Touching: a legacy from the encounter movement for social work practice

Abstract

Human touching within helping relationship became especially prominent during the so-called encounter movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This indeed may be the movement's major legacy to clinical social work practice. As furor about the movement has declined it is now possible to take a look at its contributions. This paper examines social conditions that encouraged the use of touch as therapy and evaluates the possibilities of person-to-person tactile contact becoming an acceptable intervention in psychiatric and medical settings.