Create a Healing Space with Your Clients | By Dr. Vincent L. Perri

Over the past twenty years and more, I have spent countless hours trying to understand exactly what happened when my clients resolved issues or healed beyond ordinary standards. As a practicing doctor and later Life Coach, this curiosity led me to study diverse disciplines from neuroscience to analytical psychology where I charted over 400 hours of patient observations.

I was always interested in what transpired between my clients and I during the course of a session. And eventually I realized that with each patient or client - we encountered each other in a shared space of being "unconditionally present".

Martin Buber describes this in his book, "I-Thou", where he discusses how important it is to relate to another person as a person - and not simply as an object of interest. This may not seem worthy of note, but I began to realize that the process of being fully and "unconditionally present" for the other was the anchor in a powerful two-way relationship.

A Healing Space

This learning became the first step in fully engaging with my clients and opened the space to a deeper and more meaningful relationship. I finally realized that when the coach becomes "unconditionally present", this allows clients the freedom to be fully present. This is how the client discovers a "healing space" with you.

I think of this "healing space" as a bridge that creates a vibrational link between me and my client. This "healing space" engages our unconscious mind in a way that loosens the binds that constrict our creative energies, and helps the client become the creative being that he or she was always meant to be.

An Invisible Language

Often I have watched my clients move into the "healing space" between us, and move their hands almost as if they were molding clay in an effort to tangibly construct a creative thought.

There is an invisible language that lies behind all the facial nuances, grimaces, guttural sounds, and body posturing that emerges from the alchemical mix of the coach-client interaction. When we create a "healing space" and become "unconditionally present" we give our clients greater freedom for uninhibited self-expression.

Ultimately, this translates into an unconscious body language as our clients reconstruct their inner thoughts into their outer reality. For example, they may wring their hands, grimace, shift their body or gaze into space - each movement of the body becomes a symbol of transformation.

How You Can Help

The coach can help the client by focusing on the client's presence during the session. Then, quite unexpectedly, the client will move their body, their face will animate, and their voice will begin to express the hidden joy of being "unconditionally" received.

The simple act of sitting silently and allowing the client to engage the "healing space" is often enough to allow the creative solution to a long held problem.

Divine Wisdom

In every cell in our body there is what I call a "psychic space". Within this inner space presides a divine wisdom that is the essence of our creative nature. This is what we nourish when we are fully present for, and fully encounter our clients. We don't need to look any further for divine wisdom than the inner soul of our clients.

Points to Ponder:

• Consider what it really means to be fully present with each and every client.
• Think about the importance of the "healing space" between you and your client - and how it can be optimized for your clients' self-expression.
• Remember that each client operates from their own field of comfort making the "healing space" between you and your client very important.

References:

1. Buber, Martin. I and thou. (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). New York: Charles Scribner's sons: 1970.
2. Jung, C. G. Psychology and alchemy. 2^nd ed. (R.F.C. Hull, Trans.) Princeton. Princeton University Press. Bollingen series xx. 1953.
3. Perri, Vincent L. The healing space: Understanding the true nature of inner healing. Boca Raton: Universal-Publishers.2014.
4. Perri, Vincent L. Language of the archetype. Explorations of the unconscious in movement, speech and development. Bethel, Ct. Rutledge Books, Inc., 1997.

Contributing Author: Dr. Vincent L. Perri is a doctor of chiropractic, doctor of philosophy and has a diploma in behavioral medicine from the International Academy of Behavioral Medicine, Counseling and Psychotherapy. He has studied at the C.G. Jung Foundation in New York City where he regularly attends lectures and is a life coach. He is the founder of the conjugate gaze approach to physiotherapeutic therapy, and has published five textbooks on the use of eye gazes and patient-assisted movements to enhance neural processing and aid healing and recovery. His most recent book "The Healing Space" is the subject of this essay. He can be found on Facebook and his work and instructional programs can be viewed at www.conjugategaze.com.

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