There is a couch in my practice but I encourage people to sit opposite me to level out power so we can gaze at one another and we can make eye contact. When I was practicing in a more classical way it really wasn't landing with people that had survived traumatic life events because they didn't have someone witness their suffering and pain. It's very isolating for them to not have the gaze to not have someone Witness their suffering and their pain you know someone sitting at the end of a couch taking notes with no eye contact when you're sharing trauma it's so disconnecting and so lonely, she says.
This week on the Penguin Podcast, Isy Suttie talks to author and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, Maxine Mei-Fung Chung. Maxine joins us to discuss her latest book, What Women Want, an intimate examination of female desire.
The two also discuss the importance of making time for yourself, the impulse to keep busy for fear we may break down, why many of our coping mechanisms are developed in childhood, and why eye contact is essential when sharing intimate information.
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