Body-Focused Psychotherapy

What Is Body-Focused Psychotherapy?

Body-focused or somatic therapies focus on the mind-body connection. This kind of therapy focuses on techniques of noticing and awareness in order to enhance wellbeing, integrate physical and emotion health, and manage distress or dysregulation.

This approach is especially helpful if you have a history of trauma or post-traumatic stress. It can address symptoms that aren’t responding to medical treatment, as well as panic attacks, intrusive thoughts, and dissociation. Body-focused therapy, integrated with talk therapy, uses the connection between the body and mind to advance the healing process.

What Happens in Somatic Psychotherapy?

In body-oriented psychotherapy, you talk about your difficulties, just as with other forms of talk therapy. As you speak, your therapist helps you become more aware of your bodily sensations, emotions, or the behaviours that may have developed to manage past trauma. By focusing attention on your body, you can notice and explore sensations that may relate to anxiety or troubling memories.

The therapist may suggest breathing, mindfulness, and relaxation exercises to help you work with the disconnection or distress you’re holding in your body. This can help improve wellbeing and help you develop a better resourced, more present sense of self.

What Issues Does Body-Focused Psychotherapy Treat?

Difficult experiences can lead people to disconnect from their bodies. Body-based therapies help people heal their mind-body connection. Issues that can be addressed by somatic therapy include:

• Traumas and complex post-traumatic stress (i.e., abuse, accidents)
• Anxiety and stress
• Dissociation and experiences of intrusive, upsetting thoughts
• The wounds of harsh early experience: abusive and neglectful parenting, divorce, separations
• Ongoing traumas related to oppression and marginalization
• Feelings of numbness, detachment, depersonalization
• Unresolved depression