Meaning of ticklish feet?

Paul, I'll take on the point about sciatica as I have a lot of experience in treating that. It needs to be treated as it is an irritation and sciatic-like troubles may be symptomatic of other MSK issues that may need to be addressed. Also pain is both physiologically and psychologically draining creating even more health issues. I wouldn't necessarily compare this to ticklish feet as a problem, which MG7 is expressing. But going back to sciatica, if it's a physical issue I find that it shifts quick, but if it has an underlining psychological reason (just say for example, to stop the client rushing around and doing too much) I think helping the client explore this situation is fine. But it's an exploration rather than a fixed formula.

Jnani, excellent you get my point and the humour behind my signature change. I'm sure you have found that just BEING with the client and getting on with the job (physical or energy work or listening or whatever) can be in itself empowering to the client.

To anyone reading this, in my own bias opinions :rolleyes: based on clinical experience, the more I do therapeutic work especially reflexology, the more I won't play the "parlour" game of the need to label and/or connect to some cosmic plan, why some points are more tender than others. What's more important is helping to facilitate homeostasis (Yin-Yang/nervous/hormonal balance etc), subtly stimulating self-healing mechanisms for the improvement of health and vitality.

Vitality being a very important as it means life and vigour. And this goes back to the potential misinterpretation of ticklish feet. It may simply be a reflection of vitality 😀

Thank you RP, you summed it beautifully!!!

Hi Jnani

That ties in with my understanding, which is why I found a new way of healing the inner divisional conflicts that arise through being unworthy into the wholeness that comes from being worthy.

Agreed, ticklish feet are not a problem to most people, but for those who have a real issue with being overtly ticklish, to dismiss it as unimportant and to tell them to accept and get on with it, does not help them, they need a solution to the problem that is creating suffering within their life experience.

The only person who can decide if something is an issue for them or not, is the person who is experiencing the ramifications of making that personal choice, it is immaterial if their problem is an aspect of our own life experience or not, if they say that they have a problem with something, then they have a problem that we should acknowledge and take seriously, if we do not believe that something is a problem, then we can't conceive a solution to it. 😉

As I have said in my last post accepting that we have chosen to be something or experience a way of being, does not change anything, there is nothing simple being born into a cast system or bondage or any judgmental system that tells you that you have to accept that you are not worthy of doing or being something, acceptance might help to keep the simplicity of keeping people in their place, but it does little for the individuals who are living their life experience in expression of this way of being!

The collective consciousness that was around following the experience of the last war requires something different to what is required now, the issues were here, but people were of the opinion that you just go on with it, make do and mend and all that, they just wanted to create normality in place of the destruction that had been in existence. 🙂

That is the whole point Jnani, we now have a choice and a solution to the problems that arise form our core beliefs, we no longer have to put up with things and make do, or try and ignore them like we had to do, we can be whole, we can be healed into wholeness, we can be re-harmonised and balanced, there is a choice and a solution in existence now. 🙂

We are talking of two different things Paul. I am talking about therapy in general, you are talking about your own method.
I am talking about of acceptance....you understanding is that is way of controlling people. Talk about missing the mark!
Awareness happens healing happens...some go digging some don't have to.

Direct jumping into whole ness happens....not necessarily by analysing and by accessing self worth or lack of it. Therapy has a place and for some issues necessary....but for every small little thing....an explanation is offered...the therapy becomes "parlour game" as RP puts it? Whole ness is fully available everywhere ubiquitously.
Whole ness is that can happen amidst all problems, all chaos, all that life throws at you...not by fighting but by holding your ground with acceptance. Ito is no control, no keeping people in their place. Bizarrly you have mentioned caste system amongst some other presumptions such as telling people to get on with their problems....if they come for help. You have lost me with some of the things you come up with.

No matter how whole you become life is a mystery, it remains that way....the more whole ness deeper the mystery and fun of it. Folly of therapy and therapist that they start putting everything in a box and label everything. Whole ness living in a box of self worthiness....it may seem the way you write about it.

Life demands acceptance. What choice did you have when you were born, where, when in family culture you were born?
You have scattered in so many directions in your reply...
You talk about Choice. Choice mean power in modern context. Choice is empowerment as far as your belief system goes....acceptance is subjugation and control.

There is freedom beyond choices too. Freedom does not depend on choices. Choices take you so far....then comes a territory choices are neither important nor necessary

One indulges in choices...then things slip deeper....

You speak like there is choice for the first time...have heard that before. People talk like that all the time, as if they just found something new. Everything is eternally available. All experiments in being have been done millions of times before us. Millions down the ages have known the tricks you just twigged. For you it might be a now thing personally that you have discovered there is a way to change. It has happened in every corner of the world, every culture that people have been finding freedom.

Freedom from mind is as ancient as the quest to be free. Everyone banging on about choices is however new. Choice is not synonymous with freedom. Choice has become a concept. True freedom just is. It is what it is. It does not know if it is free or bound. It is what it is. Relaxed, at home, not slave to this concept or that, pure simplicity.

Nelson Mandela a typical example of living his freedom even In a prison. That's acceptance. Through acceptance alone great change happens. He made a choice to relax. You would never hear him talk about choice as a concept. He lived it. It happened organically. When you are living your freedom, there is no mention of choices. It is spontaneous, unlike a cerebral process. It happens seamlessly.

Good luck and good bye on this thread my friend

Hi Reiki Pixie

So when you give someone a massage and come across a combination of muscular problems under your hands, do you not assess that against you understanding of what these symptoms have show to be before? Do you not then formulate a plan to help them overcome the problem that you are treating? If so then you are playing the therapy parlour game.

Reflexology is taught these days as a means of treating the body through the feet, but if we trace it back to its origin, then we find a medical intuitive who devised a means of diagnosing what is going on in the body through the feet with remarkable accuracy, but then that would be therapists parlour games would it not?

The majority of therapists that I have encountered are people who have chosen to help people and whilst the tools that they are taught are often not perfect, they generally do the best they can with what they have been given to help alleviate people's pain and suffering.

Hi Jnani

An inner conflict arises when two or more opposing thought patterns and/or beliefs arise at the same time, wholeness is the absence of conflict, conflict is the absence of wholeness, in my experience of healing self and others, accepting that we have a conflict does not magically heal the divisional conflict and create wholeness, it is a step in the process, not the whole process.

As for choices, yes I do perceive that we all have choices which start before we come here, but with personal choice comes personal responsibility.

One of the main obstacles that I have encountered when treating people with OCD surrounding a fear (a fear of being tickled can be as powerful and debilitating as any other fear that we can create), is to help them to embrace the fact that they do actually have a choice, as their whole reality is based upon a belief that they do not have a choice, the conflict is real for them and I would be interested in hearing how telling them to simply accept the fear is going to heal the inner conflict so that they can become whole?

Hi musicguy7

Whilst I appreciate that for the majority of people being tickled is not a big deal and can be perceived as a pleasant experience, there are people who have a real phobia surrounding being tickled, they need to be taken seriously because these problems are real to them. 🙂

Paul, You are so centered on being "right" here that you totally, completely, and blatantly missed the whole point of what I have said. I never denied that it IS a real issue for some people OR when it is that it needs to be worked with. Never said anything of the sort. I said, when a person is ticklish, work with it, possibly use it...notice I said "possibly" because it won't work with everyone, instead of automatically making it a bad thing. Thats all I said. There is a therapy out there that uses it. I've had it done. Its wonderful and its not for everyone. But it is for more than those who as therapists will never try it because they were taught ticklishness is negative. Your seem to be wanting to take every aspect and every angle and put it in a tiny, pre-prescribed box with no variables. Sorry, I don't go for that when it comes to everyone is different. I was trying to encourage other therapists to open their tiny little box and explore outside the box and those who are ticklish to try and embrace it and use it to their advantage because its a natural thing. Not enforce such ideas, not demand them, not putting it out there in a perfect little box and say, "This is it! This is for you! Try it! Do it!. Just putting thoughts out there to encourage. 😎

Hi musicguy7

Paul, You are so centered on being "right" here that you totally, completely, and blatantly missed the whole point of what I have said. I never denied that it IS a real issue for some people OR when it is that it needs to be worked with. Never said anything of the sort. I said, when a person is ticklish, work with it, possibly use it...notice I said "possibly" because it won't work with everyone, instead of automatically making it a bad thing. Thats all I said.

Personally I have never been taught that being ticklish or tickling is a bad thing and I have not said that it is on this or any other thread as far as I am aware. However you did say:

There is no meaning behind ticklish feet. It just is. Some are and some are not.

For the majority of people that statement is true and I include myself in that, but I am also aware from the type of work that I do that this does not apply to everyone.

Rather than trying to place everyone in the same box as you are implying, I am perhaps not very well attempting to say that the box of 'no meaning' does not fit everyone and we need to be aware that some people do have an underlying cause behind their aversion to being tickled.

That said, then if you would like to start a thread about tickling therapy as opposed to if there is a meaning behind people having ticklish feet, then I would enjoy reading what you have to say about it from your experiences. 🙂

Paul, I actually have considered that...starting a new thread. But again, you changed what we were talking about. There is a difference between the meaning of ticklish feet and a person's aversion to it. Two totally different things there.

Hi Musicguy7

Threads like most things have a tendency to evolve and diversify. I came into the thread in response to Jnani, from that perspective having an aversion to being tickled that surrounds something in the past that has set up the aversion, would be the meaning behind the ticklish feet, clear the underlying meaning and the heightened fear that the sensation of being tickled bring forth and the tickling issue will become manageable or disappear.

Some people have ticklish feet; some don't. Some people like; some don't, all to various degrees. Some people like broccoli; some don't. There is not a reason or mystery or cure for everything. "Let's find out why you don't like broccoli and fix it." 🙂 It is obvious that people who have been severely tickled as children hate being tickled because of their past. On the same hand, there are people who have been severely tickled as a child who hated it then and for some reason has turned to loving it later, because of that experience...you can't put it into your little tidy box. Its not that hard and it doesn't need to be made that difficult like it seems you are tending it to be. If you look at the vast majority of therapists AND the vast majority or massage information, papers, teachings, ticklishness is a negative and I say again demonized factor that has some hidden meaning. Sorry, I don't buy it.

That is fine musicguy7, if you do not believe that some people who have been traumatised through the medium of tickle have not got an underlying problem (much the same as any trauma has the potential to be internalised as a problem), then you are free to believe what you choose to believe, obviously these people would not normally go to physical therapist who cannot address and help them to overcome their underlying problem, especially when what they perceive as a problem is not perceived to be a problem by the therapist.

Also if you do not believe that people who have experienced nerve damage which can create an overbearing exaggeration of diverse physiological sensations anywhere in the body do not have a problem, then again that is your choice, personally I prefer to be open minded in my dealing with the people who choose to come to me, perhaps it is because I am open to treat this sort of things and take them seriously, that has given me the opportunity to do so.

well what a deep thread from such a simple question! I see no reason why holistic therapists should be able to categorise their clients exact.y any more than doctors can. Thats one reason why diagnosis is a skill learned over many years of practice. People are different. No medical book can cover every eventuality.... so I I am nut surprised a holistic book cannot either.

Hi Reiki Pixie

So when you give someone a massage and come across a combination of muscular problems under your hands, do you not assess that against you understanding of what these symptoms have show to be before? Do you not then formulate a plan to help them overcome the problem that you are treating? If so then you are playing the therapy parlour game.

Reflexology is taught these days as a means of treating the body through the feet, but if we trace it back to its origin, then we find a medical intuitive who devised a means of diagnosing what is going on in the body through the feet with remarkable accuracy, but then that would be therapists parlour games would it not?

The majority of therapists that I have encountered are people who have chosen to help people and whilst the tools that they are taught are often not perfect, they generally do the best they can with what they have been given to help alleviate people's pain and suffering.

Hi

Unless you are playing devils advocate I think you are missing the point.

Helping someone with the example of MSK problems with proper therapeutic knowledge and experience of A&P is different from the reflexologist who feed clients abstract statements based on generalised opinions. That's what I mean by parlour games. Clients are just as bad as many perceived reflexology as some kind of instant "read out" system and are pushing the practitioner to do some kind of diagnosis. I have personally spoke to many a reflexologist about this as they have told me how uncomfortable they are with this attitude that the public have of reflexology and expressed how they feel it's unethical to play this game. Even the Association of Reflexologist say that reflexologists should not do medical diagnosis.

Also majority of reflexologists in this country are trained to a quite a basic level and thank goodness for CPD courses to fill the gaps. 9 months part-time at college is hardly going to develop a highly proficient medical intuitive!! It's not the same as many years of study and work placement in a hospital guided by experienced mentors and supervisors. As you have made a comment about the history of reflexology, many pioneers of modern reflexology (ca 100 years) had medical backgrounds, and it is this mental focus of experience and knowledge that allows for healing to occur, whether focused intent, placebo effect or not.

As for my techniques since you asked, say for treating a client with sciatic/like issues, I'm happy to answer. Basically I treat each client on an individual basis. I don't perform formulated patterns as in 'press here for 90 seconds' and 'stroke there 10 times' nor do I make statements like "You have fear in your life that comes from childhood and that is the cause of your problem!". (You can say that to most people and there would be an element of truth that makes it believable. The Barnum Effect.) I prefer to feel and do. Admittedly based on modern A&P and TCM with lots of experience, as form helps to create function. But if a technique doesn't work, I have this tendency to spontaneously invent a more useful technique via creative imagination. I'm talking about sometimes stuff I was never taught. Call it a heuristic if you like 😀 Parlour games are not necessary or needed :p

Paul, yes, nerve damage..I agree...again, you keep mixing things up from ticklishness of feet to aversion to. I have noticed in each of your posts, to me or others, that you are so set on being "right", THE guru of all things therapeutic, that you do not read, really read what people are saying. You just proved my point of everything is not in your tight little box. I have never had any issues with clients or complaints of anyone I think mainly I don't set myself up as having all the answers and in fact have told clients when you run into someone who has all the answers to run the other way! Because no one does and I freely and openly admit that. Anyone can take something simple and make it complicated. The hard thing to do is simplify it. As you can see by just about every person's response to you...you have taken what they said...including me and either generalized it or didn't really listen in the first place, or made "jumps" to what they are saying.

Please don't take this as a personal attack...I don't even know you to make it personal and I mean no offense, but this thread could have been alot shorter if you would really read what is being said. You've misquoted me --by your response to me--on more than one occasion here.

Hi Reiki Pixie

Yes I was playing the devils advocate, I know that you are intuitive and you know that reflexology is a form of intuitive healing, you will have had occasions when you knew what needed doing before you laid hands upon someone and other times you will have known that this or that needed doing and altered what you normally did to fulfill the requirements of the individual within that session. 🙂

You say that you are adaptable and you like a lot of intuitive practitioners are capable of creating something in the moment when needed, sometime this is formed from your training and sometimes it flies in the face of it, but it usually works non the less, but there will of been times when you encountered someone who has a long term condition that although the symptoms are being presented as physical and responds well on the table, they reappear by the next time you see them, the reason for this is that they have an underlying cause that is not physical and can't be addressed in a physiological way.

I am certain that if you where talking to someone about how massage and reflexology could help them with their problems and they said to you that they could not possibly conceive considering either because of something that happened to them in the past, which means that they have a real problem with the sensation of being tickled so they will not allow anyone to touch them under any circumstances, that you would not just dismiss it, you might not be able to help them with your current understanding, but if that understanding also understood the mind body connection and how to change it, then you would be in a position to offer advice and more, then those things that you currently perceive as parlor games would no longer be a game, they would become another useful tool in your expanding tool box. 🙂

Hi Musicguy7

You see you do accept that there are exceptions to the general rule, that is all I have been saying all along, a rule is only a rule until we encounter something which does not fit it, then we have to accept that it is a general rule but as there are exceptions, then it is not set in stone, it is the exception that I have been emphasising that which breaks the rule.

Hi Tashanie

That is a good point, most healers and therapists are encouraged not to diagnose, though the reality is that anyone who wishes to sort something out, needs an understanding of what they are dealing with, this requires assessment and diagnosis which as you say grows with experience.

I know when I am teaching, I try and convey the understanding that has come form my own experiences, though I cannot give them the experience itself, that is something that will come with time and practice. 🙂

Okaaaay Paul...that is not all that you have been saying, but as proven AGAIN, you read and hear only what you want to hear. That I agreed with you on that one point of the MANY you were trying to convince...THAT is what you got out of what I wrote?!?! So if this helps, you were right the whole time about everything! Thank you for sharing your infinite and all encompassing wisdom. You were right the whole time. WOW! :confused:

Thank you Reiki Pixie and all the rest for your listening and courtesy of reading and considering of what was actually written. I have been in this field of therapy long enough and in my works and in my life to know when to stop conversing with those who run over someone else's thoughts and ideas with selective listening and communication skills. I apologize and have already crossed my own line of letting frustration get the best of me and expressing it. I've just dealt with this mentality of the "I am right no matter what" too many times. Apologies...and enjoy. Paul...you win.

Hi musicguy7

If you read back through the posts, then you will see that I have agreed with much that you have said, it was the understanding that there is no meaning behind being ticklish that I chose to share my understanding on, you did not agree with the points that I was making and chose to dismiss each one, so I added different things in the hope that would be able to perceive that occasionally there could actually be a reason.

It is not about being right or wrong, it is about dealing with what is, I am always happy to share my understanding with others, but how others choose to interpret or judge what I chose to share is entirely up to them. 🙂

Paul, I agree...and it was not what you posted, but "how" you responded to others as well as myself. I have had many discussions...long discussions with people on various topics both on the internet and in lectures, etc. And I will be the very first to admit that internet is a hotbed of misinterpreting intentions and emotions. So I may be totally and completely off-base, but you come across as...not saying you are and I am only limited by what I am seeing and carefully reading...as very arrogant. And I am referring to how you responded to offers even more than myself, as others had to correct the mis-assumptions and partial readings you have made. As I even re-read, it "comes across" as almost having to be right. My frustration, and I apologize again for letting it get the best of me, was not at all in what you said, but how it comes across. And if I have mis-judged you, I do apologize. As I said, I have run into this quite a bit in this field and I will say, I have also run into some who are very open...they are just far out-weighed by the "perfectly packaged tiny box" side.;)

Hi musicguy7

I suppose that I am self assured within the things that I have experienced, but written words will not portray that in the same way as listening to my voice would, it is one of the downsides to written communication, I can inject humor into my spoken words to help convey the meaning behind them, a smiley does not quite do the same job at all. 🙂

Over the many years that I have been a member of HP I have learned far more then I have contributed, I continue to do so as I read other members thoughts and experiences, sometimes I will challenge other members understanding to better understand how it has arisen and to check that I have not missed something, sometimes my own understanding is challenged, which makes me reevaluate and validate my own understandings, but that is the same in any field of expertise and HP has many diverse fields to explore. 🙂

I am still waiting to read that which you have come to share with us as I am sure other member are, but in your own time. 😉

I am ticklish all over 😀 ...

x daz x

Reiki Pixie I like you.

Anyway in answer to the original ticklishness question I love working with people with ticklish feet because I've found that once you've found a pressure they're happy with they are actually extremely responsive to reflexology and I think thats possibly due to the very fact that their feet ARE so sensitive!
Deep calm breathing on their part & firm gentle pressure on yours, you should be fine!

Wow, I like these discussions. I just found this thread because yesterday I went for a wonderful massage. However, like always, when she got to massaging my feet, I went ballistic. She said that in the five years she's done massages, she's never had anyone close to me as far as ticklish feet goes. I was squirming like a worm, but after a while I could calm down. She asked if she should stop massaging my feet, and I said to keep going because I want to get past this. It did however make me feel uncomfortable when she started asking if I was the youngest sibling in my family and if I was bullied or have some traumatic emotional issues of which I answered no to all of them. This stumped her.
So many cool angles from people trying to explain it here, whether it's physiological, emotional, or both.

I think she probably stepped outside her therapeutic boundaries by asking such probing questions - is she a psychologist? I would have felt uncomfortable too and told her as much!
I've been doing reflexology for 35+ years, and have only ever had two experiences of 'ticklishness' - and once the chaps (for chaps they were - both big lads, who were boxers!) had relaxed and I simply did relaxation massage on their feet, they both gave in and enjoyed the experience.

Agree with you there Jabba, she was essentially trying to make a diagnosis and even making suggestions about causes that could be inappropriate for the person being treated. That certainly isn't professional.

Thanks for the encouragement. It's not a big deal but it's like someone saying your earlobes are extraordinarily big, and I heard that people like you tend to get ear cancer more frequently.
I am also a big guy, 6'5" 240 lbs. I wonder if someone has come up with a scientific survey to see if there is at least one common thread with all people that have extremely ticklish feet. For instance I sweat profusely when I exercise, I blush easily, my ribs are very ticklish also.

Luke - I doubt that there are any surveys about this, scientific or otherwise. You are simply you - a unique individual with ticklish feet! I too could wring out my workout clothes and fill a sink - I blush for no reason (can't tell you how much I spent as a teenager, on special creams to apply to help me stop glowing like a neon light!!!) and now have to wear tenna lady due to problems with spontaneous laughter caused by bad jokes or flippant tickling! When you go for massage therapy, just enjoy it - don't read anything into sensations you may experience!

Luke - I doubt that there are any surveys about this, scientific or otherwise. You are simply you - a unique individual with ticklish feet! I too could wring out my workout clothes and fill a sink - I blush for no reason (can't tell you how much I spent as a teenager, on special creams to apply to help me stop glowing like a neon light!!!) and now have to wear tenna lady due to problems with spontaneous laughter caused by bad jokes or flippant tickling! When you go for massage therapy, just enjoy it - don't read anything into sensations you may experience!

I will. Thanks for the encouraging response!

MusicGuy7 Alright, please do forgive me, and correct me if I am wrong in this little translation of mine, but my interpretation of all of your messages in this thread ultimately boil down to this one summary: In order for an individual to be deemed worthy of being labeled "Open Minded" in your book, that individual HAS to be into, and enjoy being tickled. If that individual is not into, and does not enjoy being tickled or perhaps even hates being tickled for whatever reason, then there is something wrong with them, and that individual should just suck it up, and surrender to the sensation, and experience, and learn to like it, simply because tickling is natural, healthy, and for their own good. If that individual is not willing to do exactly that, then that individual in your book is therefore, automatically close minded, narrow minded, and/or even psychologically unhealthy. Did I about nail that on the head? Now if my interpretation of your messages in this thread are inaccurate, then GREAT! However, if my interpretation is indeed accurate, and that is what you are seriously trying to actually insinuate, and imply in your messages in this thread, then that is totally asinine, and wrong, and I would REALLY hope that you could someday learn to respect, and accept other people's dislike, or hatred for being tickled as being equally valid, and just as OK as someone who loves being tickled, rather than judging them, and placing your own biased labels on them.

I seriously doubt you will get a response from MusicGuy who hasn't been on the community in over 4 years.
However, I think you may need to re-read the thread.
MusicGuy hasn't labelled anyone as anything and has even stated that tickling is not for everyone; but has certainly not labelled people who don't like tickling as not being open minded.
The point of MusicGuys posts is simply that therapists are taught to believe that tickling is something that should be avoided i.e. massage courses teach therapists to use "firm pressure" or "use a flat hand" etc. especially when touching feet, to "avoid tickling" the client; and that can be considered a negative perception when tickling itself can be a form of therapy.

I seriously doubt you will get a response from MusicGuy who hasn't been on the community in over 4 years.
However, I think you may need to re-read the thread.
MusicGuy hasn't labelled anyone as anything and has even stated that tickling is not for everyone; but has certainly not labelled people who don't like tickling as not being open minded.
The point of MusicGuys posts is simply that therapists are taught to believe that tickling is something that should be avoided i.e. massage courses teach therapists to use "firm pressure" or "use a flat hand" etc. especially when touching feet, to "avoid tickling" the client; and that can be considered a negative perception when tickling itself can be a form of therapy.

Actually, he kind of was calling people close minded for not allowing others to tickle them. He literally said in his beginning posts that anyone calling themselves open minded should try this out. He then said that a lot of people who call themselves open minded actually aren't. What this says is that if someone isn't into tickling, then calling them self open minded is somehow almost a lie, or something. He even said how sad and tragic it was to not be into tickling, and even stated that he was disappointed with most of the people, and responses in this thread. And then he assumes that anyone, and everyone who is adverse to tickling pretty much has to be a learned behavior. As if not liking to be tickled is always nurture, rather than nature. It's as if he's saying that since tickling is natural then every person in the planet should technically enjoy being tickled, and that the only reason that some don't is because they were "artificially" made that way through a traumatic tickle abuse event in their life, and I don't completely agree with that. Sure, abusive events like that most likely will make someone adverse to tickling later on in their life, but I don't believe that every person who doesn't like being tickled necessarily has to boil down to some event in their past. And I don't agree that people not liking to be tickled is always "taught" as he put it in his posts. I just can't stand the mentality that a lot of people have where there always has to be some secret root cause, and /or hidden meaning buried deep down inside that explains why someone doesn't like something. I've spoken to people who hate being tickled who said they were never tickle abused and just don't like how it feels. Some said that they had a tickle phobia, but said it was not due to abuse and that no one knows why they have the phobia. Others have said that they just have over sensitive skin, and that tickling actually feels painful to them, and that it makes them panic, and feel nauseous, and every second of it is torture to them, and that some of them don't like the feeling of being out of control and don't like being vulnerable to anybody, or sometimes even being touched at all by anybody. Some people don't like being tickled simply because they don't like being tickled, and just leave it at that. I don't personally find anything wrong with any of those examples I listed above, and I don't feel that they should have to go and get it fixed because that insinuates that something is broken inside of them when that simply isn't the case. They own their own body, and thus have the right to decide who touches it, and what is done to it, etc, regardless of whether anyone else agrees with their choices, or not. But you see none of that is what truly bothered me enough to make my first post towards MusicGuy7. What really got under my skin was when he said that even if people are uncomfortable with the feeling of being tickled, that they should just surrender to the sensation, and experience, and not fight it, or resist it. What that pretty much translates to is that even if the person truly does not like being tickled that they should just get over it, and do it anyway, because it is for their own good. He even admitted that other modalities can have the same great benefit that tickling provides, but then turns around, and says that we shouldn't be limiting ourselves. It's not limiting yourself if you truly don't like it, and would rather use a different modality. He should be encouraging people to do what THEY'RE comfortable with, not what HE thinks is best.