Healing power of touch

11:44am Wednesday 20th June 2001

News of a secret'' hands-on practice which helps people transform their lives sounds exciting even though the name The Metamorphic Technique conjures up images of butterflies, or more darkly, Frank Kafka's famous beetle.

But there is no need to fret. The practice is unthreatening and merely claims to help people to move out of stuck patterns of behaviour so they can reach their full potential.

And its “secrecy” will soon be a thing of the past as more people learn how to do the light-fingered stroking of the feet, hands and head.

“It's very simple to learn even children can be taught,” says practitioner Geraldine Healey, as she gently pinches my left toe.

If you're firmly in the Fergie camp, you'll obviously welcome this experience but even if you are someone who hates having your feet touched, you may be surprised how you react.

“The technique is often used on cancer patients, particularly those whose bodies are racked with poisons and very sensitive to the touch. Autistic children who often can't bear physical contact have benefited too,” she says.

The technique was founded by Robert St John, a British naturopath and reflexologist in the 60s and developed by his Canadian colleague Gaston Saint-Pierre the following decade.

It is based on the traditions of Eastern medicine and new discoveries of science which acknowledge that energy or “life force” underlies all forms of life and this energy can get “stuck” in particular patterns.

The Metamorphic Technique sees all mental, emotional, physical and behavioural patterns as symptoms or expressions of energy patterns.