Languaged and non-languaged ways of knowing in counselling and psychotherapy

Examining the extent to which the lived, embodied experience can be worded, a study integrating artistic research methodologies of narrating and perceptual practices was designed. The combined use of writing and moving showed the importance of non-languaged ways of knowing, building on the idea of an embodied cognition and the embodied mind, as recently proposed by philosophy. Artistic research methodologies that include embodied perceptual practices are suggested to be used more widely in counselling and psychotherapy research. Crossing over modalities and thus brain hemispheres, they allow access to valuable - at times unconscious - material from the clinical work, accessing the knowledge of the body, beyond words.