The significance of psycho‐peristalsis and tears within the therapeutic relationship

Abstract

This paper represents a heuristic study of the significance of involuntary, intuitive gut responses (psycho‐peristalsis) and tears within the therapeutic relationship. Autobiographical material and qualitative data were gathered from case‐notes and semi‐structured interviews with four client/co‐participants. Data on occurrences of psycho‐peristalsis and tears were collected from 92 clients seen within a six‐year period. Eleven elements of a ‘general constitutional structure of experience’ were identified. A central finding of the study concerns the gut's apparent ability to ‘pick up’, at an unconscious level, significant material that might otherwise have been overlooked. The research suggests some possible clues to the process of unconscious communication and healing, and adds an interesting psychological dimension to recent findings in the fields of neuroscience and cell biology which amount to the discovery of a ‘second brain’ in the walls of the small intestine. These phenomena are examined in the light of theoretical debates in counselling and psychotherapy.