Actually, I read on here about people hugging their therapists and I asked him how he felt about physical touch with clients...because I wanted to make SURE I would never ever ever ever be touched. He told me that he does use touch - and gave me some examples - touching a hand, hugs, etc. He said that it was always discussed first, and he said that if it was something that the client wanted and that would be therapeutic for them, he feels like touch is an important part of being human, and there is a place for it in therapy.

A few months later, I had the first panic attack that I had ever had - IN session. I had been really, really triggered by something in a novel I was reading. I couldn't breathe and thought I was going to die - it was surreal and scary and awful. T did lots of things to help me - tried to get me grounded, talked about what was going on physiologically, brought me water, etc. At one point he handed me a marble to hold (he has a thing of marbles) and when he handed it to me, his fingertips brushed my palm. He asked me a few minutes later if I felt his fingers touch my palm and I said yes, and he asked if it was okay, and it really was, because everything was so spinny and awful I didn't care what happened. He asked if I wanted to try reaching across the room and touching fingertips and I said okay, so we reached across and touched our index fingers together.

Everything stopped spinning and I started to be able to be grounded. There was something about T's safe, solid presence, and being physically connected to it, that started to quiet things down inside.

There was a progression, and a lot of talk, and now (almost 3 years later), touch is a really comfortable and important part of my therapy. Sometimes T holds my hand, for connection, or grounding, or comfort, and we hug at the end of every session.

Just recently, I was having a really hard time in session, and T asked if I wanted to touch fingers across the room. We hadn't done that in SOOOOOO long, but we did, and it helped again. I like that he knows me so well.

SO! There is a REALLY long answer to a short question