Abstract
In individual psychotherapy verbal communication and movement synchronization are closely interrelated. The microanalysis of timing, rhythm and gestalt of movement has established dynamic movement coordination as a systemic property of the dyadic interaction. Movement synchronization supports and enhances the unfolding of linguistic meaning. In order to substantiate the importance of the concept of synchrony for adult psychotherapy we review evidence from developmental psychology and discuss approaches to measure synchrony with particular reference to the naturalistic setting of dyadic psychotherapy. As the concept of synchrony is still ambiguous, and the respective interactional phenomena are ephemeral and fluid, in the current paper we suggest a set of five criteria for the description of synchronization in general terms and eight additional criteria which specifically enable the description of phenomena of movement synchronization. The five general dimensions are: (1) context, (2) modality, (3) resources, (4) entrainment, and (5) time-lag. The eight categories for the description of movement synchrony are: (1) spatial direction, (2) amplitude, (3) sinuosity, (4) duration, (5) event structure, (6) phase, (7) frequency, and (8) content. To understand the process of participatory sense-making and the emergence of meaning in psychotherapy, synchrony research has to cope with the multimodality of the embodied interaction. This requires an integrated perspective of movement and language. A system for the classification of synchrony phenomena may contribute to the linking of variations and patterns of movement with language and linguistic utterances.
Highlights
SYNCHRONIZATION AT THE INTERSECTION OF DIFFERENT DISCIPLINESThe term interactional synchrony refers to the dynamic correspondence of movement and gestalt on various levels of expressive behavior between the participants of an interaction
One of the rare examples of a multimodal mixed method approach to synchrony research in psychotherapy is a single case study reported by Kykyri et al (2019) in which the linguistic content of the conversation was correlated with posture, movement and autonomic responses in order to identify synchrony correlates of the therapeutic relationship
The relevance of synchrony research for psychotherapy lies largely in its potential to enhance the understanding of the procedural dynamics of the therapeutic relationship, which is one of the most important mediators of change and predictors of outcome in therapy (Norcross and Wampold, 2011; Flückiger et al, 2012)
Summary
The term interactional synchrony refers to the dynamic correspondence of movement and gestalt on various levels of expressive behavior between the participants of an interaction. The study of synchronization processes at the procedural level of language and non-verbal communication contributes to the understanding of fundamental processes of change in psychotherapeutic interaction.
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