Physical holding is an intense form of physical contact that can be initiated by a therapist during the course of therapy. The purpose of this research is to investigate clients' accounts of what happened in an endeavour to develop a coherent explanation for what occurred in the holding experience. Former clients who experienced sustained physical holding during their therapy describe these experiences and discuss the effects and meanings.The main effects of physical holding were the identifying and experiencing of feelings, and the remembering and re-experiencing of past events.The emerging plot in a therapy incorporating sustained physical holding is emotional healing through emotional contact, regression and a mothering experience.Guided by these elements, an account of Emotionally Focussed Psychotherapy is elaborated to provide an explanation of how clients heal from past infant and childhood traumas through the process of being loved, cared for and nurtured in a mothering experience that is both real and symbolic in a verbal psychotherapy. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Psychology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/236829 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Webster, Michelle Anne, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Education and Social Sciences, School of Psychology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Source | THESIS_CAESS_PSY_Webster_M.xml |
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