Transformance Talk 7: The Judicious Use of Touch in an AEDP Treatment: Responding to Developmental Need and Transformance Drive

Transformance Talk based on an article of the same title from AEDP’s Journal Transformance: Volume 6; December  2015

Presented by author and AEDP Certified Supervisor Hilary Jacobs Hendel, LCSW

with interviewer / AEDP Sr. Faculty member Benjamin Lipton, LCSW

The Talk:The use of touch in talk therapy has long been considered controversial and even taboo. However, touch when used thoughtfully and judiciously has the potential to facilitate healing. When confronted with the developmental and core need for touch, psychotherapists should have the ability to think through when it could be helpful and when it could be harmful. This paper and Transformance Talk considers the use of touch in a clinical case and the way it is negotiated by the patient-therapist dyad.

We will discuss viewpoints from the literature; some considerations regarding the use of touch that are born from the my education and training both as a psychoanalyst and an AEDP psychotherapist; and my specific rationale for incorporating touch into this particular treatment. A verbatim transcript from a mid-treatment session illustrates clinical work with touch. At the end of the paper – and during the Talk – I present some general guidelines for the judicious use of touch.

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Meet the Presenter

Benjamin Lipton, LCSW

Benjamin Lipton, LCSW, is a Senior and founding Faculty member of the AEDP Institute. He has been instrumental in the development and teaching of AEDP across the US and in Canada, Sweden, Israel, Norway, and Denmark. He also supervises individuals and small groups of clinicians learning AEDP around the world. A sought after teacher and speaker, Ben is known for his open and engaging style, his humor, and his particular ability to translate complex theoretical concepts into user-friendly, accessible and engaging learning experiences. Ben has edited a book and contributed many book chapters and articles in psychology and social service journals as well as mainstream magazines. His most recent publication is a chapter on therapeutic presence in Undoing Aloneness & the Transformation of Suffering Into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0 edited by Diana Fosha. During the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US, Ben was the Director of Clinical Services at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), (Read More…)

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