ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the concepts, firstly around the role of the tactile in art techniques used in therapeutic and research contexts. It discusses why touch is relegated to the fringe of awareness in a complex and ambivalent relationship, even in therapeutic creative arts. The chapter focuses on the tactile element of touch, using the terms tactile' and touch' to describe and discuss the sensory experience of touching, with less emphasis on the collective term haptic'. An important aspect of art making as a therapeutic activity lies in the nature and function of touch in the physical process of exploring and expressing embodied experience through the medium of art materials. The experience of serious and life-threatening illness, fraught with long, often traumatic treatments and the possible end of life, is reported as a profound disruption to the sense and boundaries of self; physically, mentally and emotionally.
