Bodies In Treatment: The Unspoken Dimension (Relational Perspectives Book Series)

Bodies in Treatment is a challenging volume that brings into conceptual focus an "unspoken dimension" of clinical work - the body and nonverbal communication - that has long occupied the shadowy realm of tacit knowledge. By bringing visceral, sensory, and imagistic modes of emotional processing to the forefront, Editor Frances Sommer Anderson and the contributors to this original collection expand the domain of psychodynamic engagement. Working at the leading edge of psychoanalytic theory and practice, and in the forefront of the integrative psychotherapy movement, Anderson has created a collaborative project that stimulates interdisciplinary dialogue on the developmental neurobiology of attachment, the micro-processing of interchanges between the infant and caregiver, the neuroscience of emotional processing and trauma, body-focused talking treatments for trauma, and research in cognitive science. Enlightened by experiencing body-based treatments for thirty years, Anderson reflects on the powerful impact of these interventions, recounting attempts to integrate her somatically-informed discoveries into the "talking" frame. Reaching further, her contributors present richly informative accounts of how experiences in body-based modalities can be creatively integrated into a psychoanalytic framework of treatment. Readers are introduced to specialized modalities, such as craniosacral therapy and polarity therapy, as well as to the adjunctive use of yoga, the effectiveness of which can be grounded neurophysiologically. Somatic interventions are discussed in terms of the extent to which they can promote depth-psychological change outside the psychoanalytic consulting room as well as how they can enrich the relational process in psychodynamic treatment. The final sections of Bodies in Treatment explore the range of ways in which patients’ and therapists’ bodies engage, sustain, and contain the dynamics of treatment.

Bodies in Treatment is a challenging volume that brings into conceptual focus an "unspoken dimension" of clinical work - the body and nonverbal communication - that has long occupied the shadowy realm of tacit knowledge. By bringing visceral, sensory, and imagistic modes of emotional processing to the forefront, Editor Frances Sommer Anderson and the contributors to this original collection expand the domain of psychodynamic engagement. Working at the leading edge of psychoanalytic theory and practice, and in the forefront of the integrative psychotherapy movement, Anderson has created a collaborative project that stimulates interdisciplinary dialogue on the developmental neurobiology of attachment, the micro-processing of interchanges between the infant and caregiver, the neuroscience of emotional processing and trauma, body-focused talking treatments for trauma, and research in cognitive science.

Enlightened by experiencing body-based treatments for thirty years, Anderson reflects on the powerful impact of these interventions, recounting attempts to integrate her somatically-informed discoveries into the "talking" frame. Reaching further, her contributors present richly informative accounts of how experiences in body-based modalities can be creatively integrated into a psychoanalytic framework of treatment. Readers are introduced to specialized modalities, such as craniosacral therapy and polarity therapy, as well as to the adjunctive use of yoga, the effectiveness of which can be grounded neurophysiologically. Somatic interventions are discussed in terms of the extent to which they can promote depth-psychological change outside the psychoanalytic consulting room as well as how they can enrich the relational process in psychodynamic treatment. The final sections of Bodies in Treatment explore the range of ways in which patients’ and therapists’ bodies engage, sustain, and contain the dynamics of treatment.

At a loss for words and feelings: a psychoanalyst reflects on experiencing bodywork / Frances Sommer Anderson Self in action: the bodily basis of self-organization / William F. Cornell The role of bodily experience in emotional organization: new perspectives on the multiple code theory / Wilma Bucci Learning from work with individuals with a history of trauma: some thoughts on integrating body-oriented techniques and relational psychoanalysis / Christopher B. Eldredge and Gilbert W. Cole The coconstruction of "psychoanalytical choreography" and the dancing self: working with an anorectic patient / Maria Paola Pacifici Yoga and neuro-psychoanalysis / Patricia L. Gerbarg Sweet are the uses of adversity : psychic integration through body-centered work / Graham Bass Coming into being: employing the wisdom of the body and mind-body therapy / Helen M. Newman Tipping points between body, culture, and subjectivity: the tension between passion and custom / Steven H. Knoblauch "We" got rhythm: miming and the polyphony of identity in psychoanalysis / Gianni Nebbiosi and Susanna Federici-Nebbiosi When a body meets a body: the impact of the therapist's body on eating-disordered patients / Jean Petrucelli The analyst's vulnerability: preserving and fine-tuning analytic bodies / Adrienne Harris and Kathy Sinsheimer Introduces readers to modalities such as craniosacral therapy and polarity therapy, as well as to use of yoga, the usefulness of which can be grounded neurophysiologically. This book also discusses somatic interventions, the extent to which they can promote depth-psychological change outside the psychoanalytic consulting room.