BEING IN TOUCH: COMMUNICATING THROUGH TOUCH IN PSYCHOTHERAPY:

​SATURDAY 9TH JULY 2022 9.30am-5.00pm. KINGS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.

​Speaking and touching are two streams of communication which seamlessly interweave in daily relationships.  Touch is a "language" in its own right and it can sometimes communicate more than words can say. The foundations for this are laid down prior to birth and afterwards.

Communicating through touch is a way of relating in body psychotherapy.  Body psychotherapists are trained to touch, have a touch lexicon, are skilled in its timely therapeutic use, and know how to observe and discuss the impact of touching with clients.  Ways of touching are diverse and complex.  Varying speed, rhythm, pressure and depth, focussing on different tissues of the body, touching skin to skin, through clothes and blankets, touching with finger tips, the palms of the hands, elbow to elbow are some of the possibilities.  Through experience the skills and methods of touching become embedded in the psychotherapist and are pulled out of the practitioner, often intuitively, in a "dance" between client and therapist at appropriate moments.

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