ABSTRACT
We consider that all effective therapy has a potentially reparative dimension in that it offers a client the opportunity for a new experience; it provides a relationship different from the past through which the person can experience acceptance and have the space to explore elements from the past that have been repressed or have never even been put into words. We consider that the primary reparative process lies in the relationship itself, in the experiencing of a quality of empathy and attunement that works powerfully at an implicit relational level. The client has an opportunity to experience the full range of affects associated with an experience whilst creating a new narrative in the safety of the therapeutic relationship that allows for the integration of past experiences and the opening up of new possibilities. The symbolization of experience at a verbal level is accompanied by the sense of in-depth attunement conveyed by the tone, speech rhythms, body language and posture of the therapist, akin to what Daniel Stern describes as `vitality affects' (1985: 54). Much of the effective work of therapy is conducted at a level beyond words. `The therapist listens to the patient's explicit verbalizations but at the same time is also listening at another level, an experience-near subjective level that implicitly processes dynamic moment-by-moment affective communications at levels beneath awareness' (Schore, 2005).
