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To be or not to do, or do? Tapio Malinen & Riitta Malkamäki www.tathata.fi EBTA Helsinki 4.9.2009 Goals in psychotherapy • ”If I planned to go to a conference, and if I knew forehand what I would be thinking at the end, then I wouldn´t go. If I knew where we would be at the end of the session, I don´t think I would do this work. And If I had not changed at all after the session, then my actions probably would not have a very big impact on the people who came to me.” Michael White Three (crusial) questions related to well-being of the therapist 1. What is knowledge? Where is knowledge in the 2. 3. therapeutic relationship? How do we produce knowledge? What or who is the ”self” we are taking care of while doing therapy? How is this ”self” positioned while we work with people, searching for the constantly shifting balance between connection and detachment, merging and separation? The practices of knowledge and the well-being of the therapist Aboutness thinking • Distance is maintained • The therapist has a priviledged position in terms of knowledge and power • The therapist determines the meanings • Didactic, strategic, guiding • Control, cures Withness thinking • Distance redused • Closeness increased • The therapist and the client are mutually priviledged; power is freely shared as much as possible • The meanings are negotiated together • Unpredictable, creative uncertainty, cares No-self (annatta) • According to the Buddhist psychology there is no fixed, separate, permanent, independent ”self”. • ”Empty self” from fixed defining essense is a mental construction, image, a label we are identified with during our development. • ”Self” is a impermanent, constantly changing process containing of five aggregates: matter (body), sensations, perceptions, mental formations and conciousness. • Compare how social constructionism defines the ”self”. The Position of the Therapist • • • • Central and influential Central and non-influential Decentral and non-influential Decentral and influential Morgan, A.: The position of the therapist in working with children and their families. In White, M. & Morgan, A. (2006): Narrative Therapy with Children and their families. pp.59. Dulwich Centre Publications . Dvorak Simon • ”Therapy is a spiritual path on which we suddenly realize that we are something fullbodied, as it were something with guts, something that makes you suddenly realize that you are breathing…that awareness encompasses time and as it is embraced with it, that something is beautiful or absurd, or magnificient, or rediculous, and every inch of you is moving through space, and knows, and doesn´t know that it knows…” Bhavana maya pañña (in pairs) • Think of a situation in your work, when you felt yourself unusual living. You experienced that you did not do your therapy techniques, they just happened through you. You were the openness through which the life just manifested in that moment. What kind of skills did you use in order to create this special moment? How did you create your being? • Can you describe some of the particular steps you took to prepare yourself to work in this way? • What would you call these steps you took in your work? • What does this say about what is important to you in life, what values or beliefs might you hold that supported your work in that moment? • Thinking about these values, what hopes or aspirations do you hold for your work in relation to these values? Bhavana maya pañña (continue) • What ways of being in the world, or principles might these hopes/aspirations reflect? • Who in your life would be least suprised to hear you talking about these things, someone who would appreciate these things, too? • If you were to see yourself through that person´s eyes, what would you most appreciate about yourself? • How was this conversation about being in your work for you? Literature • Malinen, T. (2009) Psychotherapy as an ethical and • • • spiritual exercise. Submitted to The Journal of Family Psychotherapy. Can be read in www.tathata.fi Malinen,T. & Thomas, F. (2009) Doing therapy: A source of therapist well-being. CONTEXT 103, June. Segall, S.R. (2003) Psychotherapy practice as Buddhist practice. In Segall, S.R. (Ed.) Encountering Buddhist. Western psychology and Buddhist teaching. New York: State University Press. Simon, D. (1995) Doing therapy as a spiritual practice. News of Difference.