Keeping in Touch with Mental Health: The Orienting Reflex and Behavioral Outcomes from Calatonia

Anita Ribeiro Blanchard, William Edgar Comfort
2020 Brain Sciences  
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
more » ... d 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.
doi:10.3390/brainsci10030182 pmid:32235727 pmcid:PMC7139622 fatcat:nzp5ckbicndnxkr5qpqlqbmtfa