Body Psychotherapy

As the name itself says, Body Psychotherapy is a therapy approach that holds equal awareness of both embodied and psychological human aspects. Body Psychotherapy pays attention to bodily aspects such as posture, muscular system (hyper and hypotonus), facial expression, nonverbal communication, breathing patterns and so forth. Regardless of what the symptom that brought a person to psychotherapy might be, it has two parallel manifestations: physiological and psychological. So, Body Psychotherapy is an integrative, holistic approach, in which a therapist considers various aspects of a client’s problem and therefore approaches a client in a comprehensive way.

Hence, body psychotherapists work parallel with body and mind and in therapy they pay attention to muscular tensions, posture and nonverbal expression of a client. Verbal psychotherapeutic work is also present in dealing with mental health issues. The aim is to re-connect the ‘’language of the body’’ and ‘’language of the mind’’ and to reestablish the coherence within a person. One of the basic principles is we as human beings are whole, consisted of physiological, psychological and spiritual aspects. Anytime there is a splitting between different parts of ourselves, there is a problem.

On of important goals of Body Psychotherapy is reconnecting with and integrating embodied aspects of the mind which leads towards deeper coherence and resilience. Aim is to become aware, experience, contain and express suppressed or split parts of the self. Reconnecting physical and mental aspects, giving them an equal attention in psychotherapeutic theory and practice, enables a person to deepen inner experience and acceptance of oneself.