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The Embodied Psychotherapist

The Therapist's Body Story

• By Robert Shaw

• Price: $29.95 $26.96
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 184
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 28th August 2003
• ISBN: 978-1-58391-269-0

About the Book

The therapist's body is a vital part of the therapeutic encounter, yet there is an inherent inadequacy in current psychotherapeutic discourse to describe the bodily phenomena. Until recently, for instance, the whole area of touch in psychotherapy has been given very little attention. The Embodied Psychotherapist uses accounts of therapists' own experiences to address this inadequacy in discourse, and provides strategies for incorporating these feelings into therapeutic work with clients. Drawing on these personal accounts, it also discusses the experiences that can be communicated to the therapist during the encounter.

This description and exploration of how practitioners use their bodily feelings within the therapeutic encounter book will be valuable for all psychotherapists and counsellors.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Body in Psychotherapy. The Psychotherapeutic Body. Psychotherapeutic Techniques of the Body. Embodiment and the Lived-Body Paradigm. The Narrative Turn in Psychotherapy. Part 2: Psychotherapists' Body Narratives. Psychotherapists' Physical Reactions to Clients. Body as Receiver. Embodied Styles of Working. Part 3: The Embodied Psychotherapist. Body Empathy. Psychotherapist Embodiment and Narrative.

About the Author(s)

Robert Shaw has written numerous articles for journals including: Psychodynamic Counselling and The Journal of Contemporary Health.