We are not angels but human beings with a physical body and a sense of touch. […] To live in a world where there is the absence of caring touch or very limited touch can produce physical death as well as emotional and spiritual death.
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction: Exploring Touch
Thomas St. James O’Connor
Section 1: The Theory of Touch
Chapter 1 - Healing and the Forbidden Touch: A
Reflection on Selected Scripture Stories
Karlijn Demasure
Chapter 2 - Thinking about Touch
Richard
Feist
Chapter 3 - Contributions of Sensory Anthropology
and Durand’s Anthropology to the Symbolic Study of Touch
and the Understanding of Boundaries in
Psychotherapy
Christian Bellehumeur & Jane Chambers
Chapter 4 - Touch Deprivation and Counselling as
Healing Touch
Isaac Davis, Martin Rovers & Cassandra Petrella.
Section 2: The Practice of Touch in Psychotherapy
Chapter 5 - The Intervention of Touch in Psychotherapy and Trauma
Treatment
Patricia Berendsen
Chapter 6 - A Puppy’s Touch:
Destressing with Dogs in a University Environment
Kristine Lund
Chapter 7 - Inter-Partner Touch in Couple Counselling: Theory and Emerging Practice
Cassandra Petrella & Martin Rovers
Chapter 8 - The Practice of the Laying on of Hands in Islamic Spiritual
Care
Nazila Isgandarova
Chapter 9 - An Angel in my Pocket:
Touch, Sacred Objects and Spiritual Coping
Linda Mayorga Miller
Chapter 10 - Touched(ed) in Palliative Care Nursing: Moving with/in an Uncertain Practice
Lacie White & Christine McPherson
Chapter 11 - Touch in Supervision
Cynthia
Bilodeau
Section 3: The Ethics of Touch and Conclusion
Chapter 12 - The Ethics of Therapeutic Touch
Marilyn Guindon, Reesa
Packard & Natalie Charron
Chapter 13 - Conclusion: Issues of Touch: An Overall View and Integration
Martin Rovers, Judith Malette & Manal Guirguis-Younger
Index
Inappropriate touch cases have sparked public outcry and made headlines, but a discussion on the importance and ethics of positive, caring, appropriate touch in the helping professions such as teaching, nursing and counselling is long overdue. The book emphasizes that healthy, non-sexual touch is not taught enough as part of professional training and oversight.