Body-Mind Mental Health Therapies:

 

What is body-mind therapy?

Body-mind therapy combines the strengths of “talk” therapy with bodywork, such as touch, postural alignment, or exercises to increase body awareness. Also known as mind-body or somatic therapy, it helps people “become deeply aware of their bodily sensations as well as their emotions, images and behavior. Clients become more conscious of how they breathe, move, speak, and where they experience feelings in their bodies.” (United States Association for Body Psychotherapy). This increased awareness about how the body holds physical stress and emotional injury informs and directs the therapy process, allowing clients to work through patterns of limitation that are not often resolved on the level of the mind alone.

As the one of the innovators of body-mind psychology explains it, “Unacknowledged feelings from past experiences are stored in your body and then unconsciously have a powerful effect on who you are, how you behave, and how you feel about yourself. Using the body as the gateway to awareness, buried feelings and memories can surface, freeing you from old patterns and energy blocks that keep you feeling stuck and unable to live life to its fullest. Your mind may avoid certain emotions and memories, but your body remembers it all.” (What is Rubenfeld Synergy?)

Body-mind therapies vs. body work?

Bodywork seeks primarily to improve physical health and functioning. Schools of bodywork such as the Alexander Technique, Rolfing, and the Feldenkrais Method are examples of postural and structural body mechanics treatments. Though these systems also affect the emotions and mental states of the client, they are not overtly designed to work on psychological issues.

Body-mind therapy is a psychotherapeutic process that works on the relationship between the body and the emotional processes of the client, and is intended to address emotional concerns that are not as likely to be resolved through talk therapy alone.

Body-mind mental health practitioners

Just as there are many types of therapies, there are at least as many kinds of therapists. Some provide counseling without licenses, and possibly without mental health training.

This article discusses several of the better-known types of body-mind mental health therapies that could be practiced by both licensed and non-licensed mental health professionals.

Somatic Experiencing

Dr. Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing (SE) by observing how animals regulate and discharge high levels of energy when encountering life-threatening situations in the wild. Unlike humans, who have been trained to use the rational faculties of the mind to cope with stressful situations, animals exhibit an innate ability to restore themselves to equilibrium after being attacked. They do not hold in their bodies the intense energy they needed to temporarily mobilize for survival. Thus, they do not get traumatized as people do are after a frightening trigger event. As Dr. Levine puts it, “Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the dangerous event itself. They arise when residual energy from the event is not discharged from the body. This energy remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and minds.”

Dr. Levine argues that humans also possess this energy-releasing ability, and can learn how to employ a body awareness he calls felt sense to renegotiate and heal the trauma. Learning how to access this felt sense in the moment and release residual tension is the basis of SE. The procedures are taught through face-to-face interactions between practitioner and client. SE is considered valid for both shock trauma—single-episode traumatic experiences such as war, rape, or natural disasters—and developmental trauma, which refers to interruptions in the predictable psychological stages of growth. Certified Somatic Experiencing practitioners, who are often psychotherapists, have completed a three-year training program through the Foundation for Human Enrichment, established by Dr. Levine. To find a qualified SE practitioner in your area, go to the Foundation’s Practitioner’s Registry.

The Hakomi Method

Hakomi is a method of gentle, body-centered therapy that operates from a core of five foundational principles: mindfulness, unity, mind-body-spirit holism, non-violence, and organicity. It was developed by psychologist Ron Kurtz, a practicing Buddhist and body-mind practitioner who wanted to develop a less harsh way of accessing body awareness. Hakomi is a Hopi Indian word that can be translated as “Who are you?” The Hakomi Method works on changing those aspects of our core material—memories, body impressions, emotional imprints, habitual thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes—that were developed in response to challenging situations, but which limit our options when carried into adulthood beyond their usefulness.

At the root of Hakomi is Mindfulness—a deep listening to oneself, facilitated by the therapist guiding the client to stay totally present to what is happening inside during the therapeutic session. The past is referenced, but only as it needs to be for healing and completion, organically, as the flow of the moment dictates. Hakomi does not try to change someone, but allows a person’s natural authenticity and self-knowing to emerge. It involves going beyond who you think you are, to being able to discover who you truly are—not through the intellect, but through the non-verbal wisdom of the body. This experience of being oneself cannot be thought; it must be experienced directly. The therapist is not an authority in this journey, giving advice or making suggestions, but a calm presence creating safety for self-discovery.

Briefly put, the Hakomi method can be summarized in three stages:

• Establish a relationship in which it is safe for the client to become aware
• Notice or evoke experiences that lead to the discovery of organizing core material
• Seek healing changes in the core material

Hakomi therapists often help increase clients’ awareness of habitual patterns of behavior by sharing observations about their “body language” in a non-threatening way. These observations then form the basis of engaging in safe, mutually-agreed upon experiments that bring core material into awareness, such as practicing responding with different body language to a statement that reflects a deeply held belief. Hakomi advocates the use of touch when appropriate, but only with the consent of the client. This distinguishes it from most traditional therapies, in which there are strict prohibitions against therapist-client contact. Certified Hakomi Therapists can be found through the Hakomi Institute’s website.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Pat Ogden was a student of several body therapies and an apprentice to Ron Kurtz in the 1970s, when she decided she wanted to form a synthesis between body therapy and psychology, specifically the Hakomi Method she was studying. The result was Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Like Hakomi, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy uses a gentle approach to increase awareness of client’s underlying beliefs and attitudes. In this approach, the distinguishing emphasis is on its study of the relationship between trauma and developmental issues. Dr. Ogden was particularly interested in the dissociation from the body exhibited by many of the people she was trying to help, and through working with them discovered that:

• Developmental injury occurs from dysfunctional family dynamics that lead to the formation of limiting psychological belief systems; and
• Traumatic injury is due to perceived life-threatening events that overwhelm boundaries and leave victims feeling helpless and out of control

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is known for differentiating between these two kinds of injuries and working with the interface between them. The methodology used is very similar to that of Hakomi therapy. It is founded on the same tenets of mindfulness, non-violence, organicity, unity, and holism. The body’s sensations and cues are constantly referred to throughout the sessions, and establishing safety and respect is considered the first priority in the client-therapist relationship. A list of Certified Practitioners is available through the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute’s website.

Rubenfeld Synergy Metho

The Rubenfeld Synergy Method is a ‘hands on’ therapy that uses light touch and verbal processing to sense the movement of energy in the body, in order to help clients release stored emotions and blocks to more vital living. It was developed over thirty years ago by Ilana Rubenfeld, a Julliard School of Music graduate whose conducting career was sidelined by a debilitating back spasm.

Through seeking her own healing, she discovered a way to synthesize bodywork, psychotherapy and intuition into a method of ‘talk and touch.’ Ms. Rubenfeld describes the process on her website:

Emotions and memories stored in our beings often result in energy blocks, tensions, and imbalances. The Rubenfeld Synergy Method uses many avenues, including verbal expression, movement, breathing patterns, body posture, kinesthetic awareness, imagination, sound, and caring touch, to access these reservoirs of feeling. Together, synergist and client make room for emerging feelings, integrating them with present experience. (www.ilanarubenfeld.com)

The first ten principles and theoretical foundations of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method are:

• Each individual is unique. Rubenfeld Synergists approach clients and their sessions with this principle of honoring their uniqueness.
• The body, mind, emotions and spirit are dynamically interrelated. Each time a change is introduced at one level, it has a ripple effect throughout the entire system.
• Awareness is the first key to change. By bringing the unconscious into awareness, clients have the opportunity to explore alternate choices and to develop possibilities for emotional, physical and psychophysical change.
• Change occurs in the present moment. Clients may experience memories of the past and fantasize about the future, but change itself can occur only in the present.
• The ultimate responsibility for change rests with the client. Rubenfeld Synergists can support clients to recognize dysfunctional behavior and guide them to try new ones. They cannot force clients to change.
• Clients have the natural capacity for self-healing and self-regulation. Innate healing ability already exists in clients, waiting to be actualized. Rubenfeld Synergists do not "cure" or "correct" but rather facilitate clients' healing.
• The body's energy field and life force exist and can be sensed. Rubenfeld Synergists use gentle touch to sense energy, its pulsations and movement. When tight holding patterns in the body/mind are released, there is a marked change in the energetic quality.
• Touch is a viable system of communication. Rubenfeld Synergists develop "listening hands" to dialogue with clients, thus opening new gateways to their unconscious mind.
• The body is a metaphor. Clients' postural positions and movements may represent emotional issues in their lives.
• The body tells the truth. Often what clients communicate verbally is not congruent with their body's story. Rubenfeld Synergists guide their clients to listen to their body's message.

Sessions are typically 45-50 minutes and are conducted with the client fully clothed, usually lying on a table, although sitting and moving may also be called for at times. The Synergist guides the client in creating a dialogue between body, mind, emotions, and spirit. Repressed emotions such as grief, anger, and sadness are often re-experienced and given expression. According to the Rubenfeld Synergy Method website, the benefits of a Rubenfeld Synergy sessions can include:

• Resolution of painful issues and experiences
• Increased inner peace and calm
• Greater self-esteem
• Recovery from physical and/or emotional trauma
• Maintenance of physical and emotional health and well-being
• Better management of stress
• Living more from conscious choice than from habit

Integrative Body Psychotherapy

Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP) is an in-depth psychology based on the view that life is most fundamentally a somatic experience (somatic meaning “of the body”), and that the only way to truly understand oneself and the questions of life is through developing somatic intelligence. This intelligence could be summarized by the statement “the body always knows.” Every insight gained in therapy must be accompanied by a felt somatic experience in the body, a core experience of self. Psychological problems arise when the connection to the body’s basic guidance system gets interrupted.

IBP therapists help clients “track” three types of mind-body interruptions to the body’s basic guidance system:

• Primary Scenario—emotional patterns and beliefs developed in early childhood that habitually distort present experiences;
• Character Style—our protective defenses; and
• Agency—how we abandon our core selves for love and approval

IBP does not employ physical touch in the therapeutic sessions, favoring more subtle means of putting clients in touch with their somatic intelligence. The basic tools used are awareness, breath, movement, and self-release techniques that empower the client to distinguish between disruptive psychological patterns, acted out in different arenas, and their core sense of self. Without this understanding that we are not our patterns, nothing can get resolved. IBP also recognizes the difference between psychological and existential issues; the IBP therapist helps the client separate what are compelling personal patterns of emotion and behavior from the universal questions of being. These “bigger picture” questions of existence can also be understood through accessing the deeper wisdom in the body.

IBP uses the term fragmentation to describe what happens when a trigger event in life activates unconsciously held beliefs and emotional patterns, causing one’s world view and judgment to become distorted, and leading to hopelessness and pervasive negativity. Fragmentation is not seen as something that we can “think” our way out of, but an integrated body-mind-emotion response to past impressions imbedded in us. IBP offers quick-acting “steps out of fragmentation” that bring back balance and inner stability.

Integrative Body Psychotherapy was developed by Jack Rosenberg, Ph.D. in the 1970s and has grown to include eleven international institutes.

Focusing

Simply put, Focusing is “direct access to bodily knowing.” It is a practice that takes a person towards a state of conscious perception that goes far beyond knowing something on a mere conceptual level. As with Somatic Experiencing, Focusing refers to this bodily knowing as a felt sense. As the Focusing Institute’s website explains, “You can sense your living body directly under your thoughts and memories and under your familiar feelings. Focusing happens at a deeper level than your feelings. Under them you can discover a physically sensed ’murky zone‘ which is concretely there. This is a source from which new steps emerge.” This murky zone “opens” as you learn to stay with it longer. Being with it increases the ability to sense feelings behind words or images, even when those are not yet formed. Eventually, you can learn how to let a deeper bodily felt sense come in relation to any problem or situation. It is a subtle process, hard to define in words. It needs to be experienced.

Focusing was developed by the philosopher Eugene Gendlin in the late 1960s and early 70s, while he was working with the famed psychologist Carl Rogers. The process is widely taught to anyone who wants to learn it. It does not require a degree or certified professional to conduct, though you can find a Certified Focusing Professional through the Focusing Institute’s searchable database.

Neo-Reichian therapy

Wilhelm Reich, a psychoanalytic contemporary of Sigmund Freud, believed there was more to the process of resolving emotional issues than talking about them. According to the Orgonomic Institute, “Reichian therapy was one of the earliest forms of body-mind therapy, combining dialogue, breath and movement to decrease body armoring.” Reich’s theory was that suppressed emotional traumas create physical tensions (protective layers he called “body armoring”). The premise of Reichian therapy is that specific physical movements, deep breath work, and physical manipulation can release both the physical and emotional tensions.

There are several forms of Neo-Reichian therapy that were developed in the 1960s by students of Reich. Their basic purpose is to free rigid muscles and patterns of movement in the body, which then allow the emotions to be freed, and the individual to live a more spontaneous and fulfilling life. The best known Neo-Reichian therapies are:

• Radix – developed by Charles Kelly, a vision psychologist who used the Bates vision method. Starts with muscular tension in the face and head, and moves downward through the body. Techniques are applied according to individual needs; for example, a person who never cries has a different process than someone who tantrums like a small child. Certified Radix practitioners are often, but not necessarily, licensed mental health professionals, and all take a two-year training program. Radix practitioners can be located on the Radix International website.
• Bioenergetics – developed by Alexander Lowen, who became a medical doctor after training with Wilhelm Reich. Starts with the pelvis and moves upward through the body. Uses yoga-like postures, stretching, breath work (sometimes with a “breathing stool” – a padded bench over which the person stretches backwards, to open the chest and spine). Active well into his 90s, Lowen wrote 14 books, including The Language of the Body. Certified Bioenergetic practitioners engage in a two-phase training over the course of 4-6 years and are required to be licensed psychotherapists. Certified Bioenergetic therapists can be located on the International Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis website.

References and resources

General

A Brief Description of Body Psychotherapy – Article explaining the theory behind body-mind therapies and a brief history of how it evolved. (United States Association of Body Psychotherapy)

Explanation of Specific Body-Mind Therapies

Somatic Experiencing

What Is Somatic Experiencing? (Foundation for Human Enrichment)

Somatic Experiencing (wikipedia.org)

Hakomi Method

About Hakomi – Click the ‘About Hakomi’ link on the left side navigation bar. (Hakomi Institute)

Hakomi Method: A Brief Overview - PDF (Ron Kurtz Hakomi Training)

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

What Is Sensorimotor Psychotherapy? (A Path Out of Pain, Australia)

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: One Method for Processing Traumatic Memory – Complex article reprinted from a trauma journal describing the use of this method for the specific purpose of trauma recovery. (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute)

Rubenfeld Synergy Method

What is Rubenfeld Synergy? (Rubenfeld Synergy Method)

Synergistic Body-Mind Therapy (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center)

Integrative Body Psychotherapy

About IBP: Life Is a Somatic Experience (ibponline.com)

Focusing

What Is Focusing? (The Focusing Institute)

Focusing (wikipedia.org)

Neo-Reichian Approaches

Bioenergetic Analysis (developed by Alexander Lowen)

Radix (developed by Charles Kelley)

How to Locate Body-Mind Practitioners

Somatic Experiencing

Practitioner’s Registry (Foundation for Human Enrichment)

Hakomi Method

Certified Hakomi Therapists (Hakomi Institute)

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Certified Practitioners (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute)

Rubenfeld Synergy Method

Locate a Practitioner (Rubenfeld Synergy Method)

Integrative Body Psychotherapy

IBP Certified Practitioners (ibponline.com)

Focusing

Certified Focusing Professional Database (The Focusing Institute)

Neo-Reichian

Radix Practitioners International Database (Radix Institute)

Bioenergetics (International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis)

Other resources used in writing this article

About Body Psychotherapy – Explains common terms, what body-mind therapists do, and provides a brief history of the discipline. (European Association for Body Psychotherapy)

John Dorsey and Jaelline Jaffe, Ph.D., contributed to this article. Last modified on: 1/30/07.