SWAT Hand-On-Shoulder animation

Dear support,
I am about to make my bachelor thesis based on Unity engine. My aim is to create an actor on the scene, who interacts with static objects.
For example, if the actor is near a wall, he puts his hand on it as if he was getting support from it. I can imagine that the wall needs a collider which starts the animation.
Is there any way to make the actor actually move his hand circularly around his body, or is it animation-dependent?

(the idea is to create an animation of hand bending, As the actor moves closer to the wall, animation plays and as he gets further, the animation reverts)

The main aim is to create a team of actors on the scene that moves like a SWAT team with the Hand-On-Shoulder technique. Each collider on an actor shall be a animation trigger.
Is this possible? I walked through your MecanimTube tutorial and its awesome, thats where I gained my inspiration.
You would be most kind if you could point me in the right direction.
Thank you, Best regards,
Anas El-Hmoud.

 

Not entirely sure but wouldn't the Inverse Kinematics be able to do this? It's only a suggestion as I haven't messed around with it too much yet.

 

haha i guess its too late now but yeah ik would be a great solution or this