The Body-Mind Link
What Somatic Psychotherapy says about the Body and its link with the Mind
"There are many ways of engaging ourselves in the process of personal change. But what is recognised neuro-biologically, is that if we are to change our deeply embedded patterns of relationship to ourselves, to other people, and to life itself, we have to engage the whole human system, the body/mind/core self, not just the mind. Then real personal transformation occurs on the cutting edge of our experience."
"There are many ways of engaging ourselves in the process of personal change. But what is recognised neuro-biologically, is that if we are to change our deeply embedded patterns of relationship to ourselves, to other people, and to life itself, we have to engage the whole human system, the body/mind/core self, not just the mind. Then real personal transformation occurs on the cutting edge of our experience."
Jeff Barlow
In determining our potential and what we will become, the body is now taking an equal place alongside the mind. Heather Ellis
It is easy to view our bodies as a vehicle, a mere repository for the mind which just comes along for the ride. But, what happens with all the thoughts and memories that your mind produces?
According to somatic (body) psychotherapists, they are all signals which are absorbed and remembered not just by the mind, but also by the body. For example, if you bombard yourself with a relentless stream of negative thoughts, the resulting constant level of unhappiness often manifests as ill health says Jeff Barlow. (Training Director of the Australian College of Contemporary Somatic Psychotherapy)
Sigmund Freud was the first to recognize the importance of the body in psychoanalysis. However it was Freud's student, Wilhelm Reich who further researched the concept and founded somatic psychotherapy in 1923.
Reich believed that, as children, we develop physical defences as a way of avoiding painful emotions. He called these defences 'muscular armouring', a state of muscular tension which blocks the body's natural flow of experience and energy as we grow. Reich further discovered that talk or counseling alone was not enough to bring back this energy flow, but that touch and pressure to particular muscles could assist in releasing the emotional blockages. In a similar way when we dance, it forces our energies to flow and so whether we are aware of it or not, can help aid the release of emotional blockages.
In a session with a somatic psychotherapist, a combination of verbal counselling, psychotherapy and body methods may be used. This may include breathing, relaxation and expressive movement to help a client come to terms with their emotional pain, to move forward with strength and confidence in their life.
You may believe that changing the way you feel about life and about yourself is just a matter of changing your mind or thought patterns. However, true personal change has to be deeply connected to your body, and you need to become aware that your body's muscles, nerves and systems are as much an agent of change as your mind.
With somatic psychotherapy, you are better able to understand how a patient's body holds and expresses their psyche, including the traumas they have been through. The body gives you a lot of information through posture, movement, breathing and skin colour and may reveal inner distress that the individual may be unable to express verbally. Again, on the dance floor, you can also tell these things about a person. Through observation you can tell where blockages reside in someone's body through their dance. In this way, you can then tailor a strategy of energetic release techniques for an individual. This type of work would be reserved for one on one consultations.
By developing an awareness of the connection we have to our bodies i.e. our breathing and habitual tension states, we can take the first step in understanding the physical and emotional tensions we harbour, often for years, in our bodies that can result in all manner of symptoms.
Many people view their bodies as given – an automatic result of their genetic make-up. However our bodies are not only formed by our genes, they are also formed by our experiences and the relationships we are exposed to
In order to change these patterns formed we need to develop an awareness of them and the associated tensions and emotions felt in the body. It follows that if the body is the source of the sensation, feelings and emotions, it could actually be more significant in how we form ourselves as human beings than the mind.
