Many complex trauma clients struggle to receive the empathy offered by their therapists – not because they are resistant, but because their nervous systems have learned to mistrust incoming relational information.
This explainer article explains the need for a profound level of ‘attunement’ over and above ‘insight’. It explores how accurate, marked and contingent mirroring restores the client’s capacity to learn from the therapeutic relationship and to develop trust in both themselves and others. It offers therapists a framework for understanding why generic empathy misses the mark and what precise attunement can actually achieve at a nervous-system level.
The article is also accompanied by a PDF poster which summarises the concepts in a visual format.
This is a free downloadable PDF.
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