title: The Embodied Attunement of Therapists and a Couple within Dialogical Psychotherapy: An Introduction to the Relational Mind Research Project.
abstract: In dialogical practice, therapists seek to respond to the utterances of clients by including in their own response what the client said. No research so far exists on how, in dialogs, therapists and clients attune themselves to each other with their entire bodies. The research program The Relational Mind is the first to look at dialog in terms of both the outer and the inner dialogs of participants (clients and therapists), observed in parallel with autonomic nervous system (ANS) measurements. In the ANS, the response occurs immediately, even before conscious thought, making it possible to follow how participants in a multiactor dialog synchronize their reactions and attune themselves to each other. The couple therapy case presented in this article demonstrates how attunement is often not a simple "all at the same time" phenomenon, but rather a complex, dyadic or triadic phenomenon which changes over time. In the case presented, there was strong synchrony between one therapist and one client in terms of their arousal level throughout the therapy session. It was also observed that high stress could occur when someone else was talking about something related to the participant, or if that person mirrored the participant's words. Overall, it seems that in evaluating the rhythmic attunement between therapists and clients it is not enough to look at single variables; instead, integrated information from several channels is needed when one is seeking to make sense of the embodiment.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
authors: Jaakko
authors: J
authors: Seikkula
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
authors: Anu
authors: A
authors: Karvonen
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
authors: Virpi-Liisa
authors: VL
authors: Kykyri
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
authors: Jukka
authors: J
authors: Kaartinen
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, Finland.
authors: Markku
authors: M
authors: Penttonen
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D003142:Communication; D019546:Couples Therapy; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007697:Kinesics; D008297:Male; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D056152:Respiratory Rate; D012904:Smiling / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Autonomic nervous system; Couple therapy; Dialogical investigations; Rhythmic attunement; diálogos; sintonía rítmica; sistema nervioso autónomo; terapia de pareja; 伴侣心理治疗; 对话; 自主神经系统; 节奏性调整