Special Issue 9 (2) 2017 “Guided Imagery and Music: Contemporary European perspectives and developments” – Article (published on 22 December 2017)
The Process of Surrender: A psychotherapist’s homecoming
Katarina Mårtenson Blom
Abstract
The article describes how implicit relational qualities between therapist and client contribute to the psychotherapeutic process. The process encompasses the interaction during both the verbal parts and the music-listening experience in GIM sessions. The therapeutic stance is presented through the therapist’s subjective ‘voice’ and claimed to be fundamental irrespective of which problem or symptomatology presented by the client. Each dimension or phase of the interactive therapeutic process is illustrated by a suggested music-listening experience, to facilitate for the reader to create a connection to his or her own implicit relational qualities as a therapist.
Keywords
intersubjectivity, therapeutic process, subjectivity, interactive regulation, recognition
Biography
Katarina Mårtenson Blom qualified as a licensed psychologist in the 1970s and began her professional career in child and adolescent psychiatry. Experience in different child-guidance clinics led to her training as a licensed psychotherapist in 1989. Katarina started private practice in 1996 as a psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer in psychotherapy. During the 1990s, she trained in Guided Imagery and Music with Frances Smith Goldberg at the Therapeutic Arts Training Institute, and acquired the Swedish psychotherapy supervisor and trainer’s licence. In November 2014 Katarina completed her PhD at the Doctoral programme in Music Therapy in Aalborg University. She has published several articles, book chapters and, with a colleague, a book on intersubjectivity.
Email: kia.m-blom@telia.com