Margaret Wilkinson: Mind-brain-body Perspectives on Psychotherapy

By Tina Stromsted, Ph.D.

Published in Viewpoint: News & Views of The Psychotherapy Institute

Berkeley, CA, 2013:1 January/February Issue

We are privileged to have Margaret Wilkinson as our speaker for the Spring

Symposium on March 16, 2013. Margaret is a professional member and former chair of

the Society of Analytical Psychology in London, England, a professional member of The

West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapy, and a member of the editorial board of the
Journal of Analytical Psychology, a leading clinically-oriented journal with a Jungian

perspective. She leads neuroscience research reading seminars for The Northern

School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy in Leeds and in Cambridge, and at The

Institute of Mental Health at the University of Nottingham as well as at The Society of

Analytical Psychology, London. A leading figure in articulating and applying insights

from contemporary neurobiology and their relevance to clinical practice, Wilkinson is a

profoundly integrative thinker and an attuned, relationally-oriented Jungian

psychoanalyst. She lectures internationally and is in private practice in North

Derbyshire, England.

In conversations with Margaret, she describes how she “first became interested

in neurobiology when she was teaching students who were engaged in clinical work

with patients with attachment difficulties which resulted from very difficult early

experience.” As it became clear that analytically oriented verbal psychotherapy was in

itself not enough to reach and facilitate the depth of healing needed for clients suffering

from early relational trauma, she began studying the research findings that were

becoming available in the areas of neurobiology, attachment theory and trauma work

and “became particularly interested in the development of mind.” After exploring various

aspects of this in numerous papers, she wrote her first book which had a strongly

developmental focus, while also exploring the effects of trauma on the developing mind-

brain (Coming into Mind: The Mind-Brain Relationship: A Jungian Clinical Perspective,

2006, Routledge).

Wilkinson’s second book focused on the dynamics of mind-brain change and

examined different aspects of working with the patient, seeking to explore the many

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ways in which cutting-edge research may enrich our actual clinical practice (Changing

Minds in Therapy: Emotion, Attachment, Trauma, and Neurobiology, Series on

Interpersonal Neurobiology, 2010, Norton). Here, clinicians, counselors and educators

may also find reflections on the supervisory process in working with children,

adolescents, adults, and groups.

When working with individuals with a history of trauma, Wilkinson speaks of the

essential role of mirroring, emotional resonance, and empathy, underscored by

nonverbal elements that contribute to a sense of safety in the therapeutic relationship.

She goes on to say,

We now know that to work with early forming right-brain, affective, dissociative

distress, a left-brain interpretive approach, traditionally privileged by analytic

theory, is not enough. Instead, right-brain empathic relating is also essential. When

our patients have suffered earlier relational trauma, our task is not merely that of

making the unconscious conscious but rather of restructuring the unconscious

itself. To do that requires the transformational power embedded in unconscious

affective, human interactions. (Wilkinson in Sieff, 2010, p. 347).

Wilkinson makes the point that in such cases, “interpretations and words are of limited

use, because when feeling so severely threatened, the language centers of the brain

are deactivated (Wilkinson in Sieff, 2010, p. 340).” Effective treatment must then include

the non-verbal, relational, experiential dimension that reaches implicit memory and

right-brain learning styles, capacities that are rooted in the body and otherwise

inaccessible to explicit memory and verbal exploration.

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Wilkinson describes the formation of implicit and explicit memories in the early

developing brain and the subtle right brain to right brain, non-verbal elements between

client and therapist that play an important role in the treatment of dissociation resulting

from early relational trauma. Gradually the client becomes able to feel, name, and

reflect on his or her feelings, and to integrate them, moving toward healing the effects of

the trauma, and enhancing the development of a more coherent sense of self. “Then,”

says Wilkinson, “the past becomes the past, rather than forever being relived in the

present (Wilkinson in Sieff, 2010, p. 341).”

In her forthcoming book, The Embodied Psyche: A Whole Person Approach to

Dynamic Psychotherapy (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology), Margaret will

explore recent developments in the neurobiology of emotion and attachment that have

provided us with new insights fostering therapeutic change. She emphasizes that “it has

become clear that mind, brain, and body are inextricably linked, that with the demise of

the Cartesian split those of us whose training is to work with mind, have to grapple with

the, now urgent, question of how we work within the area of our specialty of

competence yet taking into account as much as possible, the complex and

sophisticated understanding of the three main elements -- mind, brain and body -- that

constitute our basic humanity.” “In short,” she says, “we have to learn how to work with

the whole person.” She asks, “What may we know of the richness of the mind-brain-

body relationship, a fuller understanding of which is emerging as a result of the

burgeoning research, particularly into the neurobiology of emotion?”

I was first introduced to Margaret’s ground-breaking work when I heard her

present at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco over a decade ago. Since then I’ve

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had the good fortune to collaborate with her in several conferences and seminars

integrating elements from neurobiology, clinical theory, case material, art, and

movement explorations that integrate elements from both the verbal and non-verbal

dimensions of the client/mover-therapist/witness relationship. I’ve also had the great

pleasure of hearing her present this material on numerous occasions and continents

and have been deeply moved by her combination of intelligence, warmth, and

accessibility.

Some of the questions she will seek to explore with us include: “What insight

does neurobiology offer to our clinical understanding of our clients’ inner world

experiences and their patterns of relating? How can we better understand the

relationship of brain to mind? Does the plasticity of the brain contribute to therapeutic

change, and if so, how?” Margaret’s capacity to translate complex neurobiological

research in ways that make it readily accessible to psychotherapists and educators is

remarkable, and I feel certain that we are in for a big treat on March 16th!

The symposium will begin with a lecture, followed by discussion with the

audience, lunch, and a clinical case presentation by Amy Glick, MFT, a graduate of the

Psychotherapy Institute’s Training Program, in consultation with Margaret. The day will

come to a close with time for questions and discussion, providing further opportunities

to reflect and engage with clinicians from our community.

Margaret concludes, “We need a theory and practice where the best of the old is

conserved yet where new insights are integrated and used effectively.” Margaret’s work

makes clear to us the value of an interdisciplinary whole person approach that

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“conserves our rich inheritance from Freud and Jung but also takes on board insights

from attachment research, trauma research and the neurobiology of emotion.”

For correspondence with Margaret Wilkinson, her email address is

mwilkinsoncurbar@yahoo.co.uk

References:

Gambini, R. (2007). Epilogue. Who owns the air? In A. Casement (Ed.), Who owns

Jung? (pp.363-367). London: Karnac.

Sieff, D. (Fall 2010). Neurobiology in the consulting room: An interview with Margaret

Wilkinson. In N. Cater (Ed.), Spring Journal (84), 327-348.

Wilkinson, M. (2006). Coming into mind: The mind-brain relationship: A Jungian clinical

perspective. London & New York: Routledge.

Wilkinson, M. (2010). Changing minds in therapy: Emotion, attachment, trauma, and

neurobiology. New York & London: W.W. Norton.

Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., BC-DMT, is a Jungian analyst & Board Certified Dance

therapist in San Francisco. She teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, the

Depth Psychology/Somatics Doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, for the

Marion Woodman Foundation, and other universities and healing centers internationally.

With nearly forty years of clinical experience, her teaching and publications explore the

integration of body, mind, psyche and soul.

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