[libribook.com] Traumatic Scar Tissue Management 1st Edition

Therapeutic Closeness and Vulnerability
MT is a therapeutically intimate experience that occurs in a unique environment.
Typically, MT sessions occur as a one-to-one experience within a closed room.
The nature of such a setting can contribute to the therapeutic potential of a MT
treatment and at the same time heighten client vulnerability. Although the
concept of client vulnerability is often viewed as a precarious part of MT care,
when managed respectfully, the intention and outcome of vulnerability is trust
and connection (Brown 2010).
In a professional context, trust and connection can be powzerful contributors to
the therapeutic process. Although vulnerability can enhance therapeutic
productivity, MT professionals need to ensure utmost care is taken to ensure
client dignity and respect, and not to exploit a client’s vulnerability.
Safeguarding client vulnerability is a fundamental element of the therapeutic
relationship.
In the MT environment, therapist/client closeness occurs in a number of ways:
physical closeness; extended periods of therapeutic touching; disclosure; client
in various degrees of undress; and client emotional responses that may occur
during treatment. Although client emotional responses can present
uncomfortableness for the client and therapist, such experiences are an important
part of the therapeutic process. And the therapist’s ability to effectively navigate
a client’s emotional response is an important part of care. What to or not to share
requires the therapist to engage in good discernment.
Disclosure, essentially sharing, often occurs progressively in the therapeutic
environment and the act of sharing can be a source of profound therapeutic value
and can contribute to the precariousness of vulnerability. Disclosure can include
personal information, an emotional state, a point of view, circumstances or
context for the client’s state of health. Although it is generally considered
inappropriate for the therapist to share personal information with a client, if
disclosure of certain information provides therapeutic value for the client, then
such sharing is considered acceptable. An experience of closeness achieved
through sharing can contribute to the therapeutic process. What to or not to share
requires the therapist to engage in good discernment as inappropriate sharing can