Human participating: human "being" is the step for human "becoming" in the next step

Abstract

In the words of its author, Tom Andersen, “seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling the touch on the skin or the impact on the body – what we feel in our bodies – is the basis of this text”, initially published as a chapter of Collaborative Therapy: Relationships and Conversations that make a Difference. These expressions are part of bonds we participate from the moment of our birth; expressions are manifested, received, and affect the receiver who reciprocates this affect – the circle of life. The text expands understanding of language to other types of expression and analyzes conversation as an exchange of multiple expressions in which when one speaks, the listener not only hears each word, but also sees how the speaker receives his own words and the emergence of new meanings. A change or expansion of motor or corporal expressions can bring a new understanding of a difficult situation, or a new idea of ​​how to take the next step in this difficult time. The text is an invitation for therapists to focus on the visible part of reality (expressions), and to offer hypotheses about feelings (invisible and mobile) as metaphors.