The Therapist as Psychobiological Regulator: Dissociation, Affect Attunement and Clinical Process

Dissociation is defined as a protective coping mechanism employed on a broad spectrum: from day-to-day “spacing out” to psychic numbing to multiplicity. A convergence of recent insights in traumatology, neuroscience, and developmental theory is reviewed. These findings all point to the importance of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inClinical social work journal Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 260 - 268
Main Author Gill, Susan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston Springer US 01.09.2010
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Child Development
Clinical Psychology
Communication
Coping
Emotions
Infants
Original Paper
Personality and Social Psychology
Psychoanalysis
Psychobiology
Psychology
Regulation
Therapists
Trauma
Affect regulation
Enactment
Dissociation
Hyperarousal
Trauma
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Summary:Dissociation is defined as a protective coping mechanism employed on a broad spectrum: from day-to-day “spacing out” to psychic numbing to multiplicity. A convergence of recent insights in traumatology, neuroscience, and developmental theory is reviewed. These findings all point to the importance of affect regulation in infant and child development and in the therapeutic relationship, where attunement to implicit communication is crucial. Using such relational and intersubjective organizing principles as the concept of enactment and Beebe and Lachmann’s (Infant research and adult treatment: Co-constructing interactions 2002 ) “three principles of salience,” I discuss an analytic case in which dissociation is a central dynamic.
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ISSN:0091-1674
1573-3343
DOI:10.1007/s10615-009-0213-5