TONIC DIALOGUE AND INTERACTIONS LOU BESSIERE JOHANNA GATTI

TONIC DIALOGUE AND INTERACTIONS LOU BESSIERE JOHANNA GATTI AUDREY LOVERA CHARLÈNE THOINET

SUMMARY • What we learnt from workshops and presentation of some exercises • How it can be related to the French PMT : the French approach of tone and relationship

WORKSHOPS : DAY 1 • Vision seems to be the prominent sense when it comes to interaction (environment, social, self) • But even without sight we are able to initiate interaction, thanks to the whole body • Through the sighted guide technique, we realized how important it is for therapist to adapt to his client • Adaptation to the client is a key part of Therapeutic Alliance

RELATION BETWEEN THE CLIENT AND HIS THERAPIST • In France, the relation between a client and his therapist is primordial • French PMT finds its roots in psychoanalysis : transference and counter-transference • Some sessions can be only about relation building • Once the relationship is built, the goals and achievements can be reached Exercise 1

EXERCISE 1 : • The client is in a lying position. The purpose of the exercise is to make the patient feels his body boundaries by a light touching. In order to do that therapist will put a blanket on the client and begin the touching. • Two situations: a) The therapist puts the blanket on roughly, does the touching and takes the blanket off with care b) therapist puts the blanket on very carefully, does the touching and takes the blanket off roughly • According to you, which client is the most satisfied after this experiment ? Even with a bad start your session can be beneficial for the client but a brutal ending can have an impact on the relationship with the client.

WORKSHOPS : DAY 2 • From birth, cognitive and physical development of the child is oriented towards the interaction with his environment, the others and himself. • Free dancing feels like free motricity in the child’s first years (like E. Pikler described it) Exercise 2

EXERCISE 2 • A good knowledge of the child development steps can be useful for PMT therapist even with others clients like for example the elderly. • When an old person has fallen on the floor, we can help him/her standing up by this technique: - The person must be lying on her stomach. - The therapist brings one of the person right knee towards her waist and blocks it with his own foot. - The therapist puts his hands on hips of the person, pulls towards himself and the person is now on all four. Then the person gets on one leg kneeling and with the help of therapist can get up.

WORKSHOPS : DAY 3 • How we get connected with ourselves, the others and our environment depends on our experiments. • The idea of connections leads us towards the notion of attunement. - Background tone : connection with myself - Postural tone : connection with others - Action tone : interactions with the environment Importance of the tonic dialogue (J. De Ajuriaguerra) Exercise 3

EXERCISE 3 • Two students sit in front of each other and divide a paper sheet in two with a line. • One is the leader and starts drawing. The other one is the follower and mirrors the leader’s drawing. • This is an example of attunement.

THEORETICAL BASIS • The tonic-emotional dialogue and its development by Marie-Sophie Bachollet and Daniel Marcelli, 2010. • http: //www. cairn. info/revue-enfances-et-psy-2010 -4 -page-14. htm • Abstract : The baby is a transmitter of feelings. The adult recognizes them, names them, and transfers them to the baby, a process called trans-subjectivity. The tonic-emotional dialogue is a part of this transmission of feelings between parents and the baby. The baby gradually becomes aware of the diversity of emotions. However, when the parent is dealing with his/her own emotions and cannot make sense of them, this can distort the parent-infant relationship. This paper uses clinical examples to illustrate this pathological transmission of feelings.

THEORETICAL BASIS • Attunement and involvement : therapeutic responses to relational needs by Richard Erskine, 1996. • Abstract : Eight relational needs, unique to interpersonal contact and essential factors in effective psychotherapy, are presented. Prolonged disruption in the satisfaction of relational needs is evidenced by a sense of emptiness, anxiety, frustration and aggression. Therapeutic attunement goes beyond empathy to provide a unity of interpersonal contact and the facilitation of psychological healing. Involvement is expressed by the psychotherapist's respectful inquiry into the client's experience and being fully present with the client in a way that is appropriate to the client's developmental level of functioning and current need for relationship.

THEORETICAL BASIS • Enlightenments on the tonico-emotional dialogue by J. Corraze, 2007 • www. psychomot. ups-tlse. fr/corraze 2007. pdf • Abstract : Julian de Ajuriaguerra appears as a neurologist that wanted to link neurology and psychology. He started from Wallon’s work on the tonic-emotional reactions. Ajuriaguerra wanted to understand the normal before the pathologic ( until then, all work they are based on the study of pathology). According to Ajuriaguerra, studying the « motor-man » , i. e studying psychomotricity focusing only on the motor part, isn’t complete. According to Wallon emotions are a way to connect and ensure a unity between people. Tone and emotion can’t be separated. The body speaks in front of situations. At the beginning, mother and child share the same emotion then appears the tonic dialogue on a motor aspect, then verbal.

CONCLUSION • BPS model is echoing a tone analysis with others, environment, and oneself. • For us, it’s by the attunement that we can interact. • The etymology of the word emotion (from ex movere which means to move) allows to understand promote movement as a link between what is experienced and expressed, as a result of emotional, cognitive and motor. Psyche Cognitio EMOTION n S Body