Listening to Intuition: Reflections on Unconscious Processes in the Therapeutic Relationship

Abstract

This article highlights a specific aspect of the therapeutic relationship: the intuitive capacity of the therapist. The therapeutic relationship is understood as a “healing environment” in which the client can change, evolve, and grow, and within that context the therapist's intuitive capacity serves as a source of “knowledge based on experience and acquired through sensory contact with the subject, without the ‘intuiter’ being able to formulate to himself or others exactly how he came to his conclusions” (Berne, 1949/1977b, p. 4). The authors emphasize a non-conscious process in the therapist that directs him or her to identify an effective course of treatment with the client. The authors view the therapist's intuitive capacity as being connected with the processes of affective attunement and the gift for grasping the other's state of mind, as described and explained by recent neurobiological studies (Siegel, 1999/2001). The clinical usefulness of reflecting seriously on intuition and becoming more self-aware about it is emphasized with the aim of making it a tool in the service of the client's “life plan” (Weiss, 1993/1999). A clinical example and reference to a methodological scheme (de Nitto, 2005) illustrate and support these claims.