I SO get this. When I started therapy, it was a HUGE DEAL to me that T stay a certain distance away from me. He would actually say things like "I'm going to get up and walk to my desk to get a receipt now" before he moved out of his chair so I would feel somewhat safe. I sat WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY across the room from him, as far away as I could get. I honestly sort of backed out of the room after session because I was afraid he'd pat me on the back or something. I finally told him how scary it was for me to walk out of the room with him behind me, and he said he would stay in his chair while I walked out so I would feel safer.

When I asked him about physical contact with clients, I was asking so I would be sure it would never happen, because I read here about people hugging their T's and it totally freaked me out.

Now, three years and hundreds of therapy hours later, I feel differently, but only because T has shown me over time that he has excellent boundaries, and that touch can be safe. I think before therapy, I thought touch was either sexual or something that would hurt me (other than hugs with my kids, of course). It's been really really healing to find out that touch can just be about comfort and connection and caring and that's it.