Somebody? Anybody? Nobody? Moments of Meeting with the Wounded Body in the Therapeutic Encounter: Intricate Challenges and their Healing Potential

Abstract

Meeting with the wounded body in the therapeutic encounter introduces us to intricate challenges. Physical injury or serious illness may be visible at times and invisible at others. In a society which prioritizes beauty, perfection, and health we find it difficult to be fully present and compassionate for the disabled, diseased or otherwise unusual body. We are caught with unconscious fears, deepening the split within us and leading us to denial and objectification of the wounded body. People coping with serious illness and disability are confronted with physical pain, fear, shame, humiliation, frustration, and social alienation. They crave an accepting attendance and recognition for their wounded body as a whole. As psychotherapists, our presence has a decisive impact on the therapeutic process. Moments of genuine meeting, in which we allow ourselves to surrender to the pain and suffering, and let them move through us, touching and affecting us, when we carry those unbearable feelings with our patients, those precious moments potentiate healing. In this paper, I describe and examine the obstacles preventing us from fully attending the wounded body, and the ways in which we can overcome those challenges and create moments of human interconnectedness leading to mutual growth. I will interweave those issues with sharing my experience with two clients, each coping with a significant physical damage, and my own personal perspectives and experience around illness and disability.