I don't mind touch at all (I love hugs!), though I've never really thought about bodywork. Here is an article about it from myshrink.com

Feelings from past experiences are "stored" in the body and unconsciously have a powerful effect on how you behave and how you feel about yourself. If you bring these unconscious feelings and memories into awareness, you have the chance to modify the old patterns that keep you from living life to the fullest.
The body is the gateway to awareness.

Demand for yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, etc. has soared in recent years as people search for relief from the tension and stress of daily life. It's now common knowledge that calming the body calms the mind.


Bodywork techniques such as massage, acupuncture, breathing practices, cranial-sacral and visceral manipulation are designed to improve physical health and functioning.
These bodywork techniques help harmonize and rebalance the nervous and hormonal systems. As physical health and functioning improve so do psychological conditions.
Moreover, when these techniques are used in conjunction with psychotherapy our awareness of how the body holds physical stress and emotional injury is significantly enhanced.
Furthermore, this increased awareness informs and directs the therapy process and enables us to work through limiting psychophysiological patterns that can't be resolved at the level of the conscious mind.
Bringing consciousness to your body brings consciousness to your emotions.

So what can the combination of psychotherapy and bodywork do for you?
Together they create changes from the inside out:

• The way you psychophysiologically respond to stress.
• The way you psychophysiologically respond to anger.
• The way you habitually relate to others.
• The speed at which you recover from illness or injury.

In the same way that regular exercise and healthy eating are necessary for maintaining optimum physical health, psychotherapy and bodywork are powerful allies both for healing and for maintaining the health of the whole person.
We have learned that physical and emotional well-being is based on a number of balanced and integrated states: left hemisphere with right hemisphere, mind with body…heart with spirit. You can now appreciate that genuine, lasting health is an ongoing process to be nurtured.

Expansive, peaceful thoughts and feelings induce a cascade of "happy molecules" in the body. By developing and stabilizing this natural process, holistic psychotherapy can significantly expand your ability to adapt and thrive, to get the most out of your life.
Ironically it is the doctor of the soul, the "psycho-therapist", who enables you to see that there really is no separation between mind and body.
And that makes all the difference!