is not always ‘pink’, but may have a special color within us.

From original Portuguese publication:

http://vidasimples.uol.com.br/noticias/compartilhe/conforto-em-toques-sutis.phtml#.VZ3SMvk2vIX