Intro

A chronicle of my journey to becoming East Tennessee's first and only Tellington Ttouch practitioner. My name is Kat Perry. I'm located in Friendsville, Tennessee, near Knoxville.

I came to East Tennessee in 1976 by way of California, New York, Pennsylvania and Italy. Since the age of 4 I've lived in the company of companion animals. My teens and twenties were spent with horses; training, showing, teaching and owning hunters and jumpers. I also worked with Arabian farms in the area.

In the 1990's I evolved into teaching, training and competing in dog obedience and agility trials. My dog at that time didn't appreciate the standard approach to training, so I moved on to the more rewarding journey of pet assisted therapy, in which I am still active today along with private obedience instruction.

In the early 1990's I first heard of "Ttouch" spoken in skeptical undertones from fellow obedience trainers. I would later find that Ttouch came up time and again in my life till (finally!) I took a closer look after surviving a near-death accident involving (of all things!) a dog. The universe was yelling at me to pay attention to my calling, yet it took quite a whallop on the head for me to get the message, apparently.

In June of 2010 I got my feet wet in the universe of Tellington Touch as taught by the founder herself, Linda Tellington-Jones. This one-day workshop would make clear to me that this is indeed my life's calling.

The Ttouch training for becoming a practitioner takes approximately 2 years and a total of six 6-day trainings. After the fourth training I will be a "PiT" (practitioner in training) at which time I can make a living with this. Till then, it's practice, practice, practice and learn, learn, learn! I recently completed the 1st of my 6-day sessions. Not only is this highly rewarding for myself, it also appears to be greatly beneficial to the animal; as well as the human-animal bond.

So, what on earth IS Ttouch?

First I can tell you what it's *not*: it's not about fixing, curing or doing something to the animal. And it isn't intended to take the place of proper veterinary care.

Ttouch promotes balance to the body (physical, mental and emotional). The Ttouches are a series of gentle circles, slides and lifts that release tension in the body and promote healing (physical, mental & emotional). The ground work brings new awareness and information so that the animal learns to become more flexible and adaptive. Aiding the animal to be more comfortable in his own body can produce permanent changes in behavior and well being.

I'll get into the fascinating angle of all the cool neural stuff another time!

So, that's how I got here. That's who I am.