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Body psychotherapy

Body psychotherapy^[1]^[2]^[3] may also be referred to as body-oriented psychotherapy and somatic psychology. It is a significant branch of psychotherapy, with origins in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich.

Body psychotherapy addresses the body and the mind as a whole, with emphasis on the complex reciprocal relationships within the body and the mind. It includes an awareness of the client's process as manifested in their body, specifically in body language, emotional expression, affect, proxemics, psychosomatics, somatic resonance, and sexuality.

One historical branch of body psychotherapy evolved from the work of Wilhelm Reich, author of Character Analysis and many other books, who developed his form of "psychoanalysis" into what he called vegetotherapy or character-analytic vegetotherapy. Reich worked and trained people in Berlin, Copenhagen and Oslo in the 1930s. When Reich moved to America in 1939, he proceeded to influence therapists both in the United States and later again in post-war Europe. Many of these therapists developed and practiced their own forms of (neo-)Reichian therapy. One of the direct developments of Reich's work in the USA was orgonomy; another was bioenergetic analysis, developed by Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos.

Body psychotherapy itself, with all of its numerous branches, is now becoming recognised as a mainstream branch of psychotherapy. There is a listing of significant research in body psychotherapy, and a recent review of body psychotherapy research,^[4] both of which examine its efficacy. Additionally, body psychotherapy is significantly being informed by and supported by recent developments in neuroscience ^[5] building up a neurodynamic paradigm for body psychotherapy. Parallel to all this, it is generally understood that the broader concepts of body psychotherapy, like 'energy' in the body, are similar to the 'energy' concepts of Eastern medicines and philosophies (yoga, acupuncture, tai chi chuan, etc.) and also have connections with other 'body therapies' (like massage, Alexander technique, Feldenkrais method, Rolfing, etc.)

Branches (or methods) of body psychotherapy often trace their origins to the work of the founders of the particular specialities, like biosynthesis to the work of David Boadella ^[6], biodynamic psychology to that of Gerda Boyesen, Rubenfeld synergy to [Ilana Rubenfeld]'s work, body?mind psychotherapy to a development of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's body-mind centering by Susan Aposhyan^[7]. Several of these people were influenced by the work of Wilhelm Reich, but were also considerably influenced by other people and their methods ^[8]. Syntheses of these approaches are also becoming accepted and recognised (viz: The Chiron Approach^[9]).

Body psychotherapy is one modality used in a multi-modal approach to treating psychological trauma particularly PTSD and C-PTSD. ^[10]^[11]^[12]

A more recent branch of body psychotherapy has evolved out of Arny and Amy Mindell's work with the 'dreambody' ^[13]. Mindell, originally a physicist who became a Jungian analyst, began researching illness as a meaningful expression of the unconscious mind. This is an integrative approach to illness, ^[14], which addresses the cultural, emotional, spiritual and physical connections that illness invites. The 'dreambody' is believed to be an organizing principle in the background somewhat like a morphogenetic field (Rupert Sheldrake) ^[15]

The generic term body psychotherapy was utilised first in the 1980s when professional associations relating to this type of psychotherapy began to form. There are now various professional associations of body psychotherapy in Europe (EABP), America (USABP) and the Australian Association of Somatic Psychotherapists (AASP): as well as others are forming around the world. There are Master's degree and Ph.D. courses in Body Psychotherapy (Somatic Psychology) in various universities in USA: California Institute of Integral Studies; Naropa University; Santa Barbara Graduate College; and JFK University, Berkeley, CA, as well as several courses existing in European universities. Several body psychotherapy journals also exist, including Energy & Character, The USABP Journal of Body Psychotherapy and the Journal of Body, Dance & Movement in Psychotherapy. The EABP's searchable bibliography of body-psychotherapy, containing over 4,000 entries, is now available on-line.