Touching in Therapy: A Relational Perspective

About this episode

The episode explores the complexities of using physical touch in therapy and its impact on the therapeutic relationship.

You probably heard this in grad school: "Never, ever touch your clients." But you know, for us, things are rarely black-and white. What about high fives? What about comforting touch? Hugs at termination? The conversation about using physical touch in therapy usually centres around liability and the 'slippery slope' to abusing our clients. While those are essential considerations to this topic, we are taking a different focus: the impact on the client and the therapeutic relationship. Ou...

People in this episode

Hosts: Jordan Pickell, Alison McCleary

Topics covered

• therapy
• physical touch
• therapeutic relationship
• client impact
• mental health

Keywords

• therapy
• physical touch
• client relationship
• mental health
• high fives
• comforting touch
• hugs

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