ABSTRACT
Debate about the clinical use of touch is an ethics-related lightning rod. For decades, clinicians have jousted in their efforts to defend the appropriate use of touch or denounce its potential and actual perils. A number of empirical studies demonstrate the seriousness and magnitude of sexualized touch between clinicians and clients. Given the lack of consensus among practitioners about the appropriateness of touch in the clinical relationship, clinicians would do well to consider current standards pertaining to the use of controversial, albeit innovative, interventions. Problems potentially associated with clinicians' creative use of touch take two forms. The first involves practitioners who have difficulty using touch skillfully—issues of competence. The second form of high-risk interventions involves clinicians' creative use of touch in ways that are not widely endorsed by seasoned colleagues, are not based on solid empirically based or other research evidence, and which may pose significant risks to clients.
