Psyche-Soma-Connection

Soul, body and spirit are connected. In my analytical work, I pay special attention to phenomena in the body in the transference and countertransference, taking into consideration findings from the neuroscientific research (Damasio, Rizzolatti, Shore, Fonagy, Wilkinson et. al.); mirror neurones allow for deep empathy when the analyst feels and senses unconscious contents an analysand may find hard to express. Unconscious psychic contents can find their symbolic expression in somatic symptoms, felt and even sensed in the form of a somatic counter-transference in the body of the analyst.

In some cases, somatic expression of symbols may point to transgenerationally transmitted contents, as is explained in this diagram elaborating the different vectors of communication between the analyst and analysand’s respective conscious and unconscious. 

According to Jung: “Our souls as well as our bodies are composed of individual elements which were already present in our ancestors…Body and soul …have an immensely historical character.” (C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffé, New York, Vintage Books, p. 235ff) 

See article by Kristina Schellinski When Psyche Mutters Through Matter: reflections on Somatic Counter-Transference, in: Jungian Odyssey 2011, Spring Publications, New Orleans

Lectures given by Kristina E. Schellinski in Ascona, Basel, Copenhagen, Milano, Riga, Rome, Vilnius, Zürich