Dear all, I have long wondered about the metaphor of "holding space", which I hear being used pretty frequently in our circles. Then today I stumbled upon the Wikipidia page on the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and found the following, which I simply wanted to share with you all:
Part of [the mother's] loving care was [her] attentive holding of her > child; and as Winnicott (1965) suggested, the therapist recreates a > 'holding environment', that resembles that of the mother and infant. > Winnicott described minutely 'the business of picking a baby up...gathering > her together', and the way that the "mother's technique of holding, of > bathing, of feeding, everything she did for the baby, added up to the > child's first idea of the mother'". Winnicott considered that the "child's > ability to feel the body as the place where the psyche lives could not have > been developed without a consistent technique of handling", and he > extrapolated 'the idea of "holding" and of meeting dependence' from the > mother to the family as a whole, and to the wider world surrounding it. He > saw as a prerequisite for healthy development "the continuation of reliable > holding in terms of the ever-widening circle of family and school and > social life". > Out of his work developed the subsequent belief that "one of the most > deeply therapeutic factors in an analysis is the extent to which a > sensitive analyst parallels...the earliest relationship between a > responsive mother and her infant", a symbolic parallel. Winnicott wrote: "A > correct and well-timed interpretation in an analytic treatment gives a > sense of being held physically that is more real...than if a real holding > or nursing had taken place. Understanding goes deeper". > (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Winnicott#Concept_of_holding) > Don't we sometimes speak of an Open Space as a nurturing environment? Don't participants often remark how free and peaceful they felt during the OS event? I see some parallels here, and I quite like them. Speaking as a young father, I see a direct connection between me holding and carrying my daughters or tidying up after them - and my picking up coffee cups during an OS. In all cases I am (or try to be) attentive and attuned. I'd be interested to hear if Winnicot's description resonates with anyone else - or else how you relate to the phrase of "holding space". Johannes
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