Ellenhorn kicked off our 2024 New Perspectives on Treatment Series with a talk by Ross Ellenhorn.
The human experience of being held is not dependent on physical contact or even physical proximity. Indeed, you can feel held by a person who lives across the globe. That’s a miracle. In fact, it may be the most gorgeous thing about humanity. If we are lucky, the knowledge that we are being held by others is a natural part of our daily lives, but there are also people, psychotherapists among them, who make holding their vocation and aim to facilitate “holding environments” in their therapies. They offer holding as a kind of medicine, and thus need to be more intentional about this very natural and human event. Holding is a skill and practice not to be trifled with. When done right, it is a noble craft. When not given its due respect, however, it’s artificial BS at best, and downright injurious at worst. To facilitate a holding environment requires a certain kind of trust—one that is both paradoxical and complex, and goes beyond dependability and loyalty. (That’s why dogs make good companions, but can’t be therapists.) This talk addresses the paradoxes of trust in the holding environment and look at such tensions as the demand to resist gratification, the need for authenticity and the struggle over how to create a space that fosters improvisation while promising dependability.
