Abstract Enactments involve felt sense experiences between client and therapist that offer a somatic story about the history or both client and therapist. That is, they are implicit - at least at the beginning - and have no narrative. The therapist must create a narrative based on felt affective experience and awareness of both their own and the client's histories. In enactments we receive information through implicit rather than explicit, conscious channels. They emerge from unconscious and dissociative fields, providing a rich source of experiential information about trauma, the therapeutic relationship and relational patterns. While they are enactments of traumatic relational patterns, they differ from flashbacks in that they are not recognized by the client and have no cognitive or visual aspects. Rather the client and therapist experience each other through an invisible lens of unresolved history. Enactments in therapy are mostly inevitable: Many cannot be avoided. Rather, they should be welcomed by the therapist as they emerge. However, we will discuss an important focus on compassionate curiosity and affective attunement to minimize unecessary enactments. Given the fact that some enactments cannot be successfully worked through and do not end well, we will discuss what therapists can learn from these painful experiences. We will explore how to recognize enactments through felt sensory and affective experiences, and how to work with them to resolution. Therapists should be aware that enactments are not only about the client’s unresolved history, but also of their own. Thus, we need a humble approach to acknowledging our own countertransference, history, limitations, and vulnerabilities as therapists. We will discuss how enactments bring hidden trauma and other dysfunction relational patterns onto the playing field of the relationship, and how to work with them, whether implicitly or whether they are made conscious to the client. Participants are encouraged to bring examples of enactments from their clinical cases.
Timed Outline 15 Minutes - Introduction; definition of enactments 15 Minutes - Relationship of enactments to relational defenses 60 Minutes - How do we know if we are in an enactment?/Dynamics of enactments 30 Minutes - Break 15 Minutes - Attachment styles and enactments 60 Minutes - Treatment approaches 15 Minutes - Q&A
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to:
Identify enactments in their clinical cases
Name felt sense experiences that likely alert therapists to an enactment
Employ at least three strategies to successfully work through an enactment
Deconstruct an enactment that could not be successfully processed from their clinical cases, and discuss what they learned from the experience
Determine whether or not to explicitly discuss an enactment with the client and give rationale for their decision
