Establishing the “area of need” through optimal responsiveness: Yoga/Psychotherapy for childhood sexual abuse survivors

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) causes severe harm to the self, halts its development and fractures it. Some of these harmful effects are caused by the interaction between the physical domain, where the abuse occurs, and the self; however, the physical is often neglected in the theoretical and clinical treatment of CSA. In this article we wish to introduce the Yoga/Psychotherapy treatment framework, a combined psychoanalytical/physical approach which, we will argue, constitutes what Bacal defined as an “optimal response” for women who were sexually abused in childhood. The article begins by introducing the concept of the “parental envelope,” coined by Israeli dance movement therapist Yona Shachar-Levy, to illuminate the body-self relationship. Then, drawing on the work of Rinat Rav-Hon’s idea of the “area of need”—a therapeutic space of selfobject responsiveness—we present two key components of the Yoga/Psychotherapy method which, we will argue, establish this therapeutic “area of need” as they constitute an “optimal response”: the regulating quality of the Yoga/Psychotherapy group setting; and the facilitators’ unique way of observing the participants. The group sessions, we will show, provide an accurate therapeutic response which helps to mend the rifts in the self.