Documenting Cases as a Participant Observer

A Manual for Somatic Awareness Practitioners

Abstract

What follows is a how-to manual designed to assist somatic awareness practitioners to document their cases in a way that allows a reader to reconstruct the flow of events – for practitioner and client – in all or part of their sessions with clients. The method of documentation presented here assumes that the practitioner is the most informed observer of a session (a participant observer) and that practitioners can train their perceptions and writing skills to communicate the process of engagement, communication, and change over time within and across sessions with the same client. Qualitative, participant observer research methods have strong overlaps with the principles of somatic awareness treatment and educational methods. The domains of overlap are: self-awareness, attunement to the body and its experiences, non-judgment, and distinguishing the roles of self and client to enhance the client’s self-awareness. Effective, articulate case notes can serve as the basis of research on the process of change for both clients and practitioners using somatic awareness methods. Although each somatic awareness practice uses different terms for those providing and those receiving the work, the terms “practitioner” and “client” will be used in this article.