The Relational Mind in Couple Therapy: A Bateson‐Inspired View of Human Life as an Embodied Stream

Seikkula, Jaakko; Karvonen, Anu; Kykyri, Virpi‐Liisa; Penttonen, Markku; Nyman-Salonen, Petra

doi:10.1111/famp.12382

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(52 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Palumbo et al ., ; Timmons, Margolin & Saxbe, ). There are only a handful of studies examining participants’ physiological linkage in actual therapy sessions; in these, physiological linkage has been shown to be associated with ratings of empathy and rapport, to play a role in subject positioning, and to occur at significant moments in the session (Karvonen et al ., ; Marci et al ., ; Seikkula et al ., , ). This literature is still in its infancy, is characterized by methodological and conceptual diversity, and our knowledge of the ways in which autonomic arousal is implicated with affect regulation and mutual co‐regulation in therapy is limited.…”

Section: Relational Processes Of Meaning‐makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying the Process of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Discursive and Embodied Aspects

Avdi¹,

Seikkula²

2019

Brit J Psychotherapy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents a case study that aims to further our understanding of the relational and embodied aspects of the psychotherapy process. One psychoanalytic session is examined on multiple levels, including talk, participants' physiological arousal and interactional attunement, ruptures in the therapeutic alliance, postural congruence and facial expression of affect. Implicit processes of non-verbal attunement seem to play a role in resolving ruptures and in fostering exploration and the creation of new meanings. Embodied attunement was found to be at its highest at points in the session characterized by verbal disjunction and ruptures in the therapeutic alliance. The therapeutic dyad was 'in sync' non-verbally until tension was resolved, at which point, synchrony was relaxed, and therapist and client were able to proceed with their respective 'tasks', secure in the knowledge that the other is there for them. It is argued that attempts to describe the complex and nuanced processes of psychotherapeutic change would benefit from attending to both explicit/semantic and implicit/non-verbal domains of interaction. This paper is based on a presentation at the 'Peripheral Visions' conference organized to celebrate the work of Jeremy Holmes. The word periphery in its original Greek «περιφέρεια» denotes that which is at the margins rather than the centre; also, it refers to the circumference of a circle or any curved line that encloses a circular shape, with associations with space, boundaries and form. In line with the spirit of the conference, this paper explores that which lies on the periphery of conscious awareness, but which arguably is central to the process of therapy.Despite the proliferation of theories of change in psychotherapy, there is relatively little in-session research that explores in detail the processes through which change takes place. In this paper, we present findings from an exploratory, mixedmethods case study, which aims to describe aspects of therapy process by examining the minutiae, and from multiple perspectives, a brief interactive event from one session of a psychoanalytic treatment.

show abstract

Section: Relational Processes Of Meaning‐makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying the Process of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Discursive and Embodied Aspects

Avdi¹,

Seikkula²

2019

Brit J Psychotherapy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another group of recent studies examining autonomic arousal in psychotherapy focus on physiological concordance or linkage, 'the social coupling of two (or more) individuals in the hereand-now of a communication context that emerges alongside, and in addition to, their verbal exchanges' (Tschacher and Meier, 2020, p. 558). Some early studies showed evidence for autonomic concordance between clients and therapists (e.g., DiMascio et al, 1957), a finding that has been explored further more recently (e.g., Marci et al, 2007;Villmann et al, 2008;Karvonen et al, 2015;Seikkula et al, 2015Seikkula et al, , 2018Kodama et al, 2018;Tschacher and Meier, 2020). Findings from these studies are mixed; however, one finding that has been shown across several studies on psychotherapy sessions (as well as in studies of simulated sessions, e.g., Marci and Orr, 2006;Messina et al, 2013;Palmieri et al, 2018) is a correlation between ratings of empathy and the degree of physiological linkage between therapist and client.…”

Section: Interpersonal Physiology and Psychotherapy Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Conversational and Physiological Aspects of Psychotherapy Talk

Avdi

Evans

2020

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study is part of a larger exploration of 'talk and cure' that combines the examination of talk-in-interaction with nonverbal displays and measurements of the client's and therapist's autonomic arousal during therapy sessions. A key assumption of the study is that psychotherapy entails processes of intersubjective meaning-making that occur across different modalities and take place in both verbal/explicit and nonverbal/implicit domains. A single session of a psychodynamic psychotherapy is analyzed with a focus on the expression and management of affect, with an aim to describe key interactive events that promote change in both semantic and procedural domains. The clinical dialog is analyzed discursively, with a focus on the conversational processes through which new meanings are jointly constructed and affective states shared; detailed attention is paid to nonverbal displays of affiliation and affect. Furthermore, we explore whether the interactional patterns implicated in joint meaning-making, as revealed by analyzing the therapeutic conversation, have correlates in the autonomic arousal of the two protagonists, as reflected in their heart rates. Conversation analysis has still untapped potential to illuminate interactional patterns that underlie the practice of psychotherapy. In this exploratory study we suggest that discursive analyses of talkin-interaction can be enriched through detailed focus on nonverbal displays as well as measures of physiological arousal. Drawing upon the analysis, we suggest that bringing the methodological strengths of language-based analysis into fertile dialog with embodied quantitative data can help our explorations of what's really going on in psychotherapy.

show abstract

“…Cada uno de estos términos subraya algún aspecto importante de estos abordajes ya que éstos ven la terapia como un proceso conversacional o discursivo. Las palabras que utilizamos no «reflejan» lo que pensamos o sentimos, sino que le dan forma en gran medida a nuestras ideas y al significado de nuestras experiencias (Anderson y Goolishian, 1988;Seikkula, Karvonen, Kykyri, Penttonen y Nyman-Salonen, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Diálogo Abierto: Una Aproximación Narrativa a un caso de Terapia de Pareja con Malestar Conyugal

Miralles

Puigdesens

Vall

et al. 2019

rdp

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Investigaciones previas han encontrado patrones comunicativos específicos en parejas que lidian con la depresión, específicamente cuando la depresión está asociada con problemas conyugales. Este hecho puede conllevar a que las parejas presenten dificultades para desarrollar una comunicación colaborativa en las sesiones, lo que supone un verdadero reto para los terapeutas. Este estudio exploratorio examina desde un enfoque dialógico la dominancia y el tipo de diálogo establecido en una pareja que lidia con la depresión y que presenta un bajo ajuste diádico. Las respuestas de los terapeutas fueron exploradas para identificar cuáles fueron las más efectivas al propiciar una actitud colaborativa. El método utilizado para analizar el diálogo fue el Método de Investigaciones Dialógicas de Cambio (IDC). Los resultados sugirieron cualidades del diálogo ilustrativas del malestar conyugal presente en la pareja. Se identificaron respuestas terapéuticas a través del diálogo que pueden resultar eficaces si se mantienen a lo largo de la sesión para reducir la hostilidad en la pareja. Se discuten algunas implicaciones clínicas surgidas de los resultados.

show abstract

The Relational Mind in Couple Therapy: A Bateson‐Inspired View of Human Life as an Embodied Stream

Cited by 20 publications

References 36 publications

Studying the Process of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Discursive and Embodied Aspects

Studying the Process of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Discursive and Embodied Aspects

Exploring Conversational and Physiological Aspects of Psychotherapy Talk

Diálogo Abierto: Una Aproximación Narrativa a un caso de Terapia de Pareja con Malestar Conyugal

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About