Embodied Mirroring: A Relational, Body-to-Body Technique Promoting Movement in Therapy

Embodied mirroring is an experiential, relational, body-based technique that offers a different avenue for the therapist and client to unfold therapeutic stuck points. Although applicable to all clients, it can be especially useful with traumatized clients or those with problematic attachment histories. This article explores the theory and mechanisms underlying embodied mirroring including mirror neurons, infant intersubjectivity, affect attunement, and regulation, attachment, and relational dynamics. Ways by which bottom-up therapies such as sensorimotor psychotherapy and accelerated experiential-dynamic psychotherapy are integrated into the embodied mirroring technique will be detailed. A general description will follow of how the therapist consciously, explicitly, and intentionally mirrors a client somatically to promote the therapist's embodiment of the client's experience and foster the emergence of conscious somatic countertransferences. How the therapist mindfully uses conscious somatic countertransferences in the service of the client will be demonstrated in case examples illustrating 3 forms of embodied mirroring: parallel, guided, and self. Ways the embodied mirroring technique promotes client mastery, empowerment, and transformation are discussed.