ABSTRACT

We grow in shared communication involving language and language grows within us. The need for personal language grows within an integrated self-with-other-consciousness. The notion of synchrony refers to the growth of language held within self-awareness that seeks association. The principle of communicative exchange is embodied and concrete. Stories develop through enactment and embodiment in moving. They are generated and influenced by the felt accompaniments of communication, in part mediated through the autonomic nervous system. For psychotherapy, conversation can be understood in terms of narrative units which serve the purpose of enriching the patient’s text of personal vitality. In linguistic terms, the affective component of language, present in the lived transactions of conversation, provides the warrant for messages that constitute something new in the patient’s experience. Conversation has messages that are “given” and “new”, carrying potential for growth. Such change involves transformation of the personal story from restricted and restricting traumatic forms to living, optimistic narratives that can grow and be shared in companionship.