Breathing and relating: exploring a therapist’s heuristic experience

A beginning psychodynamic psychotherapist with a passion for body psychotherapy spent a year exploring the subjective experience of breathing while in sessions with clients, using a heuristic self-search methodology. The therapist discovered that their own breath is recruited as a protective defence against feeling. With clients, the experience of breathing shifts from unconscious to conscious, and this shift is influenced by intersecting client and therapist histories. The work demonstrates the potential for practising conscious breathing in psychotherapy and explores the importance of breath in investigating the therapist's somatic countertransference and establishing breathing space between therapist and client.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT What is my experience of consciously breathing while in sessions with clients? As a beginning psychodynamic psychotherapist with a passion for body psychotherapy, this research question sparked a year of exploration into breathing and relating. Following a heuristic self-search methodology, I closely examined my subjective experience of breathing while in sessions with clients, and in the process my relationship with my own breath was illuminated. I discovered that I recruit my breath as a protective defence against feeling. With my clients, I discovered that my experience of breathing shifts from unconscious to conscious, and that shifting breath consciousness is influenced by intersecting client and therapist histories. My research demonstrates the potential for practising conscious breathing in psychotherapy. I explore the importance of breath in investigating the therapist’s somatic countertransference and establishing breathing space between therapist and client.