Body psychotherapy
This is another humanistic therapy that is about being client-centred and meeting authentically in relationship. The client is encouraged to be as embodied as possible and the therapist demonstrates what this is through modelling.
The therapy works on the principle that each client is an unique being with their particular psychological, emotional, mental and spiritual ‘inner core’ that ‘self regulates’, but also has ‘character armour’ that protects them from the world (Eiden, 2002).
The body therapist explores with the client how the power dynamics experienced by them as children have calcified into beliefs and negative ways of being; this manifests in the body as tension and hyper-vigilance and causing it to not function properly. For example, a client having been in an abusive relationship with a significant other where they were not taught or allowed to challenge the parent and say ‘no’ to them can find they carry this in the body in some way.
As these calcified aspects get loosened the person will use their body differently.
The therapist needs to be thoroughly secure in their own body and this then helps clients to start to be in touch with their own bodies and become aware of their sensations and responses to the therapist. This work is about how senses pick up information non-verbally.
Breathing is an essential element in this kind of therapy. The therapist helps make sense of how the client uses their breath, for example by doing an exercise with the client kneeling on a mattress with pillows, where rocking the body demonstrates how the breath is coming in and out of the body.
The purpose of body therapy is to use both the right and left hemispheres of the brain to feel more whole and allow change to be long-lasting and significant.
The body therapist will enable the client to release blocked energies and as a result the latter may have intense dreams. By sharing these the client then understands more about themselves and their stuckness and how to work towards creativity, well-being and change.
This therapy suits all people.