TTouch to Reduce Swelling

By Barbara Janelle M.A.

Tellington TTouch is an effective tool for reducing swelling due to a wide range of causes. I have used it many times over the years for swellings do to injuries and arthritis as well as for effectively reducing swelling at injection sites and supporting both human and animal bodies’ ability to absorb medication.

My First Experience. In the first workshop I took with Linda Tellington-Jones in 1984, I twisted my ankle severely. This is something that I have done many times during my life so I know the difference between a mild twist and one that would cause me great difficulty; this was a nasty twist. I went to work on the ankle immediately using Cloud Leopard TTouch and watched the swelling go away and the hint of bruising disappear. I was amazed, and not content with just visual information, I had to test it to see how the ankle felt. I walked and it was fine; then I hopped up and down on it and it was still fine! There was no residual soreness or stiffness during the next twenty-four hours either. That was neat!

Work-related Swellings, Injuries, Arthritis. Since then I have used TTouch to take swelling down in many different situations:

- Seven minutes of Cloud Leopard work around a horse’s saddle sore during a major endurance competition eliminated the sore; the saddle was repadded and the horse completed the ride.

- Raccoon and Cloud Leopard are very effective in reducing swelling in the neck’s of horses who are ridden in tight frames. The “muscling” totally changes shape and feel with five minutes work, going from a dull, bunchy, water-logged area to sleek, flexible tissue. (The job is then to show the rider how to ask the horse to stretch into ramenér rather than to jam the horse into a frame with set hands.)

- At Camp Gone to the Dogs in Vermont where I have been on the staff of over 15 years, owners will bring dogs to me which have both chronic and short-term lameness problems. I show owners how to see the shape differences in legs, shoulders and hips and to test for swelling with gentle palpation .Swelling has a water-logged feeling and is sluggish to spring back after a little pressure is applied. Then with 1 to 5 minutes of Raccoon or Clouded Leopard, the owner can take the swelling down and often see the difference in the animal’s movement.

- TTouch is very helpful for arthritis. Over tea one evening, my neighbour complained of chronic arthritic pain in his finger. Less than three minutes of Raccoon TTouch on the joint took the pain and swelling away; and what is even more interesting is that it never returned to that finger.

- A client and her 82-year old mother stopped in to see me one morning. The mother’s fingers were so swollen from arthritis that she could not bend them, nor undo the buttons on her jacket herself. I asked if I could work on her hands, and while I did she fell asleep in the chair. When she woke fifteen minutes later, her hands were flexible, and when they left an hour later, the mother was able to button her jacket up herself.

- I remember watching Linda Tellington-Jones work on an elderly dog with arthritis in Ottawa Canada some years ago. Not only did the dog move better immediately after the treatment, but the owner told me a year later that that single treatment had kept the dog flexible for several months. At Camp Gone to the Dogs, I will often demonstrate how a few minutes of Cloud Leopard or Raccoon work will make a substantial improvement in an older animal’s movement.

- If there is redness and swelling around a cut and it is not healing quickly, even a single two minute session of Raccoon TTouch around the cut (we do not work directly on the broken skin) will usually reduce the swelling and redness and speed up healing.

Swellings at Injection Sites. TTouch is very helpful to prevent swelling at injection sites and support the body’s absorption of injected medication.

- Many years ago I had to give my horse Sam a week-long course of injections. Some were given in the neck but most were into the muscle on the top of his hips. Toward the end of the week, I looked at him in the morning light and discovered to my horror and embarrassment that there was a 2-3 inch swelling at every site on his rump where I had given him an injection. I called the vet and he promised to check in on Sam after lunch. I went back to Sam and decided to do some TTouch work around and on each lump. I worked for several minutes and then had to go pick my son up from school. The vet called me from the barn after lunch to say he could find no swelling on Sam’s rump. I explained that the TTouch work probably took the swellings down and apologized for not having done this before I called him out.

- Recently, I have worked with a friend in the terminal stages of cancer. Pain-reducing medication was given to her sub-cutaneously with syringes taped to the skin. However at each site, a knotty swelling developed so that the injections were switched from leg to leg until no more useable area was left. When that happened she would have to go onto a permanent hook-up which would be less comfortable and more confining. I saw her every couple of days and also taught her how to use Raccoon TTouch on and around the swellings to reduce them. She was able to use the taped on syringes for a much longer period than expected.

- This past week, my 19 ½ year old cat Houdini developed a gastro-intestinal problem and I had to hydrate him twice a day. After the first time of putting 150 ml of saline solution under his skin and seeing how it settled into his chest and legs in his loose pyjama-like skin, I started to use Lying Leopard TTouch all over his body immediately after the hydration to increase the speed of absorption. It eliminated the pooling in his lower tissue.

My experience with using TTouch in a wide range of situations convinces me that it is quickly effective in reducing swelling and helping the body to function better. The gentle use of TTouch does no damage, and it is something that anyone can learn and easily use on themselves and their animals.

BJ/Jan. 2006