The Fractal Self - 'parallel process' as an organising principle for psychotherapy
Introduction:
in SV: recognised the phenomenon of parallel process since 1950's (Harold Searles), more widely established since 1990 (Peter Hawkins & Robin Shohet)
SV – rather than being an ethically necessary professional accessory – actually shows us one of the underlying, fundamental principle of our discipline
parallel process can become an organising principle of psychotherapy for the 21st century
Hawkins/Shohet model (see handout 1)
Extending and expanding the meaning of parallel process...
within psychotherapy
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transference and countertransference as parallel process,
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interpersonal and intrapsychic relationship as parallel processes
external relationship parallels internal relational positions, developmental patterns, character, RIGS or schemata),
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body and mind as parallel process
Extending and expanding parallel process ...
into neuroscience and biology
what kind of capacities does a brain need to be capable of in order to recognise parallel process ?
the brain = multiple systems (many brains) = capacity for 'parallel processing'
but maybe their parallel processing and our parallel process have more to do with each other than just sharing the same term ?
left brain naming an object, with a one-to-one relationship between the name and the object; this is just one kind of thinking, and it's NOT process thinking, it's NOT relational thinking; nothing exists in isolation, but everything is defined by relationship context
Extending and expanding parallel process ...
into cosmology – fractal reality
fractal reality of a multi-dimensional holographic universe (each part carries the whole, yet the whole is more than the sum of its parts): patterns and dynamics are replicated at all levels of scale or organisation: parallel process is the glue, the mechanism, the principle that allows that replication across levels
parallel process as one basic principle of an 'informational, fractal, holarchic paradoxical universe';
beyond psychotherapy, beyond psyche, in a formulation which transcends the mind-over-matter split: information is tied to matter, but neither defining it nor defined by it – how does information get carried and replicated from one system to another ?
Jung's psychoid unconscious and synchronicity can, for example, usefully be formulated as parallel processes
Internalisation
how does the dynamic get carried from one system to the other (where it then can get replicated )?
Family Constellations: 'knowing field' which helps representatives tap into the protagonist's story and dynamics
information gets carried and somehow communicated from one system to the next via the one common factor to both: the therapist.
usual explanation: therapist – having opened themselves to the dynamic with the client and been affected by it - has taken it in, has internalised it, largely subliminally and carries it across
this explanation is supported by the degree of non-verbal, right-brain communication which neuroscience has drawn our attention to, the myriad of messages which get registered subliminally every second and the speed and complexity of internal representation of the other that takes place (mirror neurons).
Internalisation as a major feature of how human relationship works
pervasiveness of projective identification
POP: 'dreaming up'
mirror neurons (Gallese: shared intersubjective manifold = we are swimming in the soup of each others' body/mind representations)
parallel process = dominoes of enactment
Internalisation as a major feature of how the human mind functions
·'countertransference revolution' = the therapist's internal experience contains information about the client's inner world
·object relations and ...
·concept of projective identification
·Searles proposed parallel process in supervision about the same time that Klein's notion of projective identification was applied to countertransference
Extend Hawkins/Shohet model (see handout 2):
therapist-supervisor dynamic parallels client-therapist dynamic
1. client-therapist dynamic parallels client's internal world (=internal object relations)
2. the object relations dynamic in the client's mind (mental representations) parallels the dynamic in the body (and between mind and body)
3. the interpersonal and body/mind dynamic in the 'here & now' parallels the dynamic in the formative past
three parallel relationships (see handout 3):
(Michael Jacobs "The Presenting Past")
past originally wounding relationship
internal(ised) through character formation
(re-)externalised in here & now (transference)
five parallel relationships (see handout 4):
original, past relationship
spontaneous conflict
internal(ised) in conflict
conflicted ego
(re-)externalised in here & now (transference)
integral-relational model
five parallel relationships between client and therapist
+ SV
= six parallel processes
= all the same dynamic
Enactment = parallel process as the crucial concept in relational work
transference can be enacted BOTH ways of internalised relationship
enactment = central principle of psychotherapy = pervasive parallel process
How to work with it ?
becoming aware of it: distinguish content and process
becoming aware of it: noticing parallel process
becoming aware of it: noticing reverse parallel process
interpretation (is possible from expert position)
entering enactment (bodymind relational surrender)
resting in paradox until spontaneous transformation occurs
Resources:
integral mind
neuroscience / biology (Schore)
holarchic, epigenetic theory (Wilber)
parallel process across holarchic levels:
holarchic epigenetic theory = transcend and include
·spontaneous emergence of new complexity (new level, or holon)
·something qualitatively new = quantum leap = dependence on initial conditions
·each level emerges through the previous one (established structure)
·each level therefore, carries the marks of previous ones, but can also transcend and compensate (maybe an example: Goethe: flower metamorphoses)
·sense of self developing (Wilber Fonagy/Target)
·destruction AND creation
Conclusion
we want to make the therapeutic space an instrument that is sensitive and impressionable to parallel process: allowing myself to be constructed as an object by the client's unconscious
the closer you get to the heat, the more likely you are lost in parallel process
it happens, anyway, but we will not notice = no unfolding of the deeper levels
A selection of Books and Reading Materials on Body Psychotherapy
Boadella, D. (1987) Lifestreams - an Introduction to Biosynthesis. London: Routledge Kegan Paul
Conger, J.P. (1994) The Body in Recovery: Somatic Psychotherapy and the Self. Berkeley: Frog.
Corrigall, J., Payne, H., Wilkinson, H. (2006) About a Body. London: Routledge
Damasio, A.R. (1994) Descartes' Error. New York: Putnam
Damasio, A.R. (2000) The Feeling of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the Making of Consciousness. New York: Vintage
Damasio, A.R. (2004) Looking for Spinoza. New York: Vintage
Eiden, B. (2002) Application of post-Reichian body psychotherapy, in T. Staunton (ed.), Body Psychotherapy. London: Brunner-Routledge.
Gerhardt, S. (2004) Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain. London: Brunner-Routledge
Gomez, L. (1997) Introduction to Object Relations. London: Free Association
Hawkins, P. and Shohet, R. (2000) Supervision in the Helping Professions. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Johnson, S. (1994) Character Styles. New York: W.W. Norton.
Keleman, S. (1975) The Human Ground - Sexuality, Self and Survival. Berkeley: Center Press.
Kepner, J. (1987) Body Process, A Gestalt Approach to Working with the Body in Psychotherapy. New York: Gestalt Institute of Cleveland Press.
Lowen, A. (1958) The Language of the Body. New York: Collier
Mindell A. (1982) Dreambody: The Body’s Role in Revealing the Self. Arkana
Pert, C. (1997) Molecules of Emotion. London: Simon & Schuster
Reich W. (1983 1st U.K. ed.) The Function of the Orgasm. London: Souvenir Press
Reich, W. (1972 [1945]) Character Analysis . New York: Touchstone.
Rosenberg, J. (1985) Body, Self and Soul - Sustaining Integration. Atlanta: Humanics.
Schore, A. (1994) Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Schore, A. (2003) Affect Dysregulation and Disorders of the Self. New York: Norton.
Soth, M. (1999) Relating to and with the Objectified Body, Self & Society, 27(1), p. 32 - 38
Soth, M. (2000) The integrated body/mind's view on Body/Mind Integration, AChP Newsletter 2000 (also www.soth.co.uk)
Soth, M. (2003) Psychotherapy: paradoxes, pitfalls & potential, Self & Society, 30(6), Feb/Mar 2003, p. 34 - 44
Soth, M.(2004) What Therapeutic Hope for a Subjective Mind in an Objectified Body? Presentation to UKCP Conference 2004
Soth, M. (2004) "Integrating humanistic techniques into a transference-countertransference perspective - A Response to ‘Humanistic or psychodynamic - what is the difference and do we have to make a choice ?’ by Lavinia Gomez ”, Self & Society, 32(1), Apr./May 2004, p. 44 - 52
Soth, M. (2005) Embodied Countertransference. in: Totton, N. (2005) New Dimensions in Body Psychotherapy. Maidenhead: OUP
Soth, M. (2005) Body Psychotherapy today - an integral-relational approach, Therapy Today, November 2005, Vol 16 No 9
Soth, M.(2006) What Therapeutic Hope for a Subjective Mind in an Objectified Body? in: Corrigall, J., Payne, H., Wilkinson, H. (2006) About a Body. London: Routledge
Soth, M. (2006) How ‘the wound’ enters the room and the relationship, Therapy Today, December 2006
Soth, M. (2007) No ‘Relating Cure’ without Embodiment, Therapy Today, January 2007
Staunton, T. (2002) Body Psychotherapy, London: Brunner-Routledge
Totton, N. (2003) Body Psychotherapy: An Introduction. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Totton, N. (2005) New Dimensions in Body Psychotherapy. Maidenhead: OUP
Wilber, K. (1986) No Boundary. Boston: Shambala.
Wilber, K. (2000) Integral Psychology. Boston: Shambala