Bodily and therapeutic movement: A phenomenological study of narrative practice

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In this article we present a phenomenological single-case study of a client’s experience of her therapist’s bodily movement in the context of narrative therapy. A client was interviewed regarding her experience of selected bodily movements of the therapist based on a video recording of one of her therapeutic sessions. The movements were analyzed through Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s cardinal structures of movement while the interview was analyzed through a modification of Giorgi’s method for phenomenological psychology. We focused on the relationship between the therapist’s bodily movement and therapeutic movement in the client and arrived at general structures of the client’s experience of being moved by movement. The experience comprises three core constituents: ‘shifts in sense of self’, ‘sense of togetherness’ and ‘feelings of mobility’, and reveals that the therapist’s bodily movements can lead to therapeutic changes compatible with the aim of narrative therapy.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Phenomenological Psychology
Volume49
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)43-63
ISSN0047-2662
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Social Sciences - bodily movement, narrative therapy, phenomenology, psychotherapy research, therapeutic change

ID: 188519285