The power of touch and connection with others
the past 18 months, the pandemic has taught us many valuable lessons. One of these is the undeniable power of touch, the importance of connection with others, and how we innately crave this connection irrespective of who we are, whether introverts or extraverts. This can never be forgotten.
Many of us have desperately missed those hugs from our friends and cuddles with family and other loved ones. But our craving for connection isn’t only limited to those we love. When we think of ways to relax, either for ourselves or even when we want to gift someone a relaxing experience, what do we think of? 9 times out of 10, we think of a massage or body treatment at a day spa. There’s a reason for this. It is the power of touch, that person-to-person connection, the warmth that exudes from someone’s fingertips, the sensory experience when the products and environment smell amazing, and the feeling of stress melting away as our tension does.This may be why, each and every time we experience a lockdown period, when it is lifted day spas and skin clinics are overwhelmed with clients desperate to get in for their long-awaited appointments. Sure, a portion of this can be attributed to resolving concerns with skin health (mostly breakouts due to irregularly high levels of stress!) but the other half of the picture may be because of this connection and touch most of us value so dearly.
“To me a great treatment is how I make somebody feel,” says April Brodie. “I am conscious of this emotion from the moment I lay my hands on them. Unfortunately today, this is a forgotten skill, and many therapists are forgetting or underestimating the power of touch and how each intricate detail can enhance the experience for a client. There is not a machine on earth that can replicate this feeling – it’s inherently human.”
The perfect touch with facial and body treatments
When it comes to the beauty industry, it’s this understanding that can set two facial or body treatments worlds apart, even if they were to use identical products and the exact same protocol. Each tiny variation in a therapist’s pressure, angle, and speed can affect how their movement and touch is felt by the receiver, and mastering this involves expertly detecting the condition of the skin and muscles under one’s fingertips and manipulating in just the right way. For professional therapists, this is what we call having ‘good hands’. This, otherwise thought of as ‘the perfect touch’, is an exceptionally tailored experience, never the same from client to client, and usually only comes with a combination of natural ability and years of experience.
As an industry-leading specialist in facial massage technique, sculpting tools and the famous intra-oral facial or buccal facial (massaging inside the mouth) this advanced level of touch is one of April’s most precious gifts. The body is exceptionally interwoven, most of our physiological systems are intertwined, and when it comes to muscles, relieving pain from one can have equally positive effects on neighbouring muscles, often even the body as a whole.
For example, when we experience jaw pain, we sometimes feel an ache in our eardrums. When we have shoulder pain, we experience headaches. When we are stressed, we stiffen several muscles around the neck and shoulders, which can travel down our arms, our backs, our chests and beyond. Pain often has a knock-on effect, and relief providing relief to one area can in many cases ease pain beyond this region as well. “After nearly every facial, particularly the Buccal Fusion, I find that my guest will say ‘wow that was a total body treatment’ and I have only touched their face,” says April.
This is the power of touch at its finest. May it bring joy, comfort, and relief to you and those around you.