The Dialogue of Touch: Developmental Play Therapy (Master Work Series)

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring but flawed
Review: This book is a brave and often inspiring examination of an often-neglected topic - the role of touch in psychotherapy. Brody's detailed accounts of therapy with children with different needs make fascinating reading, as do her thoughts on issues of limit-setting and respect (her criticisms of forced "holding therapies" are cogent and sensitive).

But there are also some strange gaps and errors in the book - for example, the claim that "the root cause of autism in the child is the lack of bonding with the parents". Given that the wholly neurological nature of autism has been accepted by researchers for the last thirty years, this is shocking ignorance. It also prevents what might have been an interesting consideration of the role of developmental, relationship oriented therapy with children with organic disabilities, or how to use touch with children who may have neurological hyper- or hypo-sensitivities to it.

Brody often seems to see touch as the only important element of therapy. While this extremism might be seen as justified in order to balance the neglect of touch as a topic, it means that there's no consideration of how to integrate her approach with other therapeutic or educational elements.