"Your Body Doesn’t Want to Be There”: An IPA Analysis of Sexually Assaulted Women’s Embodied Experiences During Psychotherapy
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- Title
- "Your Body Doesn’t Want to Be There”: An IPA Analysis of Sexually Assaulted Women’s Embodied Experiences During Psychotherapy
- Creator
- Dr Catherine Keenan
- Supervisor
- Professor Jo Lusher
- Date
- 2024
- Abstract
-
Epidemiological data suggest that sexual assault (SA) is a prevalent global issue with well documented cognitive, emotional, social, physiological, economic and societal costs. In the last decades, predominantly quantitative research has identified the significant consequences of SA on embodiment: post-SA, individuals report disconnected and distressing embodied experiences (EEs). Research also suggests that these individuals’ bodies play an important role within the embodied and relational experience of psychotherapy, which this demographic disengages from at higher rates than other populations. However, the phenomenological research necessary to capture a rich understanding of what this experience is like, and accordingly adapt theory and practice, does not currently exist. Therefore, the aim of this Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis study was to explore the lived experience of psychotherapy in terms of SA survivors’ EEs.
Six women aged 26-35 years who experienced SA in adulthood and engaged with at least three months of psychotherapy took part in semi-structured interviews about their EEs during psychotherapy sessions. The interview transcripts were analysed to gather data then clusteredinto the following group experiential themes: (1) Being Confronted by and Avoiding the Body, (2) Body with a Mind of its Own and (3) The Body of the Therapist: Soothing or Violating?. Analysis suggested that the bodies of this demographic can be instinctively triggered by aspects of psychotherapy process, such as talking about SA or being in the same space as an Other. This can be confronting, experienced as a separation of the body from the self and preferably avoided, with online sessions seeming to facilitate more embodied safety than in-person. This original contribution to knowledge is crucial in providing a foundation for how clinical practice can be adapted to this client group, thus improving overall experience and outcomes.
Keywords: sexual assault, embodiment, body, women, qualitative, therapy - Subject
- Psychology and Psychotherapy
- Extent
- 193 Pages
- Format
- Document
- degree
- Doctorate, DPsych
- Language
- Eng
- Date Issued
- 2024
- Item sets
- Theses or Dissertation