Occasionally, something I hear about therapy takes an immediate hold on me. At the moment, it is something I heard on a training course with author and psychotherapist, Jan Winhall, who has created the felt sense polyvagal model, a way of working with addictions that combines experiential focusing practice with polyvagal theory.聽
It amounts to the idea that all people do the things they do because it is 鈥樷�he body鈥檚 attempt to regulate when safer ways are not available鈥�.1 Jan repeats these words softly and regularly during the course, reminding us that 鈥樷�iewing all this as adaptive paves the way for healing鈥�.1 Remembering this seems to have cushioned my exchanges, both in and out of the therapy room. I haven鈥檛 stopped having my ever-so-human reactions to other people鈥檚
ever-so-human reactions, but there is a call to compassion, or perhaps, a sidestep away to affection.聽
I鈥檝e been contemplating what the word 鈥榓ffection鈥� means recently.
Edwin McMahon and Peter Campbell write that 鈥樷�eing in the body with affection for another or for oneself is always growth producing, healing, expanding, supportive of wholeness/ holiness because it is our body鈥檚 way of inviting grace鈥�.2 When I really consider how the word 鈥榓ffection鈥� feels to me, I realise it is a bass note in therapeutic presence.
I鈥檇 like to draw attention to the ways that authors in this issue write about their work: how, in their different ways, each of them supports their clients in understanding that they exist beyond what their nervous systems do to adapt.
This issue has a special focus on body dysmorphic disorder, a condition that is difficult to diagnose and treat. Tracy Northampton and Natasha Silver Bell discuss ways to 鈥樷�onnect the client back with the core of who they are鈥�. Lou Lebentz offers a trauma-informed approach that moves from psychoeducation, to resourcing the adult self, to gently tolerating bodily sensations.聽
When I read 鈥楽itting in the stillness鈥�, former NHS psychotherapist Martin Wells鈥� account of embracing non-duality and its impact on his work, I thought about Jan鈥檚 words again. I鈥檝e heard and read a little about non-duality over the past few years, and what always stays with me is the possibility that peace exists when we no longer identify with our stories about who we are, or who we should be. When I really take this in, it can feel like an embodied letting go of 鈥樷�he things we do to survive鈥�.3
Counselling course leader Chris Steed shares a model that he and colleagues at the London School of Theology teach to students. Chris shares the comprehensive approach that trainee practitioners are taught, unpicking the 鈥樷�ociological and system-level inputs鈥� that can influence a person鈥檚 development and sense of agency. At the heart of this way of working is a shift away from survival and a 鈥樷�e-orientation towards the transcendent鈥�.
I鈥檇 love to hear about your ways of working, so please do get in touch.
Amy McCormack, Editor
thresholds.editorial@bacp.co.uk
