Is the bias against touch in psychotherapy justified? Is ethical touch an oxymoron? Can the recovery process be complete without healing touch? Mental health professionals are entrusted with the awesome responsibility of providing appropriate treatment for clients in a safe environment that nurtures trust, a necessary ingredient for optimum movement through the therapeutic process. Though treatment approaches vary, most modalities are verbally based and, in theory, exclude physical contact. Fearing that any form of touch would likely lead to sexual feelings or interaction, clinicians tend to shy away from the topic. In this book, however, Mic Hunter and Jim Struve skilfully demonstrate that touch - a most basic human need - is intrinsic to

Is ethical touch an oxymoron? Is the bias against touch in psychotherapy justified? Can the recovery process be complete without healing touch? Mental health professionals are entrusted with the awesome responsibility of providing appropriate treatment for clients in a safe environment that nurtures trust, a necessary ingredient for optimum movement through the therapeutic process. Though treatment approaches vary, most modalities are verbally based and, in theory, exclude physical contact. Fearing that any form of touch would likely lead to sexual feelings or interaction, clinicians tend to shy away from the topic. In The Ethical Use of Touch in Psychotherapy, however, authors Mic Hunter and Jim Struve skillfully demonstrate that touch--a most basic human need--is intrinsic to the healing process along with talk-therapy, regardless of the practitioner′s theoretical orientation. While the use of touch is a given in other health care settings, it remains a benefit denied as taboo in psychotherapeutic relationships, due to transgressors whose unscrupulous use of a valuable technique have marred its reputation. This book encourages readers to conduct a meaningful self-reflection and explore possible misconceptions related to touch in order to rejuvenate its acceptance. Based on years of sound research and clinical experience, The Ethical Use of Touch in Psychotherapy promises to enrich clinical discussion and stimulate further empirical research. This insightful and progressive presentation is a must read for clinicians, interns, and advanced students, as well as lay readers interested in the dynamics and innovations in psychotherapy.

Touch in Child Counseling and Play Therapy explores the professional and legal boundaries around physical contact in therapy and offers best-practice guidelines from a variety of perspectives. Chapters address issues around appropriate and sensitive therapist-initiated touch, therapeutic approaches that use touch as an intervention in child treatment, and both positive and challenging forms of touch that are initiated by children. In these pages, professionals and students alike will find valuable information on ways to address potential ethical dilemmas, including defining boundaries, working with parents and guardians, documentation, consent forms, cultural considerations, countertransference, and much more.

This book introduces readers to the ethical dilemmas that therapists can face in their therapeutic practices. By mapping the counselling process from beginning to end, it focuses on key ethical issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, boundaries, the use of touch and dual relationships. It draws on a series of in-depth case studies illustrating ethical dilemmas, and presents the reader with reflective questions at the end of each example. The book covers: The Context of Relational Ethics - Relational Ethics within the Therapeutic Relationship - Exploring the complex judgement demanded by the therapeutic process, and looking at how therapy needs to be situation specific.

This book brings attention to the interface of psychotherapy and psychological theory with the somatic practices of bodywork and movement therapy. To offer a client only psychotherapy, or only bodywork may subtly or directly reinforce the body-mind split from which so many of us suffer; in some cases this will be a reinforcement of a dilemma central to the client's problems. Hartley views body psychotherapy and transpersonal psychotherapy as building bridges between the once separated processes of psyche, soma, and spirit. Today the emerging field of somatic psychology is also contributing to the expanded field of psychology a subtle differentiation of bodymind process, developed through almost a century and a half of research and practice in somatic therapy and education. Originally trained as a dancer, movement therapist and bodywork practitioner, Hartley continues to use movement and somatic process as an important foundation for her own work. Training in Dance Movement Therapy, the transpersonal psychotherapy of Psychosynthesis, and Process-Oriented Psychology have further deepened Hartley's awareness of the relationships between psyche, soma and spirit, and the need to respond to all levels of experience in therapeutic work.

The Therapeutic Use of Self has continued, since its publication in 1999, to be considered a key text within integrative, humanistic and relational approaches for the training and development of therapists in the UK and abroad. This long-awaited classic edition includes powerful case examples and extensive research findings, presenting the counsellor’s evaluation of their own practice as the main vehicle for the development of insight and awareness into individual ‘therapeutic’ characteristics. The book addresses many of the taboos and infrequently discussed aspects of therapy, such as: The value of therapist failure Breaking the rules of counselling Working beyond the accepted boundaries of counselling. The Therapeutic Use of Self will help professionals and trainees acknowledge, develop and value their own unique contribution to counselling and psychotherapy. The book remains a ground-breaking examination of the individual therapist’s contribution to process and outcome in counselling and supervision.

Touch may well be one of the least understood or talked about subjects in the helping professions. A discussion on the importance and ethics of positive, caring, and appropriate touch in professions such as teaching, nursing and counselling is long overdue. Touch in the Helping Professions delivers just that, weaving together scholarly evidence, research and clinical practice from a wide range of perspectives encompassing philosophy, theology, psychology, and anthropology to challenge assumptions about the role of touch in the helping professions. The contributors to the volume focus not only on the overarching roles of gender, age, culture and life experience, but go beyond to encompass canine-assisted therapy, touch deprivation, sacred objects, as well as key ethical considerations. The prevailing lack of dialogue, due to fear of contravening ethical boundaries, has stood in the way of an open and responsible discussion on the use of touch in therapy. Touch in the Helping Professions is a welcome and much needed contribution to the field—a window onto a fundamental need. This book is published in English. - Cet ouvrage offre un ensemble de données probantes et de résultats cliniques à l’appui du toucher dans le développement physique et émotionnel. Il est structuré selon trois axes : la théorie sur le toucher; la pratique du toucher dans un contexte de thérapie, et les questions éthiques. Il aborde la question du rôle du genre, de l’âge, de la culture et de l’expérience de vie, des sujets comme la zoothérapie, la privation sensorielle, des objets sacrés, et des considérations d’ordre éthique. Les approches variées – philosophie, théologie, psychologie, anthropologie – remettent en question les présuppositions, offrent un contexte historico-culturelprofessionnel, et font appel à des données primaires. Les collaborateurs soutiennent que le toucher sain et non sexuel n’est pas suffisamment enseigné dans le cadre de la formation professionnelle. Cette absence de dialogue – engendrée par la crainte de dépasser des bornes éthiques, fait en sorte qu’une discussion ouverte et responsable sur l’utilisation du toucher dans un cadre thérapeutique ne peut avoir lieu, alors même qu’elle contribuerait aux balises théoriques de notre compréhension de cet enjeu fondamental. Ce livre est publié en anglais.

“This book should be read by everyone working in a helping profession.” Laura Burns, Training Lead for Hostage and Crisis Negotiation (2017-2020) and Inspector, Police Scotland, UK “This is a superb book in every single respect: beautifully written, relevant, supportive and providing an accessible framework for all those in the helping professions to develop and enhance relationships with people.” Professor Andrew Reeves, Professor in Counselling Professions and Mental Health, University of Chester, UK “This is an excellent resource for anyone who requires an element of embedded counselling in a professional capacity.” Dr William N. Scott, Lecturer in Biomedicine, Atlantic Technological University, Ireland Embedded Counselling in the Helping Professions offers a practical framework for understanding how frontline human service practitioners can respond effectively to the emotional support needs of those around them, by incorporating counselling skills and knowledge into their everyday professional work. Taking a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, McLeod and McLeod provide comprehensive coverage of key areas of practice that can lead to improved outcomes for service users, including: • Capitalising on how embedded counselling complements and builds on other interventions and forms of support • Developing skills and activities for facilitating helpful counselling episodes that enable clients to move forward in their lives • Using evidence from research studies to enhance practice • Designing caring services that promote positive practitioner values and attributes, and take account of organisational challenges and opportunities • Ongoing personal reflection, supervision and consultation to consolidate learning and awareness. As well as tackling critical reflections and enforcing ethical practice this new book helps human service practitioners to make sense of frequently occurring client issues including crisis, trauma, emotional pain, life transitions, bereavement and loss, and behaviour change. Embedded Counselling in the Helping Professions is essential reading for all students entering the human service field. It also acts as a valuable continuing professional development resource for qualified and experienced practitioners and for managers and policy-makers who are committed to creating caring and responsive organisations. Julia McLeod is Lecturer in Counselling at Abertay University, Dundee, UK. She has been a counselling trainer and tutor with students from many different backgrounds, as well as having extensive experience as a therapist and supervisor. John McLeod is Emeritus Professor of Counselling at Abertay University Dundee, UK and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy in Dublin, Ireland. A leading figure in the field of counselling and psychotherapy research, his recent work has focused on the development of a flexible, pluralistic approach to therapy.

The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology provides a comprehensive overview of body-centered psychotherapies, which stress the centrality of the body to overcoming psychological distress, trauma, and mental illness. Psychologists and therapists are increasingly incorporating these somatic or body-oriented therapies into their practices, making mind-body connections that enable them to provide better care for their clients. Designed as a standard text for somatic psychology courses, The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology contains 100 cutting-edge essays and studies by respected professionals from around the world on such topics as the historical roots of Body Psychotherapy; the role of the body in developmental psychology; the therapeutic relationship in Body Psychotherapy; and much more, as well as helpful case studies and essays on the use of Body Psychotherapy for specific disorders. This anthology will be indispensible for students of clinical and counseling psychology, somatic psychology, and various forms of body-based therapy (including dance and movement therapies), and is also an essential reference work for most practicing psychotherapists, regardless of their therapeutic orientation. Contributors: Gustl Marlock, Halko Weiss, Courtenay Young, Michael Soth, Ulfried Geuter, Judyth O. Weaver, Wolf E. Büntig, Nicholas Bassal, Michael Coster Heller, Heike Langfeld, Dagmar Rellensmann, Don Hanlon Johnson, Christian Gottwald, Andreas Wehowsky, Gregory J. Johanson, David Boadella, Alexander Lowen, Ian J. Grand, Marilyn Morgan, Stanley Keleman, Eugene T. Gendlin, Marion N. Hendricks-Gendlin, Michael Harrer, Ian J. Grand, Marianne Bentzen, Andreas Sartory, George Downing, Andreas Wehowsky, Marti Glenn, Ed Tronick, Bruce Perry, Susan Aposhyan, Mark Ludwig, Ute-Christiane Bräuer, Ron Kurtz, Christine Caldwell, Albert Pesso, Michael Randolph, William F. Cornell, Richard A. Heckler, Gill Westland, Lisbeth Marcher, Erik Jarlnaes, Kirstine Münster, Tilmann Moser, Frank Röhricht, Ulfried Geuter, Norbert Schrauth, Ilse Schmidt-Zimmermann, Peter Geissler, Ebba Boyesen, Peter Freudl, James Kepner, Dawn Bhat, Jacqueline Carleton, Ian Macnaughton, Peter A. Levine, Stanley Keleman, Narelle McKenzie, Jack Lee Rosenberg, Beverly Kitaen Morse, Angela Belz-Knöferl, Lily Anagnostopoulou, William F. Cornell, Guy Tonella, Sasha Dmochowski, Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar, Jacqueline A. Carleton, Manfred Thielen, Xavier Serrano Hortelano, Pat Ogden, Kekuni Minton, Thomas Harms, Nicole Gäbler, John May, Rob Fisher, Eva R. Reich, Judyth O. Weaver, Barnaby B. Barratt, Sabine Trautmann-Voigt, Wiltrud Krauss-Kogan, Ilana Rubenfeld, Camilla Griggers, Serge K. D. Sulz, Nossrat Peseschkian, Linda H. Krier, Jessica Moore Britt, and Daniel P. Brown.

`This thought- provoking book should be required reading for all trainers, practitioners and supervisors. It examines the complex issues that arise when the clinician enters into a relationship with the client beyond the psychotherapeutic boundaries′ - Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal A recent development in the profession is a consideration of the appropriate use of touch. This is looked at in some detail in this book with useful guidelines of the issues to be considered in deciding whether to touch a client or not. The issue of dual relationships with clients, trainees and supervisees affects most counsellors or psychotherapists at some point in their careers. Many practitioners are unclear about such boundary issues and how, when and if it is appropriate to enter into a dual relationship, whether as a friend, business partner or sexual partner. These relationships are seldom neutral and can have a powerful beneficial or detrimental impact on the person seeking help. Dual Relationships in Counselling & Psychotherapy examines the circumstances in which such relationships arise and provides guidelines on how to ethically manage, avoid or even to develop dual relationships. It also clearly defines the limits beyond which practitioners must not go. The book explores: the dangers of sexual relationships; non-sexual relationships (for example, requests for friendship, gift-giving and chance meetings outside the therapy room); and dual relationships which inevitably occur in small communities and minority groups. Exploring a subject which is often avoided and, for some, even taboo, Dual Relationships in Counselling & Psychotherapy is an invaluable source of advice for trainees and practitioners alike.