Touch and action in group therapy of younger adolescents

A nursing assistant with another view of how to use an hour in the afternoon, introduced to Hill End Adolescent Unit the new therapies of bioenergetics, gestalt, massage and psychodrama. After a period of intense staff training, and gradual introduction to the adolescents, those methods became part of the Unit's culture, the institutional taboo against touch was crossed, there was a reduction in violence and a greater expression of caring feelings.