Psychotherapists can improve verbal psychotherapy by adding a bodily perspective. Different approaches can be situated on a continuum from verbal to nonverbal, and body-oriented interventions can be directed to different aspects of the body. The body as sensed from inside is one source of information. This is different from working with the body as perceived from outside and paying attention to nonverbal communication. In the next stage, major methods are working with the body in action and in movement and other nonverbal expressions. At the end of the continuum, attention goes to touching the body. Different ways of validating the body in psychotherapy are illustrated with clinical vignettes. Effects of body-oriented interventions on the client’s process are greater awareness, engagement in the present, deepening of experience, opening the body memory, cathartic release, resolving blocks, and exploring new possibilities.

The therapeutic relationship is described as a curative factor in its own right as well as facilitative for other tasks. Experiential tasks that facilitate working on the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and existential domains are distinguished. Focusing is an intrapsychic task of paying attention to one's bodily felt experience. Clearing space helps clients finding a right distance for exploring their experience when they are too close or too distanced from their emotions. Interpersonal work takes the lead when maladaptive interactional patterns are hindering the relational life of the client. Metacommunicative feedback and interpersonal experiences in the therapeutic encounter act as an invitation to develop new ways of communicating. Existential processes are challenged when the client struggles with the givens of life. Finally, the "inner guide" found in accessing experiencing may involve an awareness of a transcendent dimension that leads one to spiritual growth. Vignettes from short term psychotherapy illustrate how this approach is established in practice.

De term innerlijke criticus staat voor de strenge innerlijke normerende stem waarmee mensen zichzelf blokkeren. In het experie¨ntie¨le gedachtegoed wordt deze beschouwd als een processtoring die interfereert met het organismisch belevingsproces van de clie¨nt. Waar de bestaande experie¨ntie¨le literatuur vooral strategiee¨n beschrijft om een dergelijke processtoring op te heffen, wordt in dit artikel een meer omvattend micromodel voorgesteld waarin diverse theoretische en diagnostische inzichten zijn samengebracht. Met dit model werpen we licht op de intrapsychische en interpersoonlijke kenmerken van de problematiek, het repertorium aan faciliterende therapeutinterventies en het verloop of de mogelijke stagnaties in het therapieproces.Het model wordt vervolgens geı¨llustreerd met een kortdurende experintie¨le therapie. Er wordt in kaart gebracht hoe de proceskenmerken van de innerlijke criticus zich bij deze clie¨nt manifesteren, op welke wijze de therapeut hiermee omgaat en wat het effect is op het proces bij de clie¨nt. Ten slotte staan we stil bij de beperkingen van ons model en schetsen we enkele lijnen voor verder onderzoek. SitueringDe strenge innerlijke normerende stem waarmee mensen zichzelf blokkeren, is in het experie¨ntie¨le gedachtegoed door Gendlin aangeduid met de term innerlijke criticus (Gendlin, 1981;1996). Gendlin pretendeert hiermee niet een nieuw fenomeen aan het licht te brengen. Hij onderkent dat dit menselijk gegeven in diverse therapie-orie¨n-taties wordt beschreven, zij het in andere bewoordingen en met andere accenten, zoals streng superego, bad parent, top dog, negative beliefs.

An authentic search for the sacred has been an integral part of person-centered psychotherapy. As he grew older Rogers (1980) realized that it made good sense to give spirituality a greater voice in psychotherapy. Gendlin (1984) highlighted the remarkable role of bodily felt knowing in developing an awareness of spirit. What is felt in the human organism increasingly leads to a broadening of the experiential field and a discovery of meaning. Moments of change are very different in nature and sometimes they appear as peak experiences or sacred moments that nourish the soul. The psychotherapeutic relationship and the experiencing process point in the direction of a deeper cosmic process and involve a sense of transcendence: the experience that life is infused with sacredness and individuals are essentially spiritual beings. Recent studies have shown that people who receive some form of therapy that integrates spirituality make significant positive changes in their lives.

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