THESIS 2019

THE PSYCHOTHERAPIST’S BODY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE: A RESEARCH IN ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT.

Sandro José da Silva Leite

Advisor: Mara de Castro Oliveira
Keywords: Psychotherapist´s body. Perception. Verbal Language. Mind-body relation. Analytical Psychology. Authentic Movement.

Abstract: The main objective of this thesis was to understand how the psychotherapist experiences his body in the analytical relationship and what the resonances are in his clinical practice. For this we specify four secondary objectives: to identify the psychotherapist's conception of the body; to apprehend how the psychotherapist perceives his body in the analytical relationship; to understand how the psychotherapist's embodied perception was constituted throughout his clinical practice; to analyze how the relationship between embodied perception and verbal language occurs. The qualitative research was carried out with 10 Jungian psychotherapists, using two instruments: a written report and a semi-structured interview. The analysis of the data was conducted through the analysis of content proposed by Bardin; as a theoretical basis for analysis we use Analytical Psychology with contributions from the Authentic Movement. As for the results, it was possible to do a collective mapping of the content brought by participants, identifying five categories: The history of the psychotherapist's body and the relationship with clinical practice; The fundamentals of embodied perception in the clinic; The perceptions, articulations and actions between the psychotherapist's body and the patient's body; the psychotherapist's embodied perception and verbal language in the analytical relationship; The psychotherapist's body in words and images. The data analyzed and discussed suggest that the psychotherapist’s body is experienced as a sensitive body, although he has the potential for experiencing a conscious body, aspects of the psychotherapist's thoughts about his own body must be taken into account because they can impact their perception in the analytical relationship. It is important to note that the interface between thought, perception and verbal language becomes relevant within this contemporary perspective of thinking and living the whole body of the psychotherapist in question.