The poetics of space: researching the concept of spatiality through relationality

Abstract

Spaces are invested with all sorts of meanings; they are a place of potential, of creativity and of spirituality. Post-modern approaches to the concept of spatiality emphasize the reading of spaces by actors rather than the writing of behavioural imperatives within the physical structure of the built environment. Spaces are not determining yet can be co-opted to serve particular bodies of knowledge, power interests or subjectivities. In other words, spaces are not discursive; they may be read in ways other than those in which they have been written (Fox, 1999).

Informed by the work of Gaston Bachelard, Arthur Young, David Bohm, Donald Winnicott and the artist Anish Kapoor, this paper focuses on the concept of space as it is experienced within the therapeutic relationship, more specifically through the process of psychotherapy and counselling. This study, which formed the basis of a funded research project, examines the interface between the experience of space, presence and containment and the development of self-awareness through reflection.

Keywords:

• Space
• reflective practice
• therapeutic relationships