While moments of attunement with individuals manifesting dissociated self-states are often confusing, dissociative attunement can be used as a valuable tool in therapeutic process. Attunement is a synchronized awareness of implicit knowing that is nonlinear and bidirectional. It is an embodied rhythmic encounter that can be understood, in part, through the science of entrainment, a natural process by which our biological and psychophysiological systems synchronize within an environment. It is not necessary to understand the complex science of rhythmic entrainment to notice and appreciate the felt sense of being in rhythm. However, some knowledge of the neuroscience and the physics of information flow can help us listen to intuition in an informed and critical way. It takes effort to move beyond concepts of transference and countertransference so embedded in our philosophy and training as therapists. Attunement with dissociated self-states is often mistaken as countertransference and mis-attunement. When that happens, we lose an opportunity to think differently, to understand more about the experience of dissociated self-states and ultimately to appreciate how humans are enmeshed within the deep ecology of complex systems.
Dissociative Attunement
Agenda
- 7:30 – 7:35 pm Introduction
- 7:35 – 8:30 pm Presentation
- 8:30 – 9:00 pm Presenter-led question and answer session
Learning Objectives
- identify the emergence of dissociative attunement in their treatment relationships.
- distinguish the difference between dissociative attunement and countertransference.
- describe some of the ways music, dance and poetry facilitate a rhythmic connection between individuals.
Presenter
Karen Hopenwasser, MD
Karen Hopenwasser, MD is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine. She is an integrative psychiatrist and a psychodynamically informed therapist in private practice, doing long term psychotherapy for more than three decades with individuals who have experienced extreme early relational trauma. She is a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation and received the ISSTD President’s Award of Distinction in 2019 for work focused on global mental health concerns and climate change. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In 2008 she introduced the concept of dissociative attunement in “Being In Rhythm: Dissociative Attunement in Therapeutic Practice” Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Vol. 9(3) 349-367, 2008), a concept that emerged from the integration of lifelong engagement in musical studies with neuroscience, systems theory and ecology. She has written about her experiences working with individuals suffering from complex posttraumatic problems as well as intergenerational transmission of trauma.
Jean Goodwin, MD, MPH
Dr. Goodwin is a board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and forensic psychiatrist. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard/Radcliffe in Physical Anthropology, she earned her MD from Harvard Medical School and an MPH in Epidemiology from UCLA. Her early work correcting misconceptions about childhood sexual abuse led to three influential books. She has held academic positions at the University of New Mexico, Medical College of Wisconsin, and UTMB. A training and supervising analyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training, she has been in private practice in Galveston since 1998 and has published over 100 articles and book chapters.
References
Jacobs, L. (2017). When avoidance is mutual regulation: Disorganized attachment and analytic attunement. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 27(5), 595–608. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2017.1355691
Buckner, R. L., & DiNicola, L. M. (2019). The brain’s default network: Updated anatomy, physiology and evolving insights. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 20, 593–608. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-019-0212-7
Tschacher, W., & Meier, D. (2020). Physiological synchrony in psychotherapy sessions. Psychotherapy Research, 30(5), 558–573. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2019.161211