Working with the unspoken: a Hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of working with the unarticulated aspects of therapy
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- Title
- Working with the unspoken: a Hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of working with the unarticulated aspects of therapy
- Creator
- Shabnam Hessami Rad
- Date
- 2013
- Abstract
- The aim of this study is to explore how therapists experiences engage and work with unspoken aspects of therapy. One can argue that, to a considerable extent, the communication that occurs in therapy is pre-reflective, lived, unarticulated and embodied, and may come about through gestures, pauses, silence, tears, body movement and facial expressions or simply as a lived experience with potential for meaning. As there are few existing studies examining this phenomenon, this project is an attempt to better understand the experience of working with pre-reflective aspects of therapy. Specifically, the goal of this study is to investigate this phenomenon as a lived experience rather than to show how it has been conceptualised by theories. With regard to opposing viewpoints in different modalities, the approach of this study therefore takes a stance of being open to what practitioners describe as their experiences rather than what the theories say. Five participants - two male and three female - were interviewed, using a semistructured interview format to attempt to capture their lived experiences of working with non-verbal/embodied communication in therapy. The participants were drawn from five different modalities including existential, transpersonal, focusing oriented, integrative, and psychoanalytical, and had more than three years of experience of working as therapists at the time of interview. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using the hermeneutic circle and hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Eleven themes emerged from the interviews conducted and, after systematic evaluation of these themes, a number of essential qualities and aspects of the phenomenon came to light in the participants experiences. The research results showed that therapists often experience a sense of engagement with the unspoken .. from the outset of sessions, and also demonstrate that the body is like a listening device able to pick up information from the energetic field between therapist and client. The ability to contain unarticulated aspects of therapy helps clients to allow themselves to experience and express that which was previously unbearable and unspeakable. The findings also indicated that the unspoken could often be enclosed within verbal communication. For example, the energy and quality of words and the impact of the client on the therapist shows that working with the unspoken is very intuitive. The research results suggested that therapists often experienced a deep sense of inner connectedness with their clients in consciousness, which is needless of words and is healing in nature. It is also apparent that therapists, at times, find themselves completely merged with their clients and experience exactly what their clients are experiencing. In addition, their thoughts, dreams and concerns about their clients could impact on the sessions."
- Subject
- Non-verbal communication|Psychotherapy--Practice||
- Psychotherapy and Counselling
- Extent
- 134 pages
- Format
- Publisher
- Regent's University London
- degree
- MA in Psychotherapy and Counselling
- Language
- English
- Date Issued
- 2013
- Type
- Thesis & Dissertation
- Rights Holder
- Regent's University London & Shabnam Hessami Rad
- Item sets
- Theses or Dissertation