The therapeutic processes of ‘holding’, ‘containing’ and ‘boundarying’ are both literal and metaphorical. They involve the therapist in trying to provide an emotionally caring/protective, facilitating space which respects and holds the client, and also contains emergent emotions and dynamics.
What is the holding environment in therapy?
The Holding Environment. It involves managing the physical boundaries of the relationship, namely, the provision of a space where therapist and patient can meet without interruptions, where confidentiality can be assured, where the therapist can be relied upon to turn up on time, at the same time, week after week,...
Should we construct a holding environment?
We should construct a holding environment. Whenever you find yourself leading adaptive change, you must construct a holding environment. A holding environment is a psychological space that is both safe and uncomfortable. Picture the stereotypic dad running alongside the kid learning to ride a bike.
Should Therapists ‘hold’ or ‘contain’?
Therapists who ‘hold’ or ‘contain’ by fostering dependence run the risk of being manipulative. Exactly how and when to engage the processes of ‘holding-containing-boundarying’ is one of the key ethical/clinical judgments the relational therapist makes in pursuit of artful practice.
What is the holding environment of a relationship?
The Holding Environment. The frame that supports the analytic relationship is also referred to as the holding environment, an expression that highlights its containing function.
What is the holding environment in therapy?
A holding environment is: 1) grounded in the experiential model of a mother holding and being preoccupied with her baby (Winnicott, 1996); 2) grounded in a developmental view of the client; and, 3) can be deliberately created in the therapeutic context.
How do you create a holding environment?
You could compare it to the space a parent is creating for his kid when he/she learns to bike. When the father (or the mother) is running alongside the kid to catch him if needed, he is holding the space for the kid and thus creating a “holding environment” where the kid learns a new skill while feeling safe.
How can a therapist create a safe environment?
Make Room For Who You AreBuild trust. Calling a space a safe space is not enough. ... Be vulnerable and allow yourself to build an emotional connection. ... Be inclusive. ... Give others a space to talk. ... Know that your actions speak louder than words. ... If there's a physical environment, make it welcoming.
What is the holding environment Winnicott?
1. in the object relations theory of British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott (1896–1971), that aspect of the mother experienced by the infant as the environment that literally—and figuratively, by demonstrating highly focused attention and concern—holds him or her comfortingly during calm states.
Why is the holding environment important?
If the environment is a good holding environment, it makes you feel taken care of, protected, understood, loved, and held in such a way that your consciousness – which at the beginning is unformed, fluid, and changeable – can grow spontaneously and naturally on its own.
What does the holding environment represent in the adaptive leadership model?
Holding environment provides appropriate adaptive challenges and supports to employees, neither stressing them out to the point when they are no longer able to function well nor letting them get away with avoiding doing the difficult adaptive work.
How do you create a safe place for a client?
Here are five ways to create a safe space for your clients:Ask Questions. Developing a relationship with your clients is one of the most important aspects of being a coach. ... Validate or Share Your Observations. ... Celebrate Their Wins. ... Remind Your Client That You are a Safe Space. ... Thank Your Client for Sharing.
How do you hold a safe space?
How to hold space effectively.Start by practicing deep listening. Deep listening is the art of listening not just to hear what the person is saying but listening to understand. ... Listening without judgment. ... Practice loving kindness. ... Make room for others. ... Use the power of your breath. ... Let go of the "fix it" mentality.
How do you create a safe space for someone to open up?
Safety is created when you: acknowledge that being vulnerable is not easy, thank them for trusting you enough to share their feelings, validate what they have shared with you, and encourage them to continue to open up and know that they will be met with love and understanding.
What is the difference between holding and containment?
They also see holding as a more sensuous activity that is generally positive and growth enhancing, whereas containment is seen as non-sensuous and “may be either integrating or destructive” (Symington & Symington, 1996: 58).
What is Donald Winnicott's theory?
Winnicott's conception of the true and false selves are connected to his views on play. He believed that the false self was a mannerly, orderly, external self that enabled a person to fit into society. The true self, however, is the only self capable of creativity, and play helps a person develop this true self.
What does emotional containment mean?
Emotional containment describes the process of emotionally helping people to bring about support and change. This support can benefit all children and is particularly helpful for children who experience social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs.
What are the boundaries of a therapeutic relationship?
The boundaries of the therapeutic relationship ensure that anxiety provoking phantasies and feelings about the self and others can be explored and expressed in the context of a non-retaliatory relationship that will carry on being irrespective of the feelings the patient may need to voice. This does not mean, however, that ''anything goes''. Being truly containing requires knowing when understanding is not enough, that is, when words simply cannot contain the patient. There are clearly behaviours that undermine the therapeutic process and have to be managed, for example, arriving to sessions under the influence of alcohol or attempts to self-harm during a session. Such behaviours need to be addressed promptly and understood as unconscious communications. In many cases, this will defuse the need to act out.
What does it mean when a therapist starts a session late?
A therapist who starts her sessions late or cancels sessions repeatedly is conveying a very different message to the one who strives to adhere to the agreed boundaries. We are human and fallible, however, whatever projections the patients may make on us. This means that the ideal frame we try to provide is just that: an ideal. In reality there will come a time when we will be late for our patient or we may overrun the session, or someone will walk into our room whilst in a session. This may well encourage self-recriminations (e.g. ''I am not a good therapist'') or anger at the colleague who interrupts the session. There will always be a reason for every deviation from the frame, but whatever feelings we might have about it, what matters in the therapeutic work is the meaning the deviation acquires for the patient.
What is frame in analytic therapy?
The safety or otherwise of the so-called container is communicated in practical terms through the respect of the boundaries of the analytic relationship. The safeguarding of a secure frame is a core part of analytic technique. It involves managing the physical boundaries of the relationship, namely, the provision of a space where therapist and patient can meet without interruptions, where confidentiality can be assured, where the therapist can be relied upon to turn up on time, at the same time, week after week, as well as to finish the sessions on time. The thoughtful administration of these boundaries conveys a great deal of information to the patient about what kind of person he is entrusting his pain with.
Why is it important to respect boundaries?
On the contrary, such an attitude of respect for boundaries reveals an appreciation of the importance of stability and reliability for the patient's psychic development. For patients such as Tony who have experienced early losses, unsettled childhoods or grew up in an unpredictable family environment, the safeguarding of the boundaries of the analytic relationship may represent for the patient the very first experience of a person who can be trusted and depended upon. It creates a safe psychological space in which the patient may explore his deepest longings and fears. The importance of this frame cannot be overstated. It is a concrete expression of the containment we can offer the patient - an indication of what the patient can expect from us and can therefore rely on.
Which frame supports the analytic relationship?
The frame that supports the analytic relationship is also referred to as the holding environment , an expression that highlights its containing function.
What is holding environment in therapy?
The concept of containing is based on Jung’s (1946) idea that the therapy process can be likened to an alchemical container in which the ‘chemicals’ are the thoughts and feelings of both patient and analyst which have to be held safely.
Why is it important to have a holding-containing environment?
Our vulnerability is important to both own and to manage. For this reason we need our own holding-containing environments. Probably the best, most effective holding-containing comes from having an attuned, affirming, supportive supervisor and/or therapist. Supervision/therapy allows us to be reflexive about our processes as well as to get essential support. There is a danger of our using therapy with a client to act out (or get the client to act out for us), if we lack adequate support for the difficult work we do at the contact boundary (particularly when that work connects with unresolved issues of our own).
How do boundaries help therapists?
Boundaries prevent unhealthy levels of acting out and, in what is often a charged, intimate encounter, they keep both client and therapist safe. They also acknowledge the power imbalance that is unavoidably part of the therapeutic relationship and set limits for the therapist’s expression of power.
What is holding containing boundarying?
The therapeutic processes of ‘holding’, ‘containing’ and ‘boundarying’ are both literal and metaphorical. They involve the therapist in trying to provide an emotionally caring/protective, facilitating space which respects and holds the client, and also contains emergent emotions and dynamics. The aim is to allow a client to express and explore feelings that may feel too shameful or painful to be shared with others; through this process the client learns to cope with those damaging, overwhelming, or potentially explosive emotions.
What is a boundary in therapy?
A boundary is something that sets a limit or demarcates a line we do not cross. The boundaries we hold in psychotherapy are designed to contain mutual emergent emotional-relational processes and offer a structure for our professional and therapeutic relationships. Ideally they provide a reliable and predictable frame for processes which might otherwise remain mysterious or problematic. They guard the relationship, respecting the rights and responsibilities of both therapist and client (and the separateness between them). Boundaries prevent unhealthy levels of acting out and, in what is often a charged, intimate encounter, they keep both client and therapist safe. They also acknowledge the power imbalance that is unavoidably part of the therapeutic relationship and set limits for the therapist’s expression of power.
Why do we work with boundaries in therapy?
It is also not uncommon in therapy to find clients who struggle with boundaries and we might work explicitly with boundaries in terms of helping clients discover and maintain their own healthy boundaries. Perhaps they have been abused in the past and haven’t learned to keep themselves safe. A client with loose boundaries, for example, may have learned this way of being in childhood as a way of coping. Not having boundaries in childhood may have served to keep them safe if they learned that resisting abuse could mean more hurt.
What is holding and containing?
The concepts of holding and containing evoke the image of a mother caring for a child. In therapy, it is through the relationship with our clients that they feel held and safe. The holding may or may not involve actual physical holding; otherwise, with emotional holding the client’s anxiety, alarm, confusion, distress, ...
Why is the therapeutic environment important?
The therapeutic environment is an essential consideration when evaluating best practice for clinicians that are working with people who have health and/or mental health needs. The therapeutic environment is a factor well before a person is seen for services. In fact, as soon as a person comes into the parking lot, lobby, or other space, the environment has an impact on how the person will perceive the experience.
What is therapeutic environment?
The therapeutic environment begins when an individual enters the building or location where services will be delivered. There has been some research conducted on creating safety and security for persons as well as privacy, with limited research conducted on the reception area as well as entrances and exits, specifically. It is important to consider the entrance to the building, reception experience, and the waiting area. Creating a warm and inviting environment throughout the building is essential to establish a pleasant and safe experience.
What is the final stage of the therapeutic process?
Termination is the final stage in the therapeutic process. Termination of the therapeutic relationship ideally happens once mutually agreed upon goals of the clinician and person in therapy has been accomplished or problems the person was dealing with prior to counseling is either now resolved or being properly managed. Creating good endings is part of the termination process.
What is person centered therapy?
Person centeredness in therapy is based on a humanistic approach that was developed by Carl Rogers as a form of non-directive talk therapy. In person centered therapy, also known as Rogerian therapy, there are three main qualities that a clinician needs to possess. These qualities are:
What is the next step in creating a successful therapeutic relationship and conducive therapeutic environment?
Establishing rapport is the next step in creating a successful therapeutic relationship and conducive therapeutic environment. Connecting with people is the first way in which rapport can be established between the clinician and the person.
What is therapeutic milieu?
Safety and security involved both the physical space, connection, and communication. One of the prime locations for creating safety and security is with the clinical provider. The therapeutic milieu is described as the atmosphere in which services are provided . Milieu is a product of physical and non-physical aspects of the environment. Milieu is in play both in office-based settings and in community and/or home based locations.
What are the trends in psychotherapy?
With this new trend, the environment cannot be controlled by the therapist, however, the therapeutic relationship can be controlled. A psychotherapist is able to utilize self in both the home and community based practice. Home and community based care reflects changes in the medical model, but can be translated to psychotherapy as well.
Defining The Nature of ‘Holding’ and ‘containing’
Boundarying to Hold and Contain
- A boundary is something that sets a limit or demarcates a line we do not cross. The boundaries we hold in psychotherapy are designed to contain mutual emergent emotional-relational processes and offer a structure for our professional and therapeutic relationships. Ideally they provide a reliable and predictable frame for processes which might other...
The Therapist as A ‘Contained-Container’
- Beyond working with holding and containing a client’s subjectivity, as therapists, we also hold and contain our ownsubjectivity. Here we bracket/boundary (in a healthy rather than defensive way) leakages of our own subjectivity so they don’t drown our client. It would be pretty alarming for the client if the therapist couldn’t hold or cope with their feelings, wouldn’t it? Therapy shouldn’t be a…
Concluding Reflections
- Holding, containing and boundarying are not things that we do to clients. The process needs to be actively shared, negotiated and dialogical. We can’t just decide to ‘hold’ the client. The client has to accept the holding; they need at some level to take in our witnessing and containing presence and to feelheld. Ideally, we work withclients on how they might regulate themselves. We don’t just im…
Resources
- For a useful review of key ideas see: Gravell, L. (2010). The counselling psychologist as therapeutic ‘container’, Counselling Psychology Review, 25(2), 28-33. Casement’s relational psychoanalytic chapters on ‘key dynamics of containing’ and ‘analytic holding under pressure’ illustrate clinical and supervisory implications – see: Casement, P. (1985). On Learning from the …