Ep. 12: Seeing Beyond Appearances - Embodying a Phenomenological Attitude

In this episode, the hosts talk about what is phenomenology and how to cultivate a phenomenological attitude in our everyday life and within the therapeutic context. Phenomenology means to pay attention and attend carefully to what appears- the phenomenon-in order to understand it and allow its essence to be disclosed. Phenomenology is a form of seeing through appearances, which means that how something or somebody appears is intrinsically connected with its essence. There are many instances in our daily life when we have encountered the essence of someone, of an experience or an event. For instance, we might have stumbled upon something essential when we noticed the sudden, rich, perhaps sensual appearance of natural beauty, and are moved by it to the point of having a sense of transcending our regular ways of being. We can cultivate this phenomenological way of seeing or phenomenological attitude towards the world and ourselves by slowing down, taking our time, paying close attention and putting on the side our preconceived notions of what something or someone must be, in favour of discovering them with curiosity and openness. This kind of phenomenological attitude is also very important in psychotherapy as it allows clients to be seen and understood as well as to reclaim their own experiential access to themselves and to the world.