Swimming Lessons: Aging, Dissociation, and Embodied Resonance

Abstract

How do bodies communicate in the analytic relationship? What is the therapeutic action of embodied communication? In this paper, I examine the effects of a form of embodied communication that I refer to as “embodied resonance.” Using a model of mind that is comprised of multiple self states that become dissociated in response to trauma and that are carried, unsymbolized, in body and mind, I suggest that “embodied resonance” enables patient and analyst to make initial contact with dissociated self-states. Consequently, the analyst helps her patient understand, verbalize, and incorporate a greater and truer sense of himself into his life story. I present a detailed clinical example of my work with Jon, an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, to illustrate how understanding the impact of a patient’s traumatic past can be a freeing experience that allows him to come to terms with his particularly traumatic aging experience. Changes in self understanding were reflected in changes in my patient’s body and changes in his experience of himself as an aging person. I also suggest that whether implicitly known or explicitly verbalized, embodied resonance can offer enriching, mutative attachment experiences. Finally, the analyst’s somatic attunement to her own traumatic memories and dissociated self states is discussed as a way to inform clinical impasses in the analytic treatment.

Keywords:

• aging
• dissociation
• embodied communication
• embodied resonance
• trauma

Notes

¹ Erikson (1959, 1997), Wylie (1987), Lax (2001), and Bergmann (2014) are some exceptions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caryn Sherman-Meyer

Caryn Sherman-Meyer, LCSW, is faculty, supervisor and training analyst at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) in New York City. She is curriculum codirector in its Adult Training Program, is founder and codirector of its License Qualifying Program in Psychoanalysis, and sits on the NIP Board of Directors. She is faculty and supervisor at the Institute for Expressive Analysis in New York City. Caryn writes and presents on embodiment, eating disorders, and bidirectional communication between patient and analyst. She is particularly interested in the reciprocal process of growth and change in the therapeutic relationship. Caryn supervises and practices individual, group, and couples therapy in New York City.