"Harnessing a Sturdy and Effective Empathically Attuned Caregiver Mode in the Treatment Room"

Keynote by Wendy T. Behary

~Empathy is not just a therapeutic skill; it is a basic relationship process~* 

The data suggests that empathically attuned resonance generates an emotionally robust healing link in the therapy relationship, necessary for change to occur.

Triggered by schemas and modes in the treatment room, therapists can become distracted—preoccupied with vulnerability, emotional safety, or incompetence; held hostage by our own once-upon-a-time early experiences, thus hindering the empathically attuned stance of the adaptive caregiving mode.

Decentering ourselves in the treatment room involves emotionally protecting our vulnerable side without completely muting our realness when activated by implicit and explicit conditions that might overwhelm and distract us from an otherwise sturdy and empathic posture.
*(Bohart&Greenberg, et al., 1997)