Dance Movement Therapy Commons^™

Stuck In Somatic Countertransference: A Heuristic Study, Katie Hochleutner

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

This heuristic research study explored how somatic countertransference in my own body, as a clinician, is related to my freeze response when working with clients in a behavioral health hospital. Primary questions that led the research, included: what does somatic countertransference feel like in my own body as a clinician, what happens in my body during a stress response of freezing, and, how can I modulate through my stress response to become regulated in session? These curiosities led to my ultimate research question, how can I, as an emerging dance/movement therapist, modulate through my freeze response while experiencing somatic countertransference …