Trauma, boundaries, and connection: Rethinking touch in psychiatric nursing practice

This article reexamines the contested role of physical touch in psychiatric-mental health nursing, where institutional norms often restrict contact due to concerns about trauma, safety, and professional risk. While these restrictions are grounded in legitimate ethical concerns, they also reflect deeper institutional logics of surveillance, control, and epistemic reductionism. Drawing on theories of embodiment, trauma healing, feminist care ethics, and relational nursing, this article critically interrogates the consequences of disembodied care models that privilege procedural neutrality over relational presence. It argues for a reframing of therapeutic touch not as a clinical risk or fixed technique, but as an ethical, relational practice requiring contextual discernment, cultural sensitivity, and reflective engagement. By moving beyond binary positions-either prohibition or permissiveness-this article proposes a situated ethics of touch, grounded in the moral complexities of psychiatric nursing. Ultimately, it calls for institutional and pedagogical reforms that support nurses in navigating this complexity with attunement, agency, and accountability.