Practice management of practitioners utilizing therapeutic touch.

The purpose of the paper is to describe, clarify, and deduce the meanings and lived experiences of therapists’ decision-making processes concerning whether to use or refrain from using therapeutic touch in therapy. The paper presents an exploration of therapists’ experiences with touch: comfort with it, perceptions of its effectiveness in fostering a relationship, personal desire to use it, and professional education and orientation suggesting that they use or abstain from using it. The areas concerning touch include the value of touch, therapist-client relationships, function of touch in therapy, power differential, misunderstood intentions, and preparedness, highlighted the complexities surrounding the decision-making processes of therapists. The paper highlights many complexities that exist within therapeutic relationships and calls for a greater, more cohesive conceptual paradigm to help guide practice managers as well as therapists through the issues that arise while engaging in an intimate and professional encounter.