Dialogues with the unspoken: experiencing the implicit in the therapeutic process.

The therapeutic process extends beyond the spatial and temporal boundaries of the setting. Contemporary research highlights the crucial role of implicit and unconscious elements that emerge in treatment, shaped by the therapist, the patient, and their unique dynamic. The ability to recognize non- verbalized content is fundamental, as it may influence the healing process even outside the session, through dreams, during temporary suspension of treatment, or once therapy comes to an end, leaving the patients to their own. This symposium aims to capture the implicit dimensions of therapy through empirical evidence, clinical illustrations and literature reviews centered on the unspoken dynamics of the dyadic relationship before, during and after our intervention. First, Liotti et al. will present a self-report instrument specifically designed to assess patients’ implicit epistemic stance toward their therapist, with a work titled “Navigating Epistemic Trust in the Therapeutic Relationship: Instrument Validation and Research Insights”. Disruptions in epistemic trust can hinder effective psychotherapy by fostering resistance to new knowledge, thus limiting the therapeutic alliance. Sommantico et al. will further analyze the concept of incommunicability with ‘The role of the unspoken in the interruption of a psychoanalytic treatment’. Their contribution explores how unspoken elements may shape premature terminations, influencing both the patient’s experience and the therapeutic process. Protopapa et al. will then examine the impact of forced treatment cessation due to the therapist’s disappearance in ‘On the talkability of death: lived experience of patients whose therapists died during treatment’. This study sheds light on the unspoken mourning processes and the unique challenges patients face in elaborating such an event. Finally, Chiabrando et al. will present a scoping review on the significance of countertransference dreams, titled ‘The Dreaming Therapist: Use and Meaning of Countertransference Dreams in Psychotherapy’. Their research explores how clinicians’ dreams function as a symbolic space for processing unspoken dynamics within the therapeutic relationship. By these diverse research methods, the symposium aims to deepen the understanding of the unspoken in therapy and value its impact on the lives of both patients and therapists.