body psychotherapy
body psychotherapy
Including the body in psychotherapy is very essential. A lot of things we can not make sense of with the mind. Tension and trauma can be stored in the body. Therefore to release it we have to include the body.
Some people are very in their head, overthinking everything and spiraling in negative thought patterns and they might have trouble to connect to their bodies and feel into what the body wants to express. Especially in times of crisis this can be exacerbated. All of this impacts the well-being of the person.
The body is always there with everything we are doing. Wouldn’t it be helpful to feel into it more and in a next step feel into what it needs?
Possible methods and strategies
- Feeling into the body
- Feeling, naming and localising and sensations and emotions in the body
- Relaxation exercises
- Visualisations
- Work with touch (e.g. massage, self-massage)
- TRE – Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises
- Shaking
- Breathing exercises
- Body scan
- Tapping
- Grounding exercises
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- etc.
Body psychotherapy • exercise
Start by standing up. Feel into your feet, feel the ground beneath you. With a tennis ball, fascia ball, golf ball or spiky massage ball massage one foot very mindfully. Roll the ball with a bit of pressure back and forth. It should not hurt too much, just a comfortable pain (if at all.) After a few minutes stop the massage and compare the feet. Can you feel a difference? You might feel a difference in temperature, grounding, tingeling. Then massage the second foot for a few minutes and at the end feel into both feet. How are they feeling?
