Although body psychotherapists have been talking about embodied relationship for some while, we are only now starting to make the leap from adapting the concepts of verbal psychotherapy – transference, counter-transference, projection – to reconceiving from the ground up what happens in a therapeutic embodied relationship.
Neuroscience can offer fruitful metaphors for this; but the real foundations are to be found in the traditions of body psychotherapy, and in our immediate experience. ‘Embodied transference and countertransference’ is not a special sub-category, but the thing itself. If countertransference is not experienced in the therapist’s body, we need to ask what has caused this dissociation.
Our reactions and responses to others are sourced in the physiological activation set in train by the mutual impact of two or more people’s embodiment; each of us has a learnt repertoire of patterns of activation on which we draw in new relationships, and which therefore shape these relationships. These patterns are a major part of what we explore in psychotherapy.
The workshop is designed for body psychotherapists and other practitioners interested in embodied relationship. It will include discussion, experiential work, and supervision.