[OSList] Holding space - holding a baby

[Scott Gassman]

Johannes,

Beautiful depiction that resonates cultivating safe space.

Thanks,
Scott



On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 10:57 AM, Skye Hirst <skyeh at autognomics.org> wrote:

> Yes, indeed. THanks for this.
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 8:08 AM, Johannes Terwitte <jokerwitte at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I have long wondered about the metaphor of "holding space", which I hear
>> being used pretty frequently in our circles. Then today I stumbled upon the
>> Wikipidia page on the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and found the
>> following, which I simply wanted to share with you all:
>>
>> Part of [the mother's] loving care was [her] attentive holding of her
>>> child; and as Winnicott (1965) suggested, the therapist recreates a
>>> 'holding environment', that resembles that of the mother and infant.
>>> Winnicott described minutely 'the business of picking a baby up...gathering
>>> her together', and the way that the "mother's technique of holding, of
>>> bathing, of feeding, everything she did for the baby, added up to the
>>> child's first idea of the mother'". Winnicott considered that the "child's
>>> ability to feel the body as the place where the psyche lives could not have
>>> been developed without a consistent technique of handling", and he
>>> extrapolated 'the idea of "holding" and of meeting dependence' from the
>>> mother to the family as a whole, and to the wider world surrounding it. He
>>> saw as a prerequisite for healthy development "the continuation of reliable
>>> holding in terms of the ever-widening circle of family and school and
>>> social life".
>>
>>
>>>
>> Out of his work developed the subsequent belief that "one of the most
>>> deeply therapeutic factors in an analysis is the extent to which a
>>> sensitive analyst parallels...the earliest relationship between a
>>> responsive mother and her infant", a symbolic parallel. Winnicott wrote: "A
>>> correct and well-timed interpretation in an analytic treatment gives a
>>> sense of being held physically that is more real...than if a real holding
>>> or nursing had taken place. Understanding goes deeper".
>>>
>>  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Winnicott#Concept_of_holding)
>>>
>>
>>  Don't we sometimes speak of an Open Space as a nurturing environment?
>> Don't participants often remark how free and peaceful they felt during the
>> OS event?  I see some parallels here, and I quite like them.
>>
>> Speaking as a young father, I see a direct connection between me holding
>> and carrying my daughters or tidying up after them - and my picking up
>> coffee cups during an OS. In all cases I am (or try to be) attentive and
>> attuned.
>>
>> I'd be interested to hear if Winnicot's description resonates with anyone
>> else - or else how you relate to the phrase of "holding space".
>>
>> Johannes
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> *Skye Hirst, PhD*
> President - The Autognomics Institute
> *Conversations in the Ways of Life-itself*
> www.autognomics.org
> @autognomics
>
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> 207-593-8074
>
>
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-- 
Scott Gassman
IdeaJuice
(917) 951 - 0258
scott.gassman at gmail.com
www.ideajuices.com

America Speaks on Scott:
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