How do you feel when you get a big hug from a friend you haven’t seen for a while? Or how about a spontaneous kiss on the cheek from your child? Or your spouse holding your hand when you go for a walk? How do you imagine your child experiences the way you touch them, and what do you remember about your own experience of touch when you were a child?

 

Dr. Michael Banissy, a psychologist and neuroscientist, has spent his career studying different types of touch and the impact on health, wellbeing and relationship quality in all kinds of relationships at every stage of development. He has pulled together a wealth of information in his engaging new book, Touch Matters: Handshakes, Hugs, and the New Science on How Touch Can Enhance Your Wellbeing. He joins this Mom Enough episode from Bristol, England to share some of his most important and interesting findings with Marti & Erin – and you!

 

WHY IS TOUCH SO IMPORTANT TO WELLBEING?

To what extent do you experience positive touch, and with whom? What would you change about that if you could? How about in your childhood, especially with your parents? How do you think touch helped shape the kind of relationship you had with your parents? What do you want to do the same or differently with your own children? Why?

 

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

❉ THE BENEFITS OF ROUGH AND TUMBLE PLAY: A CONVERSATION WITH EDUCATOR MIKE HUBER ABOUT ROUGHHOUSING. Early childhood educator Mike Huber from St. David’s Center for Child & Family Development (a supporting partner of Mom Enough), understands how valuable rough and tumble play is to children’s learning and development. He joins Marti & Erin in this Mom Enough® episode for a lively discussion of this often overlooked aspect of children’s experience, prompting funny memories for Marti & Erin and inspiring them to do a little roughhousing themselves.

 

❉ TOUCH MATTERS. Check out Dr. Michael Banissy's latest book.