Introduction

Dynamic linking of psyche and soma are the means through which we shape and create a new way of being, co-constructed by patient and analyst. Recent attachment research, neuropsychoanalysis, and theories of affect development and regulation support an integrated conception of psyche and soma. Peter Levine, the founder of somatic experiencing, contends that behaviors and memories can only be changed by working with sensation and feeling-that is, with the totality of experience. The somatic third, the space and place in which subjectivities become embodied and interactive/mutual regulation occurs. Somatic psychotherapy expands the analytic frontier, as it dynamically bridges psyche and soma. Bromberg maintains that a core therapeutic challenge in psychoanalysis is fostering mentalization. Mentalization involves the capacity to perceive beyond what is observable in action and to understand behavior in terms of underlying mental states. Transformative moments do take place in the affective, implicit, and procedural realms as intersubjective processes give rise to implicit relational knowing.