aMaking the unconscious conscious is a key to growth and wisdom—and healing. But how do we do it? What's it like? What makes it easier and harder to accomplish? Read on!
I agree that the phone (unlike video conferencing technology) can allow more freedom for therapist and patient for free association and reverie, goals of Freud's use of the couch, a freedom of mind and experience that can be limited by the self-consciousness invoked by being looked at directly. (which is a real limitation of video conferencing telehealth). However, because the patient is not visible or fully audible, nor is the therapist, we can't hear or see each other breathe (which is possible with the couch); notice shifts in body posture, and of course, miss all the other shared sensory experiences that help create a relationship for thinking and feeling together.
That's a great observation. It seems you're describing some of the conditions that lead to attachment and by extension to building safety and trust in the alliance.
There are so many enjoyable elements in this essay..the way the parts link and build a koan like experience for me the reader, similar to the authors experience that day, the simplicity married to the complexity of these ideas--that we turn from knowing to save ourselves and that when we turn toward knowing, a little bit at a time, it is calming even when we come to know a disturbing thing! It seems to be the embodied accompaniment that our animal body-consciousness longs for! Thank you again Gary for presenting an idea is such a felt and useful way!
I’ve met a few analysts who did their therapy over the phone long before COVID precisely because it simulated the on-the-couch experience. I tried it a few times. Just as important as the patient not seeing the analyst and being able to free-associate is the freedom the analyst has in not being being stared at by the patient. Helps one loosen up a bit.
I love your way of putting it, "that we turn from knowing to save ourselves" (our good adaptations or defenses) and "that when we turn toward knowing it is calming even" (also surprising)..."to know a disturbing thing." Thanks for the good word.
I agree about the mutual advantage of the couch/phone. Especially for people who are highly sensitive to nonverbal interpersonal communications, it can provide important relief from those triggers, allowing therapist and patient to go deeper into one's intrapersonal experience.
I agree that the phone (unlike video conferencing technology) can allow more freedom for therapist and patient for free association and reverie, goals of Freud's use of the couch, a freedom of mind and experience that can be limited by the self-consciousness invoked by being looked at directly. (which is a real limitation of video conferencing telehealth). However, because the patient is not visible or fully audible, nor is the therapist, we can't hear or see each other breathe (which is possible with the couch); notice shifts in body posture, and of course, miss all the other shared sensory experiences that help create a relationship for thinking and feeling together.
That's a great observation. It seems you're describing some of the conditions that lead to attachment and by extension to building safety and trust in the alliance.
There are so many enjoyable elements in this essay..the way the parts link and build a koan like experience for me the reader, similar to the authors experience that day, the simplicity married to the complexity of these ideas--that we turn from knowing to save ourselves and that when we turn toward knowing, a little bit at a time, it is calming even when we come to know a disturbing thing! It seems to be the embodied accompaniment that our animal body-consciousness longs for! Thank you again Gary for presenting an idea is such a felt and useful way!
I’ve met a few analysts who did their therapy over the phone long before COVID precisely because it simulated the on-the-couch experience. I tried it a few times. Just as important as the patient not seeing the analyst and being able to free-associate is the freedom the analyst has in not being being stared at by the patient. Helps one loosen up a bit.
I love your way of putting it, "that we turn from knowing to save ourselves" (our good adaptations or defenses) and "that when we turn toward knowing it is calming even" (also surprising)..."to know a disturbing thing." Thanks for the good word.
I agree about the mutual advantage of the couch/phone. Especially for people who are highly sensitive to nonverbal interpersonal communications, it can provide important relief from those triggers, allowing therapist and patient to go deeper into one's intrapersonal experience.