Quote:
Originally Posted by Bleah
T mentioned I could consider allowing her to hold me (explained in a professional manner) because I have been missing a basic physical connection and don't have words for a lot of my feelings, etc. It sounds interesting and also scary. I don't know that I could do this with her after having spent such a long time strictly talking with several feet between us at all times.  What school of therapy allows this and if I were to seek out such a therapist in my community, how would I search for this? |
You should ask your therapist what the therapy is and how the therapy is supposed to work before agreeing to such a therapy. Unfortunately, a lot of physical "therapies" have been abused in the past. I assume this therapist is of the same gender as you? "Holding" a client feels inherently inappropriate in most therapeutic contexts (although perhaps allowable in a male-male or female-female therapist-client relationship with a client with excellent boundaries -- but I think it's fairly uncommon for someone in therapy to have healthy physical and emotional boundaries). I will place an arm around a client or otherwise touch a client in a comforting way IF (and only IF) there is a pre-established relationship AND the client has healthy physical and emotional boundaries (which is pretty uncommon if they are in therapy or in rez tx, where I work right now) AND the circumstances require that kind of comfort. "Missing a physical connection" sounds to me like a dubious symptom as it is so ambiguous and abstract that it would be difficult (or impossible) to operationalize or treat it.