This principle urges therapists not to harm and only to use interventions that’ll likely benefit their clients. Since hugging and other forms of touch can be very emotional, it may trigger positive and negative feelings in a client, depending on their psychological state. For instance, former abuse\/violence victims or individuals with paranoid\/borderline personality traits may perceive touch as threatening or intrusive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the potential impact of touch on various clients, a therapist should only hug you if they know you very well and are confident that doing so won’t hinder your progress. Even then, they need to seek your consent beforehand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This principle is all about therapists treating their clients with utmost honesty and transparency. In the context of today’s discussion, the implication is that it’s unethical for a therapist to decline your request for a hug purely out of fear of facing scrutiny from regulatory organizations. If there are other underlying reasons for them declining your advances for a hug (like when they detect sexual undertones), your therapist should clearly explain their reservations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To demonstrate why this is important, think of an individual living with HIV who goes in for a hug, only to be turned down because their therapist is afraid that hugging may amount to an ethical violation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This person is likely struggling with the stigma HIV\/AIDS often poses, only to realize that the one person they thought could help them tackle the issue treats them just like everyone else. Worse still, the therapist fails to explain why they turned down their hug, further validating the stigma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See how that can be detrimental to a client’s recovery?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two principles further reinforce the importance of therapists acting in their clients’ best interests. Typically, therapeutic relationships are characterized by a power imbalance, where the therapist holds more power than the patient. With this power comes an inherent risk of clients accepting whatever their therapist suggests even when they’re not entirely comfortable with the suggestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This risk is one of the primary sources of reservations towards the use of hugs and other forms of touch in psychotherapy because it puts therapists in a position to use their power for exploitive purposes. That’s why each therapist needs to weigh the decision to hug a client against APA’s general principles of fidelity and responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the therapist’s responsibility to use their persuasive power in a manner that benefits you as the client. This is particularly crucial when the practitioner is open to the idea of hugging, but they aren’t sure whether your consent means that you don’t mind that form of touch. The implication here is that the practitioner should only hug you when your therapeutic relationship has developed well enough for them to understand two key things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n