To Touch or Not to Touch

To Touch or Not To Touch

To Touch or Not To Touch

          Lisa Greaves

      Kaplan University

          Prof. Smith

    September 22, 2015

To Touch or Not To Touch

"To touch or not to touch."   This has been an ongoing situation, and conversation piece
for many years.   There are many forms of touching in the psychotherapy field.   Touch,
bonding and healing: the holding environment and the use of touch in traumas of
omission.   The need of the infant for body contact is compelling. When the individual is
deprived of tactile stimulation it impacts on the way the individual relates to self and
others – a feedback deficiency between skin and brain occurs, which may seriously
affect development. Studies have demonstrated that the absence of touch can even kill.
The satisfaction of tactile needs has not hitherto been considered a basic need. A basic
need is defined as one which must be satisfied if the organism is to survive. “Touch is
one of the most essential elements of human development, a profound method of
communication, a critical component of the health and growth of infants, and a
powerful healing force.” (Bowlby 1952 cited in Harlow 1971).     The main ones are
greeting, consoling, soothing, grounding, modeling and reassuring kinds of touch.
These are the least invasive forms of touch.   The most invasive forms of touch are erotic
or sexual which are unethical and harmful (Zur,O. and Nordmarken,N., 2011). "Physical
contact with the patient is absolutely a taboo (since it may) mobilize sexual feelings in
the patient and the therapist" (Wolberg, 1972).

To Touch or Not To Touch

Touch or another name verbal psychotherapy has proven to keep the client calm and
reassure then everything will be fine.   When this type of therapy is performed its proven
to be very effective.   There is no skin contact.   The erotic or sexual end of touch is also
regarded as slippery slope ideology.   This starts with a...