Keeping in touch with mental health: The orienting reflex and behavioral outcomes from Calatonia
Tipo
Artigo
Data de publicação
2020
Periódico
Brain Sciences
Citações (Scopus)
1
Autores
Blanchard A.R.
Comfort W.E.
Comfort W.E.
Orientador
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Membros da banca
Programa
Resumo
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Physical and psychological therapy based on touch has been gradually integrated into broader mental health settings in the past two decades, evolving from a variety of psychodynamic, neurobiological and trauma-based approaches, as well as Eastern and spiritual philosophies and other integrative and converging systems. Nevertheless, with the exception of a limited number of well-known massage therapy techniques, only a few structured protocols of touch therapy have been standardized and researched to date. This article describes a well-defined protocol of touch therapy in the context of psychotherapy-the Calatonia technique-which engages the orienting reflex. The orienting reflex hypothesis is explored here as one of the elements of this technique that helps to decrease states of hypervigilance and chronic startle reactivity (startle and defensive reflexes) and restore positive motivational and appetitive states.