Human motor learning is an evolving science. What was once thought to be a top-down, brain driven program that could be restored, rehabilitated or recapitulated through the hands of skilled therapists, is now nearly universally understood to be a dynamic interaction of environment-body-and brain alike. This interaction includes attributes of the learner (subject, athlete, patient, student) cognition, awareness, prior experience, expectations, self-efficacy, and resources of the body 
(pain free movement, endurance, strength, balance, etc.) combined with the demands of the environment (margin for error, risk of injury, embarrassment or other loss/reward). In contemporary motor learning, the skilled therapist does not use his or her hands to manipulate the learning, but instead recognizes manual contact as but one tool amongst task manipulation, cues, practice structure, all compiled in an individual manner that consider THIS PERSON's individual tolerance for error, success, and stage of learning.