The language of silence in psychotherapy

Abstract

The article analyzes the role of silence in the therapeutic relationship, exploring its dynamic meanings and implications for both patient and therapist. The patient's silence may reflect rejection, difficulty in opening up and revealing their vulnerabilities, or aggression. In some cases, it may express emotional involvement or conceal unconscious content related to issues of inferiority, insecurity, shame, or presumed guilt. The therapist's silence is also significant, serving as a space for reflection and methodological reformulation, but it can become problematic if the therapist experiences it in a conflictual way. Conscious management of silence by the therapist helps to maintain cooperative communication within the therapeutic creative couple. In empathic therapies such as Adlerian therapy, silence, being a form of non-verbal communication, requires careful reading and conscious responses to avoid negative impacts on transference and countertransference