ABSTRACT
Attunement to the client's being-in-the-world facilitates engagement, a prerequisite for any self-development. It is central in the process of practising inclusion and is an embodied experience. There are some experimental techniques that can help the therapist in attuning to what a client might be experiencing. One such experiment is to assume a similar posture to the client, to ‘try on’ their way of sitting and/or moving. Therapists need to be aware of their own habitual ways of holding their bodies and to be careful not to be telling the client what they feel, but to tentatively share what awareness arises and see if this has resonance for the client. Attunement to embodied presence and absence (dissociation) can provide a means of lived connection in therapy. Affect attunement is the recognition of the other’s needs and moving to respond to those needs. It is a step towards dialogue but not the destination.
