Auditorium – Presentation 2 13 October (18:30 – 20:00)

“The Embodied Self in Philosophy and Life”
by Shaun Gallagher and Christine Caldwell

Patterns of the embodied self in therapeutic contexts

In the first, theoretical part of this presentation, I relate the notion of embodied self to the pattern theory of self. According to the latter, specific embodied experiences and skills are aspects of a larger pattern that constitutes the self. The larger pattern includes cognitive, narrative, and social factors, but embodied experiences of ownership and agency are basic aspects of the so-called “minimal” self. In the second part of the presentation I’ll relate the notion of the embodied self to therapeutic contexts, especially in relation to anxiety and problems in the experience of identity following neural-based therapies such as Deep Brain Stimulation. I’ll argue for a concept of holistic therapy in contrast to a “narrow” therapy that targets just one aspect of the self.

Shaun Gallagher

Shaun Gallagher is the Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Excellence in Philosophy at the University of Memphis; Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong (AU); Honorary Professor at Copenhagen, Durham and Tromsø. He is currently a Humboldt Foundation Anneliese Maier Research Fellow (2012-17). Publications: Phenomenology (2012); The Phenomenological Mind (2008), Brainstorming (2008); How the Body Shapes the Mind (2005). He’s editor-in-chief of the journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.

Breath, Sensation, and Especially Movement: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Embodied Psychotherapy

Body Psychotherapy (BP) derives much of its worldview from philosophy. Because philosophy seeks to understand the nature of the body and consciousness, emotion, and humanness, etc., our ability as clinicians to articulate where we stand and move with our philosophy of embodied experience can be fruitful. Shaun Gallagher is one of a few 21st century philosophers who validate what we do through his enquiry into how the moving, sensing, feeling human navigates their world. Gallagher asserts that sensorimotor and affective processes shape the way we think, perceive, and interact with others, calling this ‘enactive cognition.’ How do we understand enactive cognition in BP? One way is to understand Gallagher’s views on how learning occurs through embodiment, and see BP as a type of learning. If we also invoke attachment theory, we can see BP as conscious movement processing that enables a shift in the stance of the self towards experience. How we make ‘sense’ of our experiences shifts because we move them differently, moving being both physical enactment and healthier ‘sense-making.’
Drawing from BP traditions and the concept of the mobility gradient, we can expand the notion of embodied cognition into Psychotherapy. The mobility gradient uses phylogeny/ontogeny to categorize movement along a continuum from immobility to full mobility. Understanding where clients lie along this continuum may be more useful than standard treatment models. Movement may be our unifying field – whether it is arbitrarily categorized as mental, emotional, or physical – it all forms an interwoven whole. BP then not only helps to functionalize movement on a local level (the ability to reach out or push away) but also functionalizes the relationship between different types of motion (the movement of thought as consonant with the movement of feeling). This phenomenological and clinical frame may be useful for envisioning new possibilities.

Christine-Caldwell

Christine Caldwell, Ph.D., BC-DMT, LPC, NCC, ACS.
She is the founder and former director of the Somatic Counseling Psychology Program and Dean of Graduate Education at Naropa University in Boulder, where she currently teaches coursework in somatic counseling theory and skills, clinical neuroscience, research, and diversity issues. Her work began thirty five years ago with studies in anthropology, dance therapy, bodywork and Gestalt therapy, and has developed into innovations in the field of body-centered psychotherapy. She calls her work the Moving Cycle. This system goes beyond the limitations of therapy and emphasizes lifelong personal and social evolution through trusting and following body states. The Moving Cycle spotlights natural play, early physical imprinting, the transformational effect of fully sequenced movement processes, the practice of dying, the opportunities in addiction, and a trust in personal essence. She has taught at the University of Maryland, George Washington University, Concordia, Seoul Women’s University, Southwestern College, and Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and trains, teaches and lectures internationally. Her books include Getting Our Bodies Back and Getting In Touch.