Body psychotherapy is the way we honour the role of the body in our wellbeing and mental health difficulties. Body psychotherapy is a way or integrating your body into your psychotherapeutic process. In any therapy modailty we offer the body plays a role. Holistic therapy honours the mind, the body and the soul.

Body psychotherapy is a concept which was conceived by Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich. Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian doctor of mediciine and psychoanalyst. His concept of muscular armour being an expression of the personality in the way the body moves shaped innovations in psychotherapy specifically, body psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, bioenergetic analysis and primal therapy.

What is Body Psychotherapy?

Body psychotherapy explores the link between psychological distress and the way our body functions in response to this stress but also the role it plays in creating it. Common examples might include blocks in chakras, breathing irregularities, posture problems and holding onto trauma in the body from PTSD.

These somatic issues contribute to psychological malady and psychological malady contributes to somatic issues. Our body psychotherapy provides insight into these difficulties as well as providing practical solutions by way of body based interventions.

What techniques do we use in body psychotherapy?

The techniques we use as part of body pschotherapy include: EMDR therapy, somatic experiencing, trauma release, body based awareness, mindfulness, breathwork, bioenergetics, polyvagal mapping, body mapping and emotional freedom technique.