Published: March 2026

Keywords:
Silence, dialogical self, I-positions, positioning process, polyphony, trauma, therapeutic presence, witnessing.

Evangelos Rentas

Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Clinical Social Worker, Systemic Psychotherapist, BSc Psychology, BA Social Work, Master of Systemic Practice, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK, evanrentas@yahoo.gr

Abstract

Silence often functions as an indicator of regulation within the therapeutic relationship before it becomes explicit meaning. This article reframes silence as an embodied and relational positioning process, that is, the way a person takes a stance toward self and other before lived experience takes linguistic form through a distinct self-perspective, an I-position. Silence is approached as silent dialogicality and as a field of wordless co-regulation in which I-positions gradually emerge within the relationship. In trauma contexts, this emerging polyphony does not always appear as an already organized system. Instead, it emerges as a fragile relational field, and silence functions either as a movement toward organizing meaning or as an index of freezing, shame, or disconnection. The paper links Dialogical Self Theory with systemic and trauma-informed perspectives, with emphasis on relational processes, rhythm, and power dynamics. It proposes a clinical distinction between silence that sustains connection and rhythm and silence in which freezing or withdrawal predominates. It describes the meta-position as a stance that supports connection without accelerating the shift into speech. Through theoretical analysis and two clinical cases, it maps shifts toward articulated I-positions and shared meaning-making when presence and witnessing support the emergence of voice