The Right Stuff: The Analyst’s Sensitivity to Emotional Nuance by Sandra Buechler deeply resonated with me and made me think of the usefulness and transformative potential of art therapy for not only our clients but ourselves as therapists. I believe art therapy may be a vital resource for therapists to help build our sensitivity to emotional nuance and free up our oftentimes restricted or clinically “homogenized” understanding of ourselves and our clients during therapy (based on the inherent restrictions of clinical language and categories).
As Buechler suggests, I believe that to be truly be attuned to our clients and be most effective in therapy, we need to be attentive to our own subtle emotional states, not just our obvious feelings. To truly be aware of our countertransference as therapists requires a radical vulnerability to access some of our more nuanced — and oftentimes uncomfortable feeling states (such as shame) — that are usually less explored in supervision and clinical training. Art therapy can be one way to effectively connect with our more multidimensional selves.
Over the weekend I went to a group Zen meditation practice in Manhattan where the teacher gave the instruction to simply “sit with the entirety of what arises moment by moment”. I normally do not practice Zen meditation but another form of Buddhist meditation where teachers oftentimes give the instruction for students to label phenomena and certain feeling states as they arise. For example, if you are sitting in meditation and notice a feeling of sadness arise, you might silently note to yourself, “sadness”. When a shift occurs and you feel fear, you might note, “fear”. The idea is to help build present moment awareness (and acceptance through time) as we are often not aware of what we are really feeling. I have found this practice immensely useful in my life, however, this past weekend I was offered another perspective which brought new life to my practice. When I met privately with the Zen teacher (we are each given a private session to ask questions about our practice) I asked him what he thought about noting/labeling emotions and other phenomena during mediation practice. He said something to the effect that by labeling emotions, we dramatically limit the totality of our human experience. For example, by labeling a certain state “sadness” we might be overlooking the subtle qualities of shame or fear (for example) that also might be present in that moment. His statement reminded me of this article. By limiting ourselves to the obvious, we are not attuned to the full truth and emotional nuance of what is unfolding in the moment between the therapist and client. Like Zen meditation practice, art therapy can be a way to access and develop an unbounded understanding of ourselves and our clients.
Jen -- so interesting! Has this teacher named a real limitation, or simply noted a limitation that exists in a particular moment but has the potential to go deeper and provide an insightful path? Both, perhaps. Of course it is limiting to name something, but it can also be very helpful to give boundaries to some things, especially if the feeling or thought that arises is disturbing. When you say "Fear is here," by naming the feeling, you can recognize the state. But wait, there's more! Every state is a passing one, and the limit of its name is an artificial one. By investigating the feeling, paying attention to its nuances and watching how it can change, moment to moment, you can allow all those nuances and associations that arise with it. So he was right,I think, about recognizing the limitations of labeling. BUT labeling need not mean the end of the story. AND art therapy practice is a wonderful way, I think, to make note of our shifting states of feeling and awareness by creating artifacts of the moment that we can reflect back on. The Beuchler article was a little disturbing to me -- I admit I have never "used" a therapist the way she allowed herself to be "used" and frankly, it scared me. Fear is here! I go on though, and investigate that fear for its more subtle dimensions, which creates space for more than just fear, for that full spectrum your teacher talked about. Especially with traumatized clients, I think naming, labeling, might be quite helpful.Thanks for this! (And by the way, the Buddhist psychology procedure I'm cribbing from here is called RAIN: recognize, allow, investigate, non-identification!)
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