What is body psychotherapy? 

Body psychotherapy works from the basis that people experience the world not only through their thoughts and emotions but simultaneously, and foremost, through their bodies. As human beings, all of our mental and emotional experiences occur in conjunction with physical experiences. These experiences are encoded in the body’s patterns, rhythms and reactions, and become our patterns of relating to others and ourselves. While talking therapies address only the mental and emotional aspects of an experience, body psychotherapy acknowledges and works with the whole. This approach enables us to work with the patterns which were laid down in earliest childhood, even before the age where your cognitive memories begin. By working in this way, you can shift and release these patterns on the deepest level, and become open to experiencing more joy, more connection, more vital health and more freedom. 

How is it used and who is it for? 

Body psychotherapy incorporates psychotherapeutic touch (biodynamic massage), breathing exercises and embodied movement practices to address a wide range of mental and physical health concerns such as anxiety, depression, grief, loneliness and trauma/ childhood PTSD. We would usually begin and end the session by sitting in chairs and talking, and we might spend the whole session like that if that is what is required, yet body psychotherapy is open and creative in response to what is called for in the moment.