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The Breathing Boundary
Author(s) -
Sinason Valerie
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12269
Subject(s) - mainstream , neutrality , psychology , boundary (topology) , transparency (behavior) , anger , boundary work , psychotherapist , social psychology , epistemology , law , mathematical analysis , philosophy , mathematics , political science
All psychotherapy is dependent on a frame, a structure. We require boundaries in order to feel and provide containment. However, when working with patient groups who have been excluded from mainstream risk‐averse treatment we learn more about the nature of professional boundaries. A boundary needs to be nurtured and thought about. It needs to breathe and to come from thought. A rigid boundary is a different matter. Where is the humble concept of not knowing? What makes flexible guidelines become rigidified into inflexible codes and barriers? In interrogating techniques that do not work with people with intellectual disabilities we learn more about shared areas of social disability. This paper focuses on questions of analytic neutrality, affect, anger, transparency, and disability psychotherapy in the external as well as internal world.