Body psychology or somatic psychology aims to work in developing body and mind simultaneously. Most importantly, it focuses on discovering and releasing the body, mind, and spirit. The combination of bodywork and psychology, which is body-centered, help one accomplish this purpose of body psychology.
One important aspect of body psychology is body psychotherapy. This is, as you can infer, founded on the basics and principles of body and mind.
Body psychotherapy’s main characteristics or techniques are addressed by somatic touching, breathing, and other movement techniques.
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Important Concepts of Body Psychology
Bodymind: This is the fundamental concept of somatic or body psychology and psychotherapy. So what does it represent? Well, it illustrates the integration of thoughts, emotions, physical experiences, and sensations.
When doing the treatment, all the parts of a persona can be accessed from various treatment points for an effective and holistic curing approach.
Character and armoring: Armoring is a crucial point developed by Reich. He found out that people tend to establish somatic armor or muscle tension when they need to protect themselves from physical and emotional pain.
The armoring leads to the development of character, according to Reich. He introduced five character types when he was developing the assessment.
Energy: This idea of energy implies the store and release of energy and its impact on one’s personality, interactions, and experiences.
The treatment focuses on entering, flow, and release of energy, pulsation, and contraction of muscle, charge, and discharge of energy from the body.
Body Memory: This is a debatable topic in somatic psychology or psychotherapy. However, many body psychotherapists believe that when memories cannot be processed through talk therapy, different traumatic memories can be released through bodywork.
Body or Somatic Therapy Techniques
When seeking treatment of body psychotherapy, the patient may find themselves going through the following sessions,
- Talk therapy session
- Body language reading
When the problems have been identified, the therapists will implement treatments accordingly. The treatment is selected based on the personality of the patient. Some of the techniques are:
- Dialogue therapy
- Movement or dance therapy
- Somatic experiencing
- Centering
- Grounding
- Breathwork
- Contact and Bodywork
Body Psychology: Why do We Need Body Psychotherapy?
So, body psychotherapy is a holistic approach which ties the body and mind as one.
It is believed that many issues such as traumatic or hurtful thoughts or memories could impact the overall wellbeing of people, which is held on the body.
This can be observed through sleep deprivation problems, headache, chronic pain, fatigue. All these problems would also affect daily functions such as relationships, mood, and intimacy.
Therefore, in such a context, body, or somatic psychotherapy could help these people affected by negative emotions or trauma to release their tension and thus feel positive.
Institutions That Offer Body Psychotherapy Sessions
Several health professionals around the world offer body psychotherapy. Some popular institutions where the Programs are available are:
- International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis
- Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute
- Institute of Core Energetics
- Hakomi Institute
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Universities That Offer Body Psychotherapy
- Somatic Psychology, MA, California Institute of Integral Studies
- Counselling MCouns, PgCert, PgDip, University of Edinburgh
- Therapeutic Counselling MSc, University of Greenwich
- Dance Movement Psychotherapy – MA, University of Roehampton
- Dance Movement Psychotherapy (MA), University of Derby
- MA – Dance Movement Psychotherapy, Goldsmiths, University of London
- MA – Art Psychotherapy, Goldsmiths, University of London
- Supervision in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Helping Relationships – PgCert, University of Salford
- Somatic psychology, Meridian University
- Somatic counseling, Naropa University
- Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition MSc, University of Edinburgh, Psychology and Language Sciences
- Master of Science program in Counseling with a Concentration in Somatic Psychology at Prescott College
Popular Body Psychotherapy Books
Now, we will share popular and best-selling 10 books on somatic or body psychology:
- The Dictionary of Body Language: A Field Guide to Human Behavior by Joe Navarro
- The Body Language by Allan Pease and Barbara Pease
- The Psychology of the Body by Elliot Greene
- Body Language Mastery by Brandon Cooper
- Somatic Psychology by Linda Hartley
- Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman
- Positive Psychology and the Body: The Somatopsychic Side to Flourishing by Kate Hefferon
- Mind and Body by George Mandler
- The Body and Consent in Psychology, Psychiatry, and Medicine by Jemma Tosh
- The Secrets of Body Language by Philippe Turchet
Final thoughts
Despite its debatable position, body psychology is a concept that is believed to be a practical and holistic approach. The idea brought together body and mind when healing or treating a patient.
Many body psychotherapists believe it to be effective in myriads of cases where other techniques may fail. The ultimate objective of body psychology is to release negative emotion in holistic ways through body works.
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