Moments of Meeting: An Exploration of the Implicit Dimensions of Empathic Immersion in Adult and Child Treatment

Abstract

Such staples of the child treatment process as nonverbal and noninterpretative mechanisms have recently come into focus in adult treatment. These new components of adult treatment, illuminated by the Boston Process of Change Study Group, enhance our appreciation of the nonverbal interpretive contributions of both analyst and patient. In an exploration of the work of the Boston Process of Change Study Group, this paper focuses on such key terms and concepts as implicit relational knowing, now moments, and moments of meeting. Through vignettes from adult and child treatments, the authors explore the application of these concepts. The authors suggest that (1) accounting for “implicit relational knowing” enables analysts to include the nonverbal and often elusive dimensions of the treatment process in their understanding leading to an expansion of technique and (2) allowing for the “authentic” or in the terms of the authors, the “wholehearted,” facilitates the spontaneity that is helpful in accessing and therapeutically handling those “now moments” and “moments of meeting” that often constitute the pivotal points in a treatment.