What is Experiential Psychotherapy?

As a therapist, I have come to work in a specific manner. This can best be described as experiential psychotherapy. This is also true for many of the therapists working in our practice. In this post, I will explore what makes therapy experiential. 

What is experiential psychotherapy?

Read more about gestalt therapy

Why experiential psychotherapy?

This model must also include active acknowledgement of systems of power. As we explore new possibilities, it is critical for us also to address the realities of oppression, discrimination and injustice.

 Experience and neuroplasticity

As a therapist, I am always looking for opportunities for my clients to have new experiences. I do so because I have come to believe that this is where change happens. Diana Fosha, the creator of AEDP, calls experiential therapy “neuroplasticity in action.” I like this turn of phrase. I think she means that new experiences are engaging – and all the more so when shared in the therapeutic relationship. As Dan Siegel and other neuroscientists have shown, these highly engaged experiences “light up” the brain and are readily drawn upon in the future. New, resonant experiences expand our sense of self-and-world. Our sense of what we can do is based on what we have done. Doing something new in a therapeutic setting can open us to new possibilities in our lives.

Read more about the role of play in therapy

 ‘Here and now,’ relational, embodied 

Here and now

I work primarily in the here and now with my clients. This means working at the intersection of their past experiences and their experiences with me in the present. Meanwhile, I am always looking for opportunities to heighten our engagement through experiential explorations. As Diana Fosha describes in her latest book, “working experientially refers to an intensive focus on present-tense, internal experience, especially the felt sense of an affective experience as it arises in the body in the here-and-now of the therapeutic encounter.” This includes both relational and embodied psychotherapy. 

Relational

By relational, we mean psychotherapy that recognizes the centrality of relationships to wellness. Relational therapy privileges exploration of interpersonal experiences, especially the therapeutic relationship. Why this relational focus? As Sue Johnson has asserted, the “relational turn,” observed by Stephen Mitchell and others in so many approaches to psychotherapy, is supported by the findings of attachment studies. Attachment security (in both children and adults) appears to predict almost every measure of positive functioning. Insecurity, on the other hand, appears to be a risk factor for almost all forms of psychological suffering and illness. As therapists, we have the opportunity to engage directly with these patterns of relating. I find this enlivening. It requires a generative vulnerability on the part of the therapist as well as the client. It opens the door for a process that Diana Fosha calls “undoing aloneness.”

Embodied

By embodied, I am referring to psychotherapy that considers what we experience in our bodies to be a powerful source of intelligence. We use this intelligence for orienting ourselves and navigating the world. Without this awareness, we can feel lost. Clients I work with who “don’t do emotions” and avoid observing bodily states frequently suffer from states of confusion and hopelessness. In our work together, they rediscover a sense of their body and their feelings. By doing so, many clients find that they become less emotionally reactive and more flexible. As a result, they often experience an increasing sense of agency and satisfaction in their lives.

Watch a webinar on feeling emotions

Trauma and wellness research  

We have now explored experiential psychotherapy as a framework for exploration, play, learning, healing, and growth. Along the way we have touched on a number of classic therapeutic terms, such as the therapeutic relationship, working in the here and now, and relational and embodied therapies. We have also identified the value of experiential approaches to therapy for addressing both large ‘T’ and small ‘t’ trauma. 

Are you interested in trying out experiential psychotherapy? Reach out to myTherapyNYC to find out which of our therapists would be a good fit for you!

Can you recall an experience shared with another (inside or outside therapy) that was positively transformative for you? Join the conversation in the comments below!