Touch and visualisation to facilitate a therapeutic relationship in an intensive care unit--a personal experience.

This paper describes how the nature of touch was explored and utilised in nursing practice to promote a therapeutic relationship between nurse and client in an intensive care setting. It explains how this, and other complementary therapies such as visualisation and relaxation techniques, were used to facilitate a counselling situation, and also to effect the resolution of acute anxiety as an alternative to the traditional allopathic approach.