From earthquakes to good vibes: Transformations through a resonance process

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe vicissitudes of an analytic psychotherapy process with a 6-year-old girl who had suffered since birth from severe epileptic seizures, with consequent general impairment of her development, are exposed and discussed. It is proposed that an oneiric vertex be adopted to better understand the full interplay between the patient's traumatic experience and the sessions’ flow. The therapist's ability to use his reverie in order to learn the patient's language behind the words – to resonate with his patient – is proposed as a key aspect in the process of transforming the traumatic experience of uncontainable threatening emotions. Using more than words, the analytic process unfolds gradually both through the analyst's availability to engage in a deep internal working-through of the experience of being with the patient, and from his capacity to learn from the patient's experience.