In the article, author shares her experience of working as a student counselor at a university during pandemic. Author wishes to explore a particular approach to the therapeutic endeavor which author will call 'Mitfuhlen'. It is a German word whose most literal translation means 'feeling with'. Author will describe how Mitfuhlen enables the therapeutic couple to share feelings together in order that they can be thought about together. Author will propose that the practice of Mitfuhlen creates a venue that is co-created by the therapist and patient, and facilitated by the frame and setting. Author will describe this venue as a 'feeling space to think in'. Author will explore this approach using a particular example from clinical work with a university student. Author is doing so because it was with this student that author used the term 'feeling space to think in' for the first time. The adaptation of the seemingly straightforward word, Mitfuhlen, 'feeling with', to the therapeutic setting offers an additional tool to the therapist's repertoire. Certainly it is closely allied to other techniques, yet it makes a valuable contribution towards models of working with transference. Perhaps most significantly, Mitfuhlen enables the therapist to approach the analytic situation as one in which experience is mutually shared in order that change may occur. Although my work with Cathy was curtailed by time constraints and carried out digitally from a great distance, author is certain that a creative dynamic was at work between us which enabled me to recognize therapy as a 'feeling space to think in'. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
Mitfuhlen: A feeling space to think in