Evaluating the process of embodied experiences in critical moments of therapeutic change: a qualitative study

Abstract

This research study set out to examine the embodied experiences of critical moments of change from the perspectives of psychotherapists and clients. The main aim of the research was to investigate how the psychotherapist- participants brought embodied attentional attunement to their clients with the intention to facilitate change sought by clients. The research was undertaken with nine psychotherapist-participants and four client-participants. The nine psychotherapist-participants were regular mindfulness practitioners and the four client-participants were in therapy with body-oriented/mindfulness and analytical psychotherapists. Braun and Clarke’s Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the dataset. A phenomenological reflexivity or bracketing was also adopted in the data analysis. The psychotherapist’s embodied stance became a focus on how therapeutic processes were sensed and identified experientially. These processes included experiences of shifts or change, attunement and co-created intersubjective states. The five main themes generated were; ‘The body is a barometer’, ‘Mindfulness is not psychotherapy, it is a return the body’, ‘What’s mine and what’s yours?’, ‘Change is an active being-with’, and ‘Embodiment is the co-experience of sameness and alterity.’ These five themes were further organised under two overarching themes, ‘The moving body’ and ‘Talking therapy is intersubjective’ to encapsulate the concepts found in the data analysis.

In conclusion, critical moments of change or shifts are identified as the recognition of otherness or alterity in embodied intersubjective experiences. These can happen in a ‘gap’, an ‘insertion point’ or an ‘interruption’ within a therapeutic exchange. This is also an ethical framework for psychotherapy in recognising the body’s response to experiencing empathy and attunement. This has also been supported by findings in brain studies in an intersubjective context. Given the current prevalence of online therapy, future research recommendations include investigating the body’s response to the co-created intersubjective in a virtual environment.

Key words: mindfulness, embodiment, phenomenology, Merleau-Ponty, critical moments of therapeutic change, intersubjectivity