Tickle Therapy? Myth or Reality...

[Ace Riley]

I found some interesting newsletters on the topic doing a simple search. I've barely begun and have come up with some interesting leads. Seems to me there are some twisted people out there, with some I beleive just using tickling as a personal kink in their work...while there ARe some doctors out there who are looking for a link between clinical depression and tickling as a solution.

While I have not yet found a true article stating this as completely so. I have found these two pages on the subject of tickling and medical occurances related to it. By far, not what I thought they'd be at all. But may lead to other topics. I am actually quite shocked at what I've read. You should do a search yourself and see what I mean.

<a href=http://www.healingandlaw.com/Massage_Humor/MH_Vol._1/MH_Vol._1__No._3/mh_vol._1__no._3.html>http://www.healingandlaw.com/Massage_Humor/MH_Vol._1/MH_Vol._1__No._3/mh_vol._1__no._3.html</a>

This leads to a doctor who talks about laughter/humor being used as a technique to help depression, however, counters strictly at the end, that he beleives tickling to be a destructive act.

<a href=http://pub70.ezboard.com/folderchildadoptionfrm10.showMessage?topicID=28.topic>http://pub70.ezboard.com/folderchildadoptionfrm10.showMessage?topicID=28.topic</a>

This is a terrible story of a young girl who has trouble speaking. In fact, she refuses to do so. Her adoptive mother, admitted this child to a doctor, who specializes in so called "Speach Therapy", which subjects this girl, to actual tickle torture sessions. Some scary stuff this woman speaks of...

Could this stuff be real?

The internet may be a scary place for information, but I fear the real world even more.

---Ace

 

[Haltickling]

I'm not sure about the truth in the articles you mentioned, but they sound real enough.

Actually, I know that tickling is used by sex and partnership therapists, and some of them even recommend some form of bondage. Russ Rueger mentioned it in his book "The Joy of Touch" (he dedicated a full chapter to this topic), and I've seen several interviews with renowned therapists on German TV who use it, too, if the partners accept this form of therapy.

Additionally, I lived at the house of an American couple for several weeks, both sex therapists, and during several discussions they revealed that tickling is used for healing female anorgasmy in certain cases. Very often, the orgasm problems origin in the incapability of some women to "let go". They are either too full of puritanic inhibitions about sex, or they are simply too stressed to "cross the threshold".

They also recommended bondage with tickling, both for the safety of the lee and ler. But they also stated that they never tickle their patients themselves, the patient's partner must do it. They only tutor them in the beginning of a session, then they leave the room, only monitoring the sound for arising problems. Judging from the sounds coming from their bedroom sometimes, they used the same therapy on each other as well... 😉

 

[WorkInProgress]

Well, the easy part first. The speech therapist sounds like a quack to me. I could go farther and speculate as to what's really going on in the speech therapist's head, but I won't. I will say, though, that if there is any merit to tickle-therapy, it still needs to be reserved for consenting adults. For children, I think it would be just gratuitous trauma, and harmful.

(This should not be construed as applying to the kind of brief, casual tickling that occurs in normal family relations.)

For consenting adults, tickle-therapy for problems like depression sounds interesting; I don't think much has been done to prove anything about it, and I'd say it could be worth exploring.

 

[reflexology414]

don't have articles

I don't have articles to go with this. However, I can say I've seen articles about some very controlled tickling exercises being used as therapy for anxiety. I used it in reverse once... I was going through acute post-traumatic stress, and I used tickling (me tickling a young woman who was willing) to keep my mind off of things (and it worked well). Just my two cents on all of this.

 

[Maria_Rose]

God, that article from the "Speech therapy" board literally makes me sick. People who allow that shouldn't even be allowed to keep their children, and the "therapist" who performed this ought to be up on charges. Sick, sick, sick. As if that poor child hasn't gone through enough to make her unable to speak in the first place. Unbelievable, but I believe it, in this messed up world.
😡

 

[WorkInProgress]

Maybe I'm too soft, but I think of the mother as a victim rather than an offender. It's an easy trap to fall into, of thinking that people with degrees and professional titles must know what they're doing and be responsible. The mother sounds well-meaning but undiscerning in these matters, relying too much on what other people think. Since the posts are dated from last fall, I can hopefully conjecture that she's removed her daughter from that speech therapist by now. She certainly had enough people advising her to.

(And you and I do have the same opinion of the speech therapist.)

 

[P50]

What a strangely wonderful thing we are seeing here.

The improper use of tickling brings a unanimously negative response.

 

[milagros317]

What a strangely wonderful thing we are seeing here.

The improper use of tickling brings a unanimously negative response.

Those who love something hate to see it misused. So we who love tickling react in this way.

 

[tactillianlover]

I think it is obvious that just as massage can relax and reduce stress in certain individuals so can tickling. I personally find being tickled most satisfying when I am at my most uptight. I refer to it as an attitude adjustment. I also have known a few women who find it very relaxing and claim to be in a better state of mind even days after the tickling took place. Others I'm sure' enjoy being tickled but do not experience this stress reduction.

Recently, I told a friend that in the movie 'Down and out in Beverly Hills' Bette Midler's uptight character seeks peace of mind. She tries yoga, meditation, etc. But the actual cure comes when Nick Nolte's character stretches and pulls on her limbs causing her to release all the pent-up frustration by having a good cry, triggered by being touched in a caring manner by another.

The powers that be did not create this 'Art of Touch' in vain.

 

[Oddjob0226]

I've heard of people who go to doctors - and get stuck with needles! There are doctors who will DRILL HOLES IN YOUR TEETH! Some even give enemas or fondle your genitals. What is with these people? What kind of "therapy" is this crazy, barabaric treatment? They should just stick to the good old chanting an bloodletting that has worked so well in balancing the four bodily humors all these years.....

 

[DungeonMaster]

Yes...I like to think I dispense "therapy" to those I bind and tickle and to those that enjoy the viewing of it afterward.
Everyone benefits!
I should be getting a doctors wage.

DungeonMaster.

www.DungeonMaidens.com

 

[The Pianist]

Once while surfing, I did actually find a site dedicated to the joy of tickling, excluding anything sexual. And though he didn't actually have a lot of interesting information... he did suggest tickling as a treatment of depression, mostly on the feet and stomach... though mind you, it didn't include bondage but instead concentrated on letting go and just laughing. Then end effect was having the natural endorphins released into the body and being a completely consentual exercise, especially since it was with clothes on and you left your arms above your head yourself... they weren't bound in any way.

 

[jordan]

This is sick alright. I used to help a girl babysit her brothers and sisters, and once I held her younger brother down with his hands above his head and tickled his armpits for one minute and he started to cry. How can anyone think that this won't happen for a little girl? What kind of hell do you think that little baby is going through? And what's sad, I bet the original poster probably tickled her daughter like that before asking questions.

 

[MTJpub]

Here are a few internet finds...

Aprox Paragraph 17

excessive tickling has been used effectively as punishment in behavioral modification programs

Under "Aversive Event"

Examples: Stimuli that may decrease behavior include: electric shock, noxious tastes (e.g., tabasco sauce), noxious odors (e.g., ammonia), slapping, shaking, physical restraint, and aversive tickling.

Under "Abusive Treatments"

"They would drug this kid with Haldol, a so-called anti-psychotic drug, until he was in a stupor, and then tie him in four-point restraints. They would tie his hands and feet to the bed, and then tickle him until he was hysterical.