Embodiments and co-actions: The function of trust and re-enactment in the practice of psychotherapy

Abstract

Abstract This paper is an empirically-based theoretical contribution to the field of research that investigates the function of trust and re-enactment in psychotherapeutic interaction. We use an ecological, embodied approach that pays attention to how human interaction is constrained by multiple timescales (past, present and future). The analysis sheds light on how trust, here in terms of a therapeutic alliance, is enabled, performed and maintained in interaction through the work with embodied re-enactments of previous events. Specifically, we describe how this therapeutic work constitutes an emerging, situated opportunity for teaching/practising embodied emotion regulation in the form of a co-participated enaction of “taking a deep breath,” and we emphasise how embodied, co-participated re-enactment of past (dys)functional behaviours outside of therapy can be a resource for redirecting, teaching and reinforcing therapeutically relevant behaviours in the context of therapy presenting themselves as fruitful opportunities for facilitating incremental change. Further, psychotherapy serves as a useful case for demonstrating the relevance of such an embodied interaction approach far more generally.