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Campanula said:
Wondering - when you make a decision to reach out and touch a client, does their gender make a difference? does your supervisor or profs offer an opinion on touch in sessions?

Just due to the power differential, I'd imagine it's even a bigger deal if the T is male. Do they talk about that in school? What do they teach these guys?

Campy

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Personally, when I touch a client, gender does not make a difference. Rather, I evaluate boundaries and the appropriateness-- will touch benefit the patient therapeutically? does this patient have boundary issues? is this patient sexually preoccupied? etc., etc.

It is something that happened very naturally for me and it was a wonderful way to get to learn who I am as a therapist and how that shapes my style-- Before I started my internship, I said... no physical contact. None. I will not touch a patient. I took a lot of cues from my own experience in therapy, and I also tend to idealize my own T-- so I pretty much figured what he was doing was the way for me to do it, too. Once I began working with the patients I learned that the 'no-touch' clause was not my style at all. I have seen patients benefit enormously from a small amount of physical contact, i.e. holding onto my hand while talking.

Physical contact is not something that we have really been taught about in school. Women largely outnumber the men in my program. Before this semester, I really never had more than 2 or 3 men in my class. Sometimes zero. In one my classes this semester there are more men than usual in the class... it's a sexuality class where we watch "educational videos" so go figure on that one, lol..... But as far as physical touch, that it something that is an individual decision that can better be learned in our internships rather than in the classroom.