From Bodily Sensations to Metacognitive Reflection: A Qualitative Language Analysis of ReAttach Interventions

Samenvatting

In this paper, we explore how language reflects emotional and metacognitive changes during ReAttach interventions. Using verbatim transcripts, we compare the short-term language changes of two healthy adults during a three-day training with the long-term data (over six months) of a patient with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). Our analysis shows a clear developmental pattern in how participants talk about their experiences. They move from focusing on physical sensations and emotions to reflecting on their own thoughts, describing daily functioning, and eventually expressing a strong sense of agency. Interestingly, this pattern appears in both groups. The healthy trainees reached the functional and agency stages within just 72 hours, which suggests that this developmental process can happen much faster in non-clinical populations. The training basically mirrors the long-term therapeutic process on a smaller scale. This supports the idea that the mechanisms of change in ReAttach are transdiagnostic and universally human.