Therapist’s intuition. A gestalt therapy study on the aesthetics of the therapeutic situation

Journal title PSICOBIETTIVO
Author/s Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Febronia Riggio, Claudia Savia Guerrera, Federica Sciacca
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2023/3 Language Italian
Pages 16 P. 69-84 File size 660 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSOB2023-003005
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This article presents a series of studies on therapist intuition from a phenomenological, aesthetic and field perspective. Since the Freudian description of counter-transference, the role of psychotherapists in the process of managing the relational emotional field has been recognized as fundamental. A contemporary evolution of the concept of intersubjective sensitivity, developed within the gestalt therapeutic approach, concerns Aesthetic Relational Knowledge, defined here as “the way in which the therapist uses his or her senses to understand the patient’s current experience through embodied empathy and resonance”. Three studies on this construct are described, which developed and validated a scale to describe the therapist’s intuition from this specific perspective, the key factors of which are resonance, body awareness, and empathy. The results suggest significant implications for psychotherapist training and supervision, highlighting the importance of body process work and aesthetic relational skills in working with patients.

Keywords: Intuition, Phenomenological Perspective; Gestalt Psychotherapy; Aesthetic Relational Knowledge (ARK); Therapist Training

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Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Febronia Riggio, Claudia Savia Guerrera, Federica Sciacca, L’intuito del terapeuta. Uno studio gestaltico sull’estetica della situazione terapeutica in "PSICOBIETTIVO" 3/2023, pp 69-84, DOI: 10.3280/PSOB2023-003005