Advances in Relational Psychotherapy

humanizing the therapeutic relationship: the transformative power and risk of ‘Felt Participation’

In this conversation, Shoshi Asheri will present a clinical encounter which illustrates how the invisible bonds that pre-exist between therapist and client can be utilized therapeutically, if dared to be felt by both therapist and client.

Together, she and Roz Carroll will discuss the complex notion of ‘Felt Participation’ as a navigating tool in the invisible field of connection and dissociation between therapist and client. They will explore their understanding of the potential that sits in the paradoxical tension between the therapist as a person and the therapist in their role, and the creative edge arising from staying with a moment to moment embodied lived experience.

The discussion then opens out into the broader question of how to foster in trainee psychotherapists the capacity for embodied relating and improvisation side by side with the capacity for reflexivity. Finally they will consider the importance and the complexity of creating a therapeutic culture that democratises the power relationship.