Resonance refers to an emotional connection and attunement experienced during counseling sessions when your counselor shows genuine understanding and support for what you’re saying, also known as empathic resonance.
Empathic resonance refers to an interaction between client symbols and implicit experiences of the therapist; this process may either be supportive or provocative (Jensen 2007).
Empathy
Empathy is a vital emotion when helping others, enabling us to enter their shoes more easily and connect and understand those we’re helping. Additionally, empathy reduces stress levels and supports an immune system healthier. If your empathy levels become excessive though, be aware of it so as to refocus priorities around yourself – not for others’ benefit but your own!
Empathetic resonance is a dynamic interaction between therapist and client that involves empathy, mirroring, attunement, intuition, kinesthetic sensing and other techniques to build rapport and create an uplifting field energy in which both can work towards aligning on healthy frequency patterns for optimal function. Carl Rogers termed this the therapeutic environment; its success being just as crucial in terms of therapy session success than interventions themselves.
Referring back to the violin metaphor, both bodies vibrate together like finely tuned strings that respond to each other’s vibrations, creating the essence of empathic resonance.
For a therapist to be effective with her clients, she must start from a place of centered resonance – self-awareness and empathic flexibility – where she can tune in to the client’s essential health pattern of functioning and absorb and contain their symptoms messages.
Empathy is a natural emotion we’re born with, yet can be difficult to manage and control. People with high levels of empathy may struggle to distinguish their own emotions from the feelings of those around them, leading them to take on too much responsibility or act on behalf of others unnecessarily. While empathy can be used effectively when practiced regularly and practiced responsibly.
Bhismadev Chakrabarti defines empathy in his book “Empathy in Action” as the process by which one understands, empathizes with, and responds to another person’s emotional or mental states. According to him, empathy derives its name from Greek roots that mean to “feel with” or “share suffering”. Furthermore, Chakrabarti believes empathy may have developed for selfish reasons: helping us identify dangerous strangers so we can avoid them.
Intuition
Intuition is the part of your mind that stores insights from all of life’s experiences. It may appear as a quiet voice or feeling in your gut about what to do; or perhaps more often as a sense that something wise within is operating on behalf of you.
Psychologists and neuroscientists describe intuitive processing as a natural human activity that can be enhanced through learning more about it and practicing specific skills, including distinguishing intuitive insights from rational thoughts and feelings – this ability will allow you to determine what’s true versus false in life.
Your intuition can assist in making decisions that support your values and goals, offer guidance in times of crisis or conflict, navigate relationships and direct career choices – as well as helping us discover more about ourselves in the process.
Your intuition can be strengthened through observation of yourself and others in real-time, or participating in therapy that includes reflective and attunement practices; reflective practice allows you to recognize resonant frequencies within yourself, while attunement practices give insight into others’ frequencies.
intuition can also be enhanced through interactions between therapist and client guided by Rogerian core attitudes for providing therapeutic relationship building and process enhancement, known as relational resonance.
Likewise, if a client is experiencing an overwhelming event during therapy sessions, their therapist can use images and metaphors to alleviate its intensity. For instance, the therapist might suggest they imagine that any violent perpetrator is behind glass walls where they cannot see or reach them; this can help increase client safety as well as empathy from both therapist and client.
Resonant interactions that correspond with client process intentions can greatly increase the odds of treatment success; as such, many therapists consider radical resonance an integral component of their work.
Mirroring
Mirroring is one of the most widely employed psychological tricks to build connection and rapport. This involves mirroring nonverbal cues of those you interact with such as their posture, body language and gestures – such as eye contact or hand gestures.
Mirroring can be an extremely powerful tool in counseling, but its use should be exercised with care. At times of high emotion such as anger, mirroring can quickly escalate into something worse if attempted too quickly; to ensure optimal results it’s best to wait until both client and counselor have settled before attempting to mirror tone or expressions back at one another.
Mirroring is designed to create connection with clients and help them feel understood and validated, while simultaneously helping to decrease the intensity of overwhelming experiences by making the client feel safer with someone they trust – this may involve using images and metaphors that mirror emotional states like glass walls or tactile/acoustic stimulation as ways of reducing arousal levels (touch/sound).
When confronted by memories of violence, clients can feel overwhelmed. Counselors can encourage clients to imagine the perpetrator from behind a glass wall or find an object which represents it and place it somewhere safe. Such techniques work by activating mirror neurons within our brains which prompt similar emotional responses from ourselves as when encountering such things as reminders.
An expert therapist can use resonance to connect with their clients in a way that goes beyond superficial relationships and is also deeply empathic. This approach, when coupled with empathy’s lesser-known superpowers, can help people heal from past traumas while creating healthier patterns in their lives.
Subtlety is key when using resonance as a therapeutic tool; too much mirroring may be off-putting or embarrassing for others. Therefore, it’s crucial that you remain mindful of your own body language, making sure not to mirror negative expressions like crossed arms or rolling eyes.
Attunement
Early years are crucial in child development; their mother can play an integral part by responding to their baby’s feelings and perceiptions of the world around them, soothing pains while amplifying experiences of pleasure. Attunement lays a strong foundation for learning how to connect with other people, create relationships, and feel safe within society.
Attunement in therapy refers to the ability of therapists to empathically recognize and tune into their client’s experience, from body language and facial expressions, through nonverbals like body language and gestures, allowing a heightened state of attention that heightens awareness for clients to open up more freely. Therapists using empathic attunement can discern subtleties in stories such as hidden conflicts and emotional undercurrents that lie just below the surface allowing an in depth and transformative dialogue to occur between client and therapist that facilitates both deep conversations on both levels – between client and therapist and client!
Research has demonstrated the connection between attunement and early change in psychotherapy. This could be because attunement provides clients with a sense of validation for their needs, feelings, and experiences – something many may feel is lacking from previous interpersonal interactions in which they were misunderstood. It’s crucial that clients feel seen and heard, particularly after encounters where they have felt misunderstood or disregarded.
Attuned therapists can listen carefully, asking clarifying questions to better understand what their client is sharing, before responding in ways that support the goals for treatment and assist in overcoming barriers that impede its success.
Researchers from the University of Michigan used a movement-based measure of attunement to assess how well therapists were responding to their clients. They discovered that as attuned as they were, the more likely they were to belong to Class 2 (high impairment and early response), Class 3 (moderate impairment), or Class 4 (low impairment). Their findings were then adjusted for variables known to influence early change such as initial HSCL-11 score, chronicity, treatment expectation expectations as well as multilevel models which accounted for their nested structure.
