In this video, a licensed psychotherapist brings Somatic Touch into the world of elephants at the Royal Elephant Crawl in Thailand. Madhuri spoke to him to learn more about his discovery
What is an elephant story? It is a story of loyalty. It’s a story of endurance and it’s a story of sacrifice. We have much to learn from these peaceful warriors about living in harmony with the natural world. […]
What a marvellous experience it was to work with these elephants. It’s difficult in mere words to describe all that I’ve learned about these gentle creatures. What started as a desire to help elephants recover from injuries and abuse became a realisation that they allowed me close to them in order that I might hear their story. It is a perspective that I could not have imagined experiencing, nor indeed sharing with others. I learned that they’re not so different from us.
Someone once wrote, “Elephants are like humans but better.” It is true that they are tender caretakers of their young, that they are ruled by a matriarchal society that promotes order and teaches their young the rules that govern a community. It is true that they have consciousness of death and visit the bones of their departed relatives. It is also true that these strongest of land creatures choose to live in relationship with us of their own free will. It is unthinkable that a rhino or a hippo would ever allow the kind of special relationship that we have with elephants.
Though they’ve lived alongside man for at least 5,000 years, elephants can never be fully domesticated, and they maintain the rules of their wild ancestors while in captivity. These sentient beings are curious about each other and communicate with low-tone rumblings and body language. It is not uncommon to see elephants standing near each other with trunks touching for many minutes in silent reverie. We are much noisier than they are – our society more combative and restless.
“How did I come to work with elephants you ask? On a trip to Thailand I once rented a motorbike and went out riding – where I saw a couple of elephants in a field. I walked up to them and asked the mahout if I could touch them… I felt an affinity, an inspiration, a sense of purpose that perhaps I could help elephants with their trauma. Because back in the United Stated I was working as a psychotherapist specialising in trauma, with my own private massage practice.”
Yuri went back to Thailand again and again, gravitating to different sorts of elephant sanctuaries and one elephant hospital, looking for a place that would allow him to use touch to heal elephants. Thai people treat elephants “like cows”. He felt that this wasn’t right; he says now, “Elephants are much more sensitive than humans.” This was his experience when he finally had a chance to work with elephants.
He finally found a sanctuary that accepted him. At first, he says, “I would just help clean up poop.” Two Australian women ran the place for a Thai millionaire. People would pay to interact with the elephants. He asked if he could come back and do the healing with elephants that he did with people. “Show me what you do,” replied one of the women. She had a knee problem, and he put his hands on and did his work. The knee felt better, with less pain. The woman said, “Well, I don’t know what you just did but we have some injured elephants…” And so Yuri began his elephant-healing career.
He began with six pachyderm clients. The mahouts didn’t want to bring the elephants to him, thinking, he laughs, “What the fuck is this asshole doing?”
On that trip he stayed three and a half months. He took his time getting into the communication between elephant and person. At first he couldn’t figure it out, as with humans he depends a lot on facial cues, but with an elephant, if you’re working on her hip, her face is very far away! A human, when you’re looking around inside one, is “like a closet, but an elephant is like a gymnasium!” So he was troubled: I don’t get it, I don’t get it! But then one day he had his hands on the site of an injury in a particular elephant, and she sent him a thought, like a sort of package. He got it… and this opened a channel.
“I fell in love with elephants,” he says, “and they fell in love with me. Elephants love… bigly.”
The next year he went back, and worked with more elephants. He had this video made: “My intention is to show people that you can work across species.”
Links
- Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, Thailand: elephantjunglesanctuary.com
- Elephant Conservation Center Laos: elephantconservationcenter.com
- Elephant Nature Park Northern Thailand: elephantnaturepark.org
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