8-9th of June, 2026
University of Southern Denmark, Odense. 

In an era of mental health crisis, it is increasingly important to account for the full range of factors that contribute to therapeutic efficacy. While therapist expertise and patient motivation are widely recognized, the atmosphere of the therapeutic situation remains comparatively underexplored.

Atmospheres may be understood as holistic affective qualities that integrate diverse emotional forces into a unified experiential field. Within phenomenological psychiatry, this concept has been used to describe how alterations in subjective experience extend beyond the individual to shape the interpersonal affective space. However, the role of atmospheres in structuring therapeutic encounters and influencing recovery processes remains insufficiently theorized and empirically examined. Existing evidence suggests that the atmosphere of a consultation setting can actively evoke affective responses—such as trust, relaxation, and intimacy, or, conversely, shame, distance, and inhibition—which in turn condition distinct interactional dynamics and potentially shape therapeutic outcomes.

This presentation reports preliminary findings from a mixed-methods study on atmospheres in psychotherapy. The study combines phenomenological interviews, informed by front-loaded phenomenology, with video-assisted interaction analysis using Cognitive Event Analysis. Focusing on humanistic-oriented individual therapy sessions, this integrative design enables the analysis of both lived experience and interactional processes over time, thereby capturing shifts in atmosphere across phases of therapeutic engagement.

The findings identify several modes of environmental engagement. First, transitions into and out of therapeutic spaces function as temporally extended processes of meaning-making. Second, interactions with spatial and material features support attentional and affective regulation. Third, processes of identification and projection emerge between therapists, ambient conditions, and intervention styles.

The discussion underscores the methodological value of integrating first-person and third-person perspectives in capturing the dynamic, embodied character of therapeutic atmospheres, while also addressing the challenges inherent in such integration. More broadly, the study contributes to the refinement of phenomenological approaches to relational and affective dynamics across contexts.