Reiki and TTouch with Doris: Session 3

Today I went again to do Reiki and some Tellington TTouch with Mari's kitty Doris, who has diabetes and was recently diagnosed with lymphosarcoma. She recently had a rough night with diarrhea but is hanging in there. Though she is very delicate, she is a tough little gal!

When I entered the apartment, she was settled on the window sill (yes, a screen is on the window!), which was very pleasant, with the warm sunshine and a cool breeze coming in. She looked content. I felt I shouldn't push doing hands-on Reiki with her, as that seemed to be too intense for her in the past two sessions, so I started out a short distance away.

It is particularly important with senior cats and cats in delicate condition to be sensitive to really be in the moment and be sensitive to what they are receptive to. Often hands-on Reiki is too intense for them, so it's good to start from a distance.

After a bit, she got up to eat, drink and go to the litter box, so I just sat on the floor, continuing to send her energy, and when she settled back in the window I sat next to the window again, sending her Reiki from a couple of feet away. I could feel strong waves of energy going to her, and particularly felt the energy pulled to her abdomen area. As she has had trouble with diarrhea lately, this makes a lot of sense. Around the abdomen area is the solar plexus chakra, which has to do with digestion, among other things. She started to settle in the window, laying down, looking at me, maybe wondering what this strange energy was all about?

After a long while there, she went to eat again, then got back in the window. I did some TTouches around her head area, where she is very receptive to the TTouches. Mari has been doing TTouches with her in between our sessions, which is great, and she said Doris is very receptive to them, particularly around the head area, but that the mouth area is a little more touchy, as she has to give one of her supplements directly in her mouth. I showed Mari how to do the TTouches on the outside of the mouth doing the circles with the back of a finger or even a fingernail, so that the touch is less intense. Back surfaces of the fingers or hand are less intense. For example, Mari said Doris is receptive to the Llama TTouches on her back (circular TTouches with the back of the fingers). I showed Mari also the Chimp and Baby Chimp TTouches, which use the back of the fingers as well.

I also found that Doris was receptive to hair slides around her head area, as these are very gentle touches. Mari said that Doris usually eats after she does the TTouches with her, which is great, especially as she has been rather picky about eating. Please feel free to browse my youtube channel, http://youtube.com/sarahsuricat for demos of a lot of these TTouches.

As we wound our session up, I thanked Doris and said goodbye to her. Doris was looking right at me - Mari said she seemed to be wondering why I was going, that she wanted some more!

I'm looking at Doris' picture as I write this - she is such a lovely, gentle soul. Sending Reiki, light and positive thoughts to you Doris. xo

TTouch Workshop with the Homeless Cat Network

Above, left to right: Cookie, Marilynn (top center), Sue (bottom center), me

About a year ago, on a trip to the SF Bay Area, thanks to a conversation I had with Holly at the TTouch office, I connected with Cookie of the Homeless Cat Network. I went with my mother and sister out there to visit the shelter, which is so well laid-out and so well taken care of by the dedicated people who volunteer their time there, taking care of the cats in a variety of ways, as well as helping to socialize them. A number of the volunteers had learned some TTouch, and some of them practice Reiki, which is so helpful in making the cats more at ease, and more adoptable, as well.

The next time I was out there, I gave Cookie a private TTouch lesson, showing her some of the newer TTouches that she had never learned. Some time after that, Cookie and I spoke about me doing a mini-Ttouch workshop there, which would serve as a refresher course for some, and an introduction for others. I had the pleasure of doing this workshop this month, on a lovely spring day which, festively enough, was also the day of the SF Bay to Breakers race, so I also had the fun of seeing people in various costumes as I traveled to and from the workshop.

Marilynn, a long-time volunteer at the shelter, was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at the BART station - thanks Marilynn!

I arrived at the shelter with my bag of tools, as well as some photos, before and after, of some of the shelter cats who I have worked with. The cats are housed in large condos (see below), and have the opportunity (unless they have a health issue or other factor which requires isolation), in rotating shifts, to roam in the middle section of the shelter as well. It is wonderful for the cats to have this amount of space.

I was greeted with so much warmth and hospitality by Cookie, Marilynn and the rest of the group. The group was comprised of volunteers at the shelter, plus a vet who works with the shelter, who had already taken a workshop in TTouch and has been practicing TTouch on many of her patients. It was wonderful to hear of a vet using this work in her practice.

Below: Marshmellow, who has really benefited from TTouch at the shelter

Part of the time I demonstrated on a couple of the willing cats there – Jade (below) and Hansel – and some of the time I demonstrated on a stuffed animal, which can be easier to use once I got more in-depth about how to do each TTouch.

Jade is a super-friendly black and white cat there, who seemed to particularly settle with some of the TTouches around the mouth and forehead, while Hansel responded more to the TTouches on the body. I emphasized how fluid we need to be in our thinking when we work on these animals, as each one is so individual as to what it will respond to.

Below: Me with Jade doing Abalone TTouch, a circular, calming touch using the whole surface of the hand

Two very calming TTouches for a shy animal are the abalone TTouch (above) and the llama TTouch (below). Abalone TTouch is a circular TTouch using the whole surface of the front of the hand, and llama TTouch uses the backs of the fingers. Back surfaces of the hand are less threatening than front surfaces, and the abalone TTouch is soothing as it uses a larger surface, which disperses the intensity of the touch.

Raccoon TTouches (below) are also extremely useful, especially for smaller areas of the animal, such as the forehead, the paws, the mouth, etc.

The class was very focused and engaged, and everyone had such interesting questions which helped ME to think of some new uses for the TTouches, etc. Below you see Marilynn (with the blue T-shirt) asking a question about the belly lift. She wanted to know if this would be helpful in getting a cat more comfortable being touched on the belly in a gentle way so when you go to pick the cat up, it won't be such a new or scary sensation. Great observation!

I went around to each person to see how they were doing the basic clouded leopard TTouch, to make sure the pressure wasn't too hard, that the skin was being pushed around in a circle (instead of the fingers sliding over the skin), etc.

After a break and some tasty treats (thanks to all who brought them!) we continued our discussion about TTouches, as well as some of the tools which are especially useful for shelter cats, to get them accustomed to being touched in a non-threatening way. For cats, we use tools with a variety of textures and lengths, such as dowels with an ace bandage at the end, paintbrushes, back scratchers, hair brushes, toothbrushes, makeup brushes, barbeque brushes, feathers, etc. Cats are very particular and very different from each other in their preferences of textures that they prefer, as well as where and how it is best to first make contact, so it can take some experimentation to find out what works best.

Below is a photo of Lois with her stuffed kitty, and on the table to the left you see a few of the many tools I brought for people to see and try out.

After this, we tried out some of the TTouches on the cats.

Below is Gretel, who I hear has come a long way, but she is still a shy girl with new people. I am sure that with more of the volunteers now able to do TTouch with her, it will help her continue to come out of her shell.

Here I am with Spot, a very sweet cat, who enjoyed some ear strokes, which can help a cat get very comfortable as there are many acupressure points in the ear.

Below is Stella doing TTouch with Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes came to the shelter recently, and I have heard since the workshop that TTouch has really been helping her to feel at ease.

I think everyone was pretty worn out by the end of the day, as you see by the pic of Johnny and Mr. Meow napping below :)

It was such a wonderful, enthusiastic group. We got some very lively discussions going, and everyone did a great job!

I went out to dinner after the workshop with the four women in the picture below (Cookie, Marilynn, Sue and Lynn), thanks for treating me! and we continued our discussion about TTouch, cats, and other related topics.

Thanks so much to all of you for making this a fantastic experience. And especially thanks to Cookie, who made this happen, and made it happen in such a first-class and friendly way. I look forward to working with Homeless Cat Network again soon!

TTouch and Reiki at BARC Shelter: Heidi

Heidi is a very dear, petite little kitty at BARC Shelter in Brooklyn. When I first began to work with her, she was pretty much frozen, curled up in her litter box. Since she gave a little hiss initially, I first did TTouch on her using a paintbrush, then transitioned to using my hand. I also did some gentle Reiki with her.

As with many cats, she was more comfortable being touched on the head than on the body at first, so that is where I focused first.

In the picture above, I am doing little raccoon TTouches on the back of her neck area. This can be a great area to work, as it gets very tight on a nervous cat, and I think cats in cages in general can get a lot of tension back there. As always, I was using a very light pressure. Cats are so sensitive that in general I am using extremely light pressure, just enough to move the skin around in a circle and a quarter. You can get a sense of how light this can be by taking a finger and moving the skin on your hand around in a circle and a quarter.- not pushing down into the skin, just touching it and moving it around in a circular motion.

Around the mouth area and under the chin is often a great area to work with a cat as well. In the photo above, I am doing circular TTouches using the back of my finger. This is not an official TTouch, but it is one that I use often on frightened cats. I am gently moving the skin outside the mouth in a circle and a quarter, then sliding my finger a little ways towards the jaw, doing another circular touch there, etc. Back surfaces of the finger or hand are less intense than front surfaces, so this worked quite well with Heidi. She started to be responsive by rubbing her face against my finger and hand.

This is another hand position I used in order to do some circular TTouches around the outside of the mouth and jaw area. As one is a bit limited in space when working on an animal in a cage, I have to adjust myself to that situation.

Above is a photo of Heidi looking more relaxed - she was leaning her head into my touch by this point. The above photos were taken during two different sessions two days apart. During the second session, I also worked in some very lightly-done zigzag touches and other touches on the body, just a little at a time, then going back to touching the head, as that was where her comfort zone was.

Above is Heidi a couple of days after those first sessions. Here, she is comfortable enough to lay completely on her side. At one point she stretched all the way out, showing me her stomach. Her eyes are more open and relaxed here. Again, I started with TTouches on her head area and then worked in some TTouches on the body as I went along. She still sometimes gets startled or confused, sometimes making a sound that sounds like a combination growl and purr, simultaneously leaning into the touch, so I do still give her frequent breaks so as not to overwhelm her. She is still tending to stay at the back of the cage, but is definitely much more comfortable, and is more at ease having other volunteers touch her as well, which is terrific.

Thank you Heidi, look forward to seeing you soon -- and thanks to all the lovely staff and volunteers who help Heiki and the other animals to feel better every day :)

Iggy and the Baby Chimp Touch

Iggy is another one of my sister Katie's gorgeous kitties, and here he is above as I demonstrate the baby chimp touch. This is a circular TTouch which is done using the very top part of the finger. It is a very nice touch to use on cats and small animals as you can touch a very small area, such as the head or around the mouth, and as it uses a back surface of the hand, it is a less threatening type of touch than some others which use the front surface on the hand. Thank you Iggy!