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. Touch may well be one of the least understood or talked about subjects in the helping professions. A discussion on the importance and ethics of positive, caring, and appropriate touch in professions such as teaching, nursing and counselling is long overdue.
Touch in the Helping Professions delivers just that, weaving together scholarly evidence, research and clinical practice from a wide range of perspectives encompassing philosophy, theology, psychology, and anthropology to challenge assumptions about the role of touch in the helping professions. The contributors to the volume focus not only on the overarching roles of gender, age, culture and life experience, but go beyond to encompass canine-assisted therapy, touch deprivation, sacred objects, as well as key ethical considerations. The prevailing lack of dialogue, due to fear of contravening ethical boundaries, has stood in the way of an open and responsible discussion on the use of touch in therapy.
Touch in the Helping Professions is a welcome and much needed contribution to the field—a window onto a fundamental need.
Published in English.

Martin Rovers is a professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Saint Paul University, Ottawa and an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists Approved Supervisor. He is the author of several books, including Healing the Wounds in Couple Relationships (Novalis, 2005).

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Judith Malette is a certified clinical psychologist and full professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences at Saint Paul University (Ottawa).

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Manal Guirguis-Younger is Full Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences at Saint Paul University. Her research focuses on homelessness, palliative care, and alternative models of health service delivery to vulnerable populations.

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