Year: 2023 | Month: October-December | Volume: 8 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 317-332
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijshr.20230445
An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Psychotherapists’ Lived Experience of Body-Subject
Triantafyllia Iliopoulou1,2,3, Georgios Pilafas1,4, Penelope Louka1,5
1Accredited Lecturer, University of Derby (UK) at Mediterranean College campus, Athens, Greece
2Lecturer, Department of Psychology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
3Member, Hellenic Society of Daseinsanalysis
4Programme Leader ‘BSc (Hons) Applied Psychology’, University of Derby (UK) at Mediterranean College campus, Athens, Greece
5Head of School of Psychology, Mediterranean College, Athens, Greece
Corresponding Author: Triantafyllia Iliopoulou
ABSTRACT
Cartesian dualism dominates psychotherapy and sociology, displacing the body-subject as described in philosophy. This research explores the experience of body-subject in psychotherapy by conducting a qualitative research based on the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with psychotherapists. The analysis identified 4 superordinate themes and 2 subthemes for each theme. The first theme explores what is a body and how embodiment is expressed. The second theme focuses on somatic countertransference which operates either as a guide to understanding or as another way of communicating. The third theme highlights the contradiction between the freedom and the power of the bodies while the last theme focuses on observation and self-observation which are utilized as a way of understanding or overlooked so that therapists can dwell on experience. The findings suggest that dualism permeates psychotherapy, with the body-object guiding the therapy although some experiences manage to escape it and focus on the body-subject thus giving substance to the lived body. Taking into account the limitations of the study, future research could focus on the experiences of psychotherapists from approaches such as dramatherapy since the body is very active and present.
Keywords: body-subject, body-object, IPA, embodiment