02/08/2026
The Power of Touch: For Givers & Receivers
Touch has powerful, measurable, healing effects on the body, mind, and sense of connection, while deliberate withholding of touch and broader sensory contact can contribute to profound psychological suffering.
Clinicians describe “skin hunger” or “touch starvation” as a state that arises when a person does not receive enough physical contact from others. Symptoms commonly reported include:
* increased depression
* anxiety
* stress
* sleep difficulties
* reduced satisfaction in relationships
It is well-documented, lack of touch can lead to long‑term consequences including anxiety, depression, intrusive memories, social withdrawal, dissociation, and suicidality.
“No touch” can even be seen as analogous to torture leaving “searing psychological scars,” targeting the person’s sense of self, meaning, and connection.
Touch/Sensory Deprivation has shown universal psychological disturbances in as little as 7 days.
Deprivation of tactile stimulation rapidly produces:
* anxiety
* dejection
* loss of initiative
* immobility
- profound identity disruption
- cognitive impairment
- hallucinations
- marked suggestibility
- depression
- apathy
- disorganized thinking
Prolonged lack of social and sensory contact leads to:
* loss of meaning
* despair
* depersonalization
* loss of contact with reality
Taken together, nurturing touch supports a sense of:
* safety
* connection
* embodied presence
While systematic withholding of touch can:
* erode meaning
* erode identity
* and erode hope, in ways survivors often describe as spiritual annihilation.
Humans “need physical touch just as much as they need food and water.”
In an Ohio State University experiment, infant rhesus monkeys separated from their mothers clung to a soft cloth “mother” that offered NO food rather than a wire mother that provided food but no comfort contact. The deprived monkeys developed severe social and emotional disturbances, illustrating how absence of comforting touch damages attachment, and security.
“Tactile hunger” in adults is seen as more powerful as other senses as sexual opportunities diminish, and argue that lack of touch is analogous to malnutrition.
Nurturing touch is literally coded by the nervous system as rewarding and soothing.
Touch supports bonding, trust, and emotional regulation.
Structured touch may reduce chronic pain and improve quality of life.
Bodyworkers and caregivers sit at the front line of this healing: you offer regulated, intentional touch that supports your clients’ nervous systems, emotions, and often their sense of spirit.
Session after session, you absorb stories, pain, grief, and trauma while offering grounded presence and touch that helps others release and reconnect.
When you continually give touch and care but rarely receive it, your own system can move into depletion:
* fatigue
* emotional numbness
* compassion burnout
* and even physical pain
Your body and spirit also need nourishing, non‑transactional touch—sessions for yourself, hugs, supportive relationships—so you are not only a conduit but also a recipient of care.
