The use of touch in therapeutic relationships is seldom dealt with as a practice issue except in a proscriptive way. To gather descriptive information on the use of touch in therapy, professional therapists (N=50) whose practice was largely family therapy were interviewed about the successful use of touch in their helping relationships. Interview responses were coded for general demographic variables, family background and affective patterns. Family factors identified as influencing the therapists' use of touch were birth order, church attendance, warm family relationships, and the presence of both parents in the home at least through puberty. Responses revealed a continuum of opinion about the extent to which touch enhances the treatment process ranging from its use as only one of many effective counseling techniques to a view in which touch was seen as making a more spontaneous, human therapy relationship. The findings suggest that instruction about the use of touch should be incorporated in professional therapy curricula, with the understanding that its effectiveness may be determined by a combination of the therapist's human and professional reactions. (MCF)