Embodied relating : the ground of psychotherapy / Nick Totton.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Embodied Relating is addressed both to body psychotherapists and to verbal therapists, and argues that embodied relating is the soil from which all therapy grows, and that conscious understanding of this makes our work more powerful and accurate. Embodied relating is embedded in our everyday life: we can all 'do' embodied relating, though some do it better than others. Like many other important aspects of life, it generally happens of its own accord, but sometimes benefits from the sort of close examination which tends to happen in therapy. However, psychotherapy has a history of keeping embodiment out of its field of awareness, and of preferring language-based relating to all other kinds - indeed, until quite recently, of downplaying here-and-now relationship altogether. All these things are now changing; and this book is intended to be part of the change. Embodiment and relationship are inseparable, both in human existence and in psychotherapy. If we explore embodiment, we encounter relationship; if we explore relationship, we encounter embodiment. Therapy is more powerful when the practitioner is able to recognize the constant interplay between these two aspects of being human, and to follow and support the shifts of change from one to the other. The book explores the nature of embodiment, and of embodied relating, drawing on many sources, including Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Bourdieu, enaction theory, extended cognition, and neuroscience. It places this in the context of psychotherapy, and of the wider social and political field. It then explores other related issues like play, language, trauma, and complexity, and offers a model for those trained in verbal therapy to consult their embodiment when working with clients. It ends with some wider speculations about embodiment, connectedness, human history and ecosystemic thinking.

English.

Chapter One What is embodiment? / Nick Totton -- chapter Two Embodiment and environment / Nick Totton -- chapter Three Embodied relating / Nick Totton -- chapter Four Practising embodied relating / Nick Totton -- chapter The Story So Far, 1 / Nick Totton -- chapter Five Embodied relating in its social context / Nick Totton -- chapter Six Being, having, and becoming bodies / Nick Totton -- chapter Seven Character as embodied relating / Nick Totton -- chapter The Story So Far, 2 / Nick Totton -- chapter Eight Therapy as play / Nick Totton -- chapter Nine Full and empty speech / Nick Totton -- chapter Ten Embodied trauma and complexity / Nick Totton -- chapter The Story So Far, 3 / Nick Totton -- chapter Eleven Therapy grounded in embodied relating / Nick Totton -- chapter Twelve Embodied connectedness / Nick Totton -- chapter Conclusion / Nick Totton.

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