SCP Mini Podcast: If You Touch The Face, You Touch The Brainstem And Decrease Stress

In this mini podcast episode Dr. Perry talks about how facial massages calm the nervous system and help pain When you massage the face, you're not just working on skin — you're speaking directly to the trigeminal nerve, the largest sensory nerve in the entire head. Gentle pressure on the forehead, cheeks, and jaw sends calming signals into the brainstem, lowering threat, softening sympathetic overdrive, and creating a shift toward safety.

The trigeminal system is deeply wired into pain modulation and stress processing, so when you relax the face, you literally turn down the volume on the stress response. It's one of the fastest ways to reset the nervous system: change what the face feels, and you change what the brain perceives.

• Facial massage stimulates A-beta mechanoreceptors, which quiet pain signals.

• The trigeminal nerve feeds into autonomic centers calming the fight-or-flight loop.

• Releasing tension around the jaw and eyes decreases sympathetic load almost instantly.

• Touching the face shifts emotional tonethe. The limbic system responds to facial relaxation.

• Relax the face to down regulate inflammation.