“If it is hard to feel, it is hard to heal.” Steve Haines is a creative story teller who explores the science of a complex human experience: why touch is essential for human health. 

In his new graphic novel, Touch is Really Strange, Haines elaborates on the importance of connecting to the body and physical sensations when it comes to healing from trauma. 

“I now use touch as a tool primarily to convey feelings of safety, to support emotional expression and to improve a sense of embodied connection, through slow, gentle, ‘relational’ touch. There are two types of touch; quick touch and slow touch. Slow touch can be levered to connect to feeling states that are often hidden, rarely simple and often scary, which is incredibly useful in resolving pain, anxiety and trauma. It can help us move from fear, contraction and isolation to play, expansion and community.”

He examines the fundamental nature of touch for conveying emotion, and is an advocate for other embodiment tools to help in developing a capacity to feel, which is incredibly useful in resolving pain, anxiety and trauma. 

Image Credits:
Larm Rmah, On Unsplash, Creative Commons