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Silence is a critical and natural part of SE sessions. And yet sometimes it can go on too long.
- The client can sit there in silence while you explain things excessively.
- You as the clinician can sit there in silence while your client talks and talks endlessly.
- The two of you can sit in awkward silence not knowing what to say next after you ask “what do you notice now?”
- Worst yet, sometimes in Freeze/DVC phases the silence can become terminal and reinforce the stuck state.
In this episode I look at some of the dynamics of allowing silence to go on too long: including internal critical dialogue of the practitioner, consequences of allowing too much silence and some solutions to avoid it being problematic.