Phenomenology and Aesthetic Recognition of the Dance between Psychotherapist and Client: A Clinical Example

Journal title QUADERNI DI GESTALT
Author/s Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2020/1
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 41-56 File size 201 KB
DOI 10.3280/GEST2020-001004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article follows a first presentation of the "dance steps" between therapist and client, which appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of the British Gestalt Journal (Spagnuolo Lobb, 2017). It gives a clinical example of how this phenomenological and aesthetic observational tool works in practice. The author describes briefly the "dance steps" (described more extensively in the previous paper) and also outlines a possible research path to validate these as a Gestalt therapy observa-tional tool. The aims of the tool will be developed in two directions: (1) A clinical use of the steps for supervision: the supervisor can use the dance steps to supervise the therapeutic situa-tion; (2) Use of the steps for research: a detailed description in behavioral terms of the steps will be provided to describe what happens between two or more people in a therapist/client situation. Finally, the author presents a clinical case to implement the concept of "dance steps": a phenomenological description of a session reported by the client and by the therapist through a reflection on mutual interactions. The context of the work is a Summer Program that takes place every year at the end of Ju-ly in Syracuse, Italy: a five-day retreat for psychotherapists from all over the world, with the main aim of taking care of themselves whilst also receiving theoretical and clinical updates. One of the participants describes what she remembered of the session and then the therapist adds her experience. The recollection is live and most of all it recounts the perception of the client and that of the therapist, in "dance steps" terms. It is Gestalt therapy work on a dream, which they have called "the wolf work". The author concludes connecting the use of reciproci-ty to political and social response-ability today. A main clinical problem today derives from the lack of recognition from the other, which makes bodily desensitization evident in our clients. This brings Gestalt therapists to focus on the reciprocity of their interactions with clients, in-stead of on how only the client makes contact. As a matter of fact, in the actual dance between them there is the possibility of revitalizing the contact boundary, where the self is co-created.

Keywords: Therapist/client dance steps, phenomenology, aesthetics, desensitisation, reciprocity.

  1. Bloom D.J. (2007). “Tigre! Tigre! Che splendente bruci”: valori estetici come valori clinici in psicoterapia della Gestalt. In: Spagnuolo Lobb M., Amendt-Lyon N (a cura di), Il permesso di creare. L’arte della psicoterapia della Gestalt, Milano: FrancoAngeli (ed. or.: “Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright”. Aesthetic values as clinical values in Gestalt Therapy. In: Spagnuolo Lobb M., Amendt-Lyon N. (Eds.), Creative license. The Art of Gestalt Therapy, Vienna & New York: Springer, 2003).
  2. Damasio A. (1999). The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.
  3. Gallese V., Eagle M.N., Migone P. (2007). Intentional Attunement: Mirror Neurons and the Neural Underpinnings of Interpersonal Relations. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 55, 1: 131-176.
  4. Gallese V., Spagnuolo Lobb M. (2012). Il now-for-next tra neuroscienze e psicoterapia della Gestalt. Idee in Psicoterapia, 5, 13: 53-65.
  5. Heidegger M. (1953). Essere e tempo. Torino: Utet (ed. or. Sein und Zeit. Niemeyer, Verlag: Halle 1927).
  6. Merleau-Ponty M. (1945). Fenomenologia della percezione. Milano: Bompiani (ed. or.: The Phenomenology of Perception. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2009).
  7. Panksepp J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  8. Perls F.S., Hefferline R., Goodman P. (1997). La terapia della Gestalt: eccitazione e accrescimento nella personalità umana. Roma: Astrolabio (ed. or.: Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. New York, NY: The Gestalt Journal Press, 1951; 1994).
  9. Porges S. (2014). La teoria polivagale. Fondamenti neurofisiologici delle emozioni, dell’attaccamento, della comunicazione e dell’autoregolazione. Roma: Giovanni Fioriti (ed. or.: The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).
  10. Ricoeur P. (2005). Percorsi del riconoscimento. Milano: Raffaello Cortina (ed. or.: Parcours de la reconnaissance. Paris: Editions Stock, collections “Les Essais”, 2004).
  11. Siegel D.J. (2012). La mente relazionale: neurobiologia dell’esperienza interpersonale. Milano: Raffaello Cortina (ed. or.: The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 1999).
  12. Spagnuolo Lobb M. (2016). Psychotherapy in Post Modern Society. Gestalt Today Malta, 1, 1: 97-113.
  13. Spagnuolo Lobb M. (2017). From Losses of Ego Functions to the Dance Steps Between Psychotherapist and Client. Phenomenology and Aesthetics of Contact in the Psychotherapeutic field. British Gestalt Journal, 26, 1: 28-37.
  14. Stern D.N. (2005). Il momento presente in psicoterapia e nella vista quotidiana. Milano: Raffaello Cortina (ed. or.: The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. New York, NY: Norton, 2004).
  15. Stern D.N. (2011). Le forme vitali. L’esperienza dinamica in psicologia, nell’arte, in psicoterapia e nello sviluppo. Milano: Raffaello Cortina (ed. or. Forms of Vitality. Exploring Dynamic Experience in Psychology and the Arts. Oxford, UK; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2010).
  16. van der Kolk B.A., Roth S., Pelcovitz D., Sunday S., Spinazzola J. (2005). Disorder of Ex-treme Stress: The Empirical Foundation of a Complex Adaptation to Trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18, 5: 389-399.

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Fenomenologia e riconoscimento estetico della "danza" tra psicoterapeuta e paziente: un esempio clinico in "QUADERNI DI GESTALT" 1/2020, pp 41-56, DOI: 10.3280/GEST2020-001004